Some of you probably never knew I was gone as the last time I was here on a regular basis; there were not as many people here. Well after a pretty ambitious end to last year I am finally getting back to finishing some of my projects. Mainly the novel I have been working on for oh about 4 years now. With my "real" job relocating me to SW Florida this past summer to start up a new office, my new office, the purchase of our first house, and hurricanes out the wazoo time for writing was not very extensive. However I too am partly to blame as I was experimenting with new creative outlet using 3D and as such my writing was left out. Positives did come from this break however; I have begun reworking the novel in ways that will make it exponentially better. Having to reread and retype everything that you have done (corrupt Disk but I had backup hardcopy) forces you to see some of the deficiencies. I have discovered that 3D applications such as Poser are wonderful useful tools for me as a writer. I use Poser to set up character sketches and occasionally scenes to help me improve my mental picture for writing. Does anyone else find this or anything like this helpful to them?

I find poser and sketching in my sketchbook extremely helpful in planning out character design as well as some background ideas for helping out scene descriptions. :) It's awesome to see someone else that does this also. I hope your novel is coming along well! :)

Welcome back. Hope you bought on high ground. ;-) The reason I got into 3D (Poser, and later Vue) was supposedly to help me visualize what was in my minds eye, sort of as you've described. Unfortunately it never panned out for me. I'm not good enough as a 3D artist to come even close to what I visualize in my mind and found that I spent so much time working with the 3D apps that I did very little writing. So I've pretty much set the 3D aside and concentrate instead on writing. I'm sure it works for others though. Just out of curiosity, what type of novel is it genre wise? jon

Like many writers I have several projects going on though. Few screenplays - various genre (action, romantic comedy - my wife loves these, Drama...) Even a couple of comic book series scripts. The one I have done the most work on is a horror action type of book. Not my type of book starting out but I developed it for a friend and enjoyed it. It is based on a group that fights werewolves and vampires though I put my own spin on it and sort of grounded them and made them more "Real" and less superstition. All in all it was fun and until the right artist comes along it will sit here taking space. I am not into the fantasy worlds much as to me I find the real world much more scary. I also write songs and play guitar. Actually wrote a song that we had someone play and sing at my wedding reception. The novel is a Mystery and is my first "honest" attempt at a novel. It is a very time consuming As for 3D my sketching is terrible in my opinion and since I am not making show pieces I don't mind not being a good enough 3D artist as I just need to get the basic idea's down so I can relieve the pressure on my mind, as it may be months before I get to the writing of that particular scene. High ground, Florida? Have you ever been here? :) I think the highest ground in S. Florida is probably a garbage dump. I am Only 8 miles from the beach but high enough. 2 story concrete townhouse with concrete floors and roof. So the damage was conmetic other than my A/C blowing away. BTW jstro As a side note, coouple of weeks ago I stumbled upon you galler post for Max Mann and really enjoyed reading it would love to read the rest sometime. Perhaps when I get the rewrite done I will let you have a look at chapter one.

Glad you liked Max. I have a lot of fun when I write those. :-) Both of them started out as monthly challenge exercises right here in the writer's forum. Hope you can find the time to particpate in them. They're fun. And yes, I was joking. jon

Great to have you back japes :) Excellent news about your novel. I have been working on my Arthurian trilogy for over 10 years [only 2 chapters from finishing the first book in the series] - I even ventured to England to get a "feel" for the landscape. If I find myself blocked on capturing the perfect words for a scene, I too will re-create the scene using Poser and Photoshop [I purchased Vue, but have not made the time to install it to my new computer], or sometimes simply sketch the details on paper. The upside switching from creating artistic words to creating artistic images gets the creative juices flowing. The downside - I tend to get sidetracked in the art, which takes me away from writing. Very excited to hear more details on your current works. Dee-Marie

Dee-Marie keep me posted on your work, I typically make time for Arthurian work. I am sure that the next one won't take a fraction of the time since you have already completed most of the research.

Thanks japes It will be a pleasure :) I look forward to reading excerpts from your writings as well :) Dee-Marie