Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Writing


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Writing-relate insomnia – and remedies

Now, it was of course the Buddha who said expectations lead to suffering, and I just had a cold hard reminder of the truth of that statement.

sheep-2Now, true to Lawrence Block‘s observation that writers write all the time, I’m often in the habit of reviewing my current story, and planning further developments, in the time before I fall asleep.

It’s not anything particularly esoteric – it is not that I’m priming my subconscious to set my ideas straight during sleep or whatever.
Simply, it beats counting sheep. Continue reading →


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Scrivener – first steps

Scrivener (software)

So, how’s my life after ten days of Scrivener?
Not very different from before – I’ve still got bills to pay, I’m still looking for a day job and I’ve still a lot of stuff to write.
But at least on the writing side, things are taking an interesting turn.

Let’s see.
Scrivener for Linux installed without problem – I got the 64 bit, .deb file, and it runs on my old Ubuntu machine quite smoothly.
The tutorial was a breeze – fun, clear, and fast: I spent one afternoon going through it, and it set me up nicely to start working straight away. Continue reading →


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“Posh, posh!”

I just discovered that in the Uyghur language, “make way!” translates as “posh, posh!” – a typical call from someone trying to open his way through a crowd.
In a marketplace, for instance.
Which is just what I needed to put a nice touch of color in the second chapter of my current work.

P1170081

Just this – I wanted to let the world know. Continue reading →


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These are not the characters you are looking for

18fc6q4rejarypngI was reviewing my creative process (or the sort of blind blundering I call that) trying to optimize it in order to get more good words on the page*, and I found out a few interesting bits about my modus operandi.
And I thought, why not inflict my newfound knowledge on my blog readers?

When I start a new story, I generally open my copybook (or a txt file) and I start jotting down ideas.
Basic premise and concept, quick sketches of the main characters, a list of places, maybe a very rough logline.

Sometimes it’s like doodling – I sit waiting for my turn at the doctor’s or at the post office, and I just write down stuff.
Maybe I’ll never use those ideas, maybe in a few weeks, or months, or years (provided I can still find the file or the copybook) they’ll come in handy. Continue reading →


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Adopting Scrivener

Scrivener (software)

Now, it was Douglas Adams, I think, that used to say that trying new software was an excellent procrastination tool to avoid the actual act of writing.
I must agree.
And so, being finally able to run Scrivener on my Ubuntu-based old pc, I jumped at the opportunity of burning a weekend toying with the new writing tool.

For the uninitiated, Scrivener is a word processing software and a writing environment aimed at creative writers – it comes with presets for authors of fiction and non fiction, for screenwriters etc.
It’s highly popular and comes with rave reviews, and there’s a Linux version – which is fine, because sometimes the “sorry, Win/Mac users only” thing is frustrating.

Continue reading →