Time for a bit of social blogging before I force myself to read Oedipus at Colonus (not that I don't think Sophocles is good reading, because he is, I just hate absolutely having to read something -_-).

I'm afraid to even visit Ragnarok's website because I fear that it will frighten my senile, fragile computer into crashing. Perhaps I will go look around on Bryan's mighty computer when he is not here (actually, he's not here right now, but like I just said I have to read -_-). Cause if Vera and Tengu like it, it must be good. :3

I almost always write everything out by hand first, as well. I have a drawerful of full notebooks and notebooks waiting to be filled (cheap, 70 page things). I really love my notebooks. :3 I fill the margins with doodles (of the characters I'm writing about and the expressions I'm picturing them with) and diagrams (like of rooms and areas^^;).

A long time ago, when I was twelve and just getting into writing (wrote some horrible stuff back then. Fortunately the only people who ever saw any of it are those in the JFW. I hope that if I ever achieve any sort of fame they don't use those stories to blackmail me, because they are REALLY bad XD), I would write strictly on the computer, more out of laziness than anything else. Ms. Amanda Flowers (the originator of the 'soulbond' term and a person who wrote me several very harsh [but useful and deserved!] criticisms) suggested writing stories in a notebook first and then typing them as a way to help the editing process, and that is the main reason why I do it. The pieces that people see are usually third drafts. First, I write everything by hand; that's the rough draft in which I just write down whatever crack filled nonsense comes to mind. Then, when I type it, I edit the stuff that sounds really horrible, rearrange words, and sometimes add entire scenes. Then, when I place it into a composer file, I edit it a third time, fixing mechanical errors and doing more rearranging/deleting of things that still sound stupid. Then I upload it and show it to a few people, some of whom catch errors I've missed. ^^; Then I link it and let it stay like that for years until I decide the whole thing sucks and start editing it all over again(like I'm doing with the beginnings of Claris and Clarity. ^_^;).

So anyway, yeah. Notebook writing is helpful for me when it comes to editing. Plus it enables me to get work done in school (actually I think that if I wrote strictly on the computer I'd never get writing done at all); I have the rough draft available at all times; and I can make little doodles and profiles and whatever else I like/need right there. Notebooks r00l.