Author | Lightnews

Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 22

It's a bent nib that's designed to write like a calligraphy brush.

My site is down so I'm borrowing this image from JetPens.com

On the left, pointed upwards, the nib section of a fountain pen with a gold toned fude nib showing the angled tines, which tilt about 30° away from the feed. On the right, examples of the pen strokes in black ink.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 22

On most pens, you can rotate the pen 180° (so the nib is upside down) to get a finer line for detail work.

I really enjoyed sketching with the Parker 180, which has a dual sided nib, or a pen with a fude nib. Fude nibs are very fun but can take some getting used to.

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Reposted by Glenn Birmingham

AGTMADCAT 🇺🇳 @agtmadcat.bsky.social · May 20

It's literally all they do! They make answer-shaped answers!

Incidentally that's one of the reasons they work reasonably well as coding assistance - getting the code into the right shape is like 80% of the job.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 20

It's only going to get worse. With AI generated content being output without fact checking and editorial review from publishers, how can you trust that the sources you depend on are factually correct? For anything.

Where do you go to find truth?

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · May 20

Update: looks like it's real! We are so fucking fucked. Just totally cooked. Nothing matters anymore. The boundaries of real information have collapsed utterly, and we are all living in a dream-slurry of garbage puked up by billionaire computers. Anything is true and everything is false.

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · May 20

Wait, is this -- is this real? They actually published a list of books that may or may not exist? (The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir is, for example, not an actual book!) Please, jfc, tell me this isn't real. I'm not finding it online anywhere, which makes me hope it's fake? Gotta be fake, please?

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 18

Hatzel is expertly modeling the gryphon butt for us in the third image there.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 18

Unfortunately, I broke them both during my stroke times. The Waterman I pressed too hard (nerve damage in my hand, wasn't getting the feedback) and sprung the nib. The LAMY I dropped while cleaning and crumpled the feed. Both fixable, once I get the funds. :)

I've had the Waterman for 25 years!

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 18

My two workhorse pens are a LAMY Accent and a Waterman Expert. They're in the $100 range, but writing performance and reliability in all environments outpace everything else I've used. They can both write on planes, even during acent/descent, don't leak, don't dry out quickly, and always start.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 18

For training pens, I really like the LAMY Safari/Al-Star. The nibs are short and rigid, can take a beating, and are very easy/cheap to replace. Also, the LAMY feed is amazing. I can leave uncapped for 5 minutes and still write. They're also really easy to ungunk when you inevitably let them dry out.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 18

Some inks are weirdly dry. I have had good luck with the Pilot Iroshizuku ink series - they've been consistent in color and performance across pens in my experience so far.

Also - sorry to hear about your nib. I have seen tester pens with crazy damage from people pressing!

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 16

Still alive. A week from now I see a cardiologist and maybe start to get some answers about what's wrong with me!

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

Objectively the best song ever made.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

Also, I'm still alive! Spending most of my time trying to dump stress so I can stay that way and the rest trying to magic money into existence for the same reason.

/END

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

It's important to understand why people are skipping content and whether that's a problem in the writing or a personal preference on the reader's side, i.e. is it something in your sphere of responsibility or theirs?

If it's preference, don't shame them for enjoying your book!

/7

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

join the team and read that book as their intro to the series. This gives me a fresh perspective on what may need clarification or cutting (if the reference is unnecessary).

You can't and shouldn't try to please everyone. But you can take steps to make your story more accessible.
/6

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

Look at any book 2 or 3 or 12 in a series from before 2009. There's the expectation that you can pick it up and start reading from any point in the series and understand what's going on from context clues.

You'll naturally do this while writing, but I like to have a new beta reader for each book
/5

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

Edit for memory jogging. Your readers may read a chapter a day/week. It's okay to spend a few words to remind them about an event/person they met at the beginning of the book. People who have a great memory will gloss over this, people who don't will appreciate it. Example: (next)

/4

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

Edit for reader engagement. If your beta readers are bored, there's usually a small change you can make to re-engage them. Alternatively, you'll find out what readers won't enjoy in your book, which helps you understand your market.

Example: we have a large cast series and warn people
/3

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

Edit for clarity and ease of use, as always. Example: in my editing passes, I always check to make sure the important thing happens at the beginning of the paragraph. This helps people skimming (to find their place, reread a favorite scene, or skip!). It also helps ME in the future.

/2

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · May 3

There's no wrong way to read. Readers give us their precious time and attention and are gambling that we're going to tell a story they enjoy. If they skip the parts they don't enjoy, it's no less of an honor that they're finding and sticking with the parts they do.

/1

Created Wrongly @creativewronging.bsky.social · May 1

I know I'm *barely* a writer, and I do TTRPGs, but this is incredibly bleak!

Why would I, as a writer, ever edit my writing in such a way as to appeal to people who seemingly have no interest in reading?

Presumably, to make more sales on a subpar product that ruins my reputation? 🎲 ✍

Anonymized screenshot of a skeet that says: "Readers will often skip prologues and ephemera (journal entries, song lyrics, footnotes)

They’ll also sometimes skip epilogues, denouements, and scenes they think don’t matter (intimacy, fights, chases)

And some just skip entire POVs and chapters

Edit accordingly, I guess #writingtips "

Along with 4 TikTok screenshots of people confessing to engaging in the behavior described in the skeet

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · Mar 28

It's tough to live in the world when I can't work AND be stressed at the same time. I'm struggling to figure out how to exist with these very finite mental limits. And trying not to worry that my cognitive function may never come back - because that's just more mental static that eats my capacity.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · Mar 28

It's also tough to get a job when I'm smarter once I have it. How do I pass through the gatekeepers and convince someone to hire me when I don't have brainpower? It's all being used up with financial stress, which I can't turn off until I get employed.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · Mar 28

It also doesn't make sense that my brain functions better when I'm working than I'm unemployed. I know that money stress consumes my brain to the point that it makes me stupid, because that's my lived experience right now. But it's a hard thing for people to believe.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · Mar 28

like making a doctor appointment or fixing my website (which I built). How can I mentally perform in one situation but not the other?

The answer is that the cognitive cost of working is less than that of other seemingly simple tasks. Which doesn't seem real or legitimate to other people.

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · Mar 28

Your life pares down to the barest functions. Anything outside of that just doesn't exist. It can't exist because thinking about it or acknowledging it uses up too much of your limited cognitive function.

It doesn't make rational sense that I can work for someone else but I can't do basic things

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Glenn Birmingham @birminghamglenn.bsky.social · Mar 28

Living is so difficult with brain damage. You're in an impossible situation where you need help because you're cognitively impaired but you don't know how to find help, because you're cognitively impaired. People assume you're lying about the impairment, especially as you learn to talk coherently.

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