As the elder of two sisters, I lost a fair few possessions when I went away to college nine years ago. My desk, my bike, and my bedroom were all given to my sister. I’m sure I said, at some point, that I wouldn’t need these things while I was gone, maybe even that I didn’t want them. Maybe I thought these kind-of-mine possessions would be treated the same way my VHS tapes were: they were family possessions that I didn’t have full ownership over, and never mind that some had been presents over the years.
The VHS tapes, obviously, quickly became obsolete. My bike I really didn’t miss during my college or graduate school years, though there were times, but it would be fairly old now, and I’d probably be looking to replace it anyway. My room doesn’t even belong to my family anymore, since we’ve moved. But my desk. I miss my desk.
I’ve been using a folding table for the past six or so years with some cheap plastic drawers for storage. Even the desk lamp I’ve been using doesn’t work quite right, what with its buzzing and flickering.
I’ve finally decided it’s time, and so I’ve started making a list of what characteristics and features my desk must have and what features is it that I just want. Some examples: it has to have ample under-desk space for my chair and legs, it has to have a good balance of storage (I need enough space to spread papers out, but I need at least some places to put stuff). My wants are a sleek design, an easy place to put a printer, and something that’s not too difficult to move.
What do you look for in a writing/computer desk? And does anyone have any recommendations?
I’ve been working on updating my vita this weekend. My resume is in fantastic shape having just landed me a job, but I’ve been spending some time helping out at my undergrad campus lately, and it got me thinking that I haven’t actually updated my vita since 2008 and that I should probably get on that, since you never know. Part of this process has involved finding files from my old computer and transferring them to my shiny iMac, which, unfortunately, ended up needing a large handful of fonts I used in the older files. So before even touching the text, I spent a good hour digging up old font files, which got me thinking about how long it took me to pick fonts in the first place, which got me thinking about the different reasons I had for finally settling on the ones I chose (myriad pro, mamma gamma, and rockwell, if you’re curious), which got me thinking about fonts I don’t like, which, naturally, got me thinking about comic sans.
Let me be perfectly clear here. I hate comic sans. I despise it. And it’s everywhere. On billboards, in commercials, handouts. I cut it out of a document at work the other day (although I’m not sure I actually have that authority so maybe when I see the final product it will still be there). I see it in mailings, on signs. It’s all over the Internet. In fact, when LeBron James announced he was headed to Miami, the Cavs owner posted an emotional letter to Cavs fans in Comic Sans…and was promptly ridiculed by typography geeks like myself who feel that, in design, every design choice should say something about the message you’re trying to communicate. And comic sans says, “don’t take me seriously.”
I have two things to admit: First, that I read fantasy. And second, that I feel no shame in this. I believe firmly that there is something to be learned from any book, be it good or bad, literary or otherwise; I’ve banished the phrase guilty pleasure from those I use to describe different aspects of my reading habits. For example, while I know that world description is a huge thing for some readers, reading fantasy, more than any other genre, has taught me how much I hate long-winded descriptions, and so I leave this out of my own stories, because I don’t want my readers skimming entire pages.
But while I enjoy some fantasy (yes, certain works are horribly formulaic, and I don’t like that in any type of writing), I despise most fantasy book covers. With few exceptions, they seem to me childish, to play into fantasy archetypes rather than to break them, and to have too many design elements competing for attention. Not to mention I hate having a character’s cover image fighting against the one I develop in my own mind. These complaints, of course, go for any genre of books, but I tend to see these problems most in the fantasy books, where simplicity is almost always discarded in favor of chaos and where the cover seems to be more interested in making the book fit into the fantasy genre rather than making it stand out.
A professional writing blog I read recently started a digital portfolio showcase feature, and one of the people they featured describes himself as a fiction writer. As far as I can tell, he has no book publishing credits, so it really is more of a portfolio rather than an author webpage. And it’s got me thinking.
As some of you may know, I also have an online portfolio, but I’ve been wondering recently about its use to me as an unpublished fiction writer. Yes, I also showcase my design (and, soon, my editing skills), but since I don’t have a following and I’m not trying to convince anyone to buy anything, I wonder if it’s worth it to continue to maintain the creative writing section. Here are my thoughts:
None of my work appears online for me to link to—in fact I have no publishing credits as of yet
Anything I aim to eventually publish cannot be posted on my website due to copyright issues and so I’m left showcasing the stuff I know isn’t publishable, that is in fact some of my weakest work
Maybe one day when I do have a name I can release new material on my site and it will still be respectable, but that day is a long way off
But I do still want people to know I am a creative writer
So help me out here: What is the value in maintaining the creative writing section of my website? Does anyone else have one?
Here’s a video that’s been circulating the Internet this past week, condensing the multi-hour cover design process into just under two minutes. What was most interesting to me was how you can tell the designer was familiar with the book (since only self-pubbed authors really have control over their covers), and how the design-creation process looks, in a lot of ways, like the writing process. Makes me glad that, when I publish (if?), there will be someone there doing all that for me.
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