I have to admit that other than collating, stapling, folding, and cutting aka MAKING Useful Journaling 1.3 I haven’t done as much making lately. I have been engaged in starting seeds and getting my hands into small amounts of potting soil.

But I appreciate other makers. As I put together my posts for the Doms Fusion I used the Apsara Long Point Sharpener holder that RandomThinks (Keith) makes and was struck by the utter simplicity and utility of the device. He also makes more complicated 3d printed designs like a diner mug ink vial holder.

The pencil sharpener case holds a tone of shavings too. I sharpened down almost an entire Pen + Gear pencil and probably could have sharpened more. The snug fit means that shavings and graphite dust don’t leak out, except from the pencil entry point. A plug carved from an eraser or cork would stop any graphite leak.

I’ll write more about my diner mug ink vial holder soon. Overall I love the stuff he makes and you should too.

Continue reading →

For part 2 of this review I want to look at some of the parts of NovelPad that I don’t use as much. NovelPad is a cloud-based writing app, that lets you draft your novel using any browser.

Plot is a tool to assist you in plotting out your novel. Here you can add scenes and chapters to the main plot or side plots. You can search through the novel and organize your search based off color coding, scenes and chapters. It’s an interesting tool, and one I’ve yet to use to it’s full potential as it seems to become of full use in the later finishing and first edit stages of the novel.

Characters keeps track of all your characters and where you mention them in the novel. I have found this far more useful than I ever expected. To use it you enter in a character name and all their nicknames. NovelPad then logs each chapter and scene where that name is used in a column for you. This is great if you want to check and make sure that you have written about a particular character in a particular scene, it’s easy and fast to check it. Open the character page, scroll to that character, and check for that scene and click.

Locations is similar to the character page. You can map out all the locations in a novel in advance and NovelPad will find all instances of that location in the novel. I found this useful in my Nano novel as I plugged in each location I realized I changed the name of a bar mid novel and was able to quickly go back and change it to the new name, which was so much better. In the new novel I’ve been outlining it has helped me thing about settings and locations in advance, which has helped my writing of scenes in those locations. Knowing that a desk faces the door, and that there are two chairs or a bench in front of it is immensely helpful at writing scenes fast and consistently.

Goals is the page I use far more often than the others in this section of the review. It let’s me set word count and time goals. Then based on my actual numbers of works per day it gives me a finish date, and nifty little charts to show progress, or stagnation. This combined with reminder notes, really helps keep me on track.

Insights allows you to look at all the parts of your novel in comparison to all the other parts. That’s not very clear but it’s the best way I have to describe that page. I have found it helpful to find the various sections I’ve color coded for more writing and work. It’s useful and I think an interesting way to quickly explore the piece while comparing it within itself.

These tools are largely what I would use when I’m doing my first round of edits rather than as I write. For my use I need the chapter, place, character tab, and the goals tab while I’m drafting. I can plan out most of my novel using these tabs. For my use, everything else is for the first round of edits.

Overall these tools combine to make NovelPad a really powerful tool for writing and editing your novel. The big downside that I see here is that there is no ability to have an editor edit within the app itself. I can’t share my NovelPad with an editor or beta reader. I’d have to download in whatever format I use, and send it out. That means I’d have to cut and paste any edit into the app if I want to keep using it. So for now NovelPad is an excellent drafting tool, but as the team adds in more usability, NovelPad could become a viable contender when writers are debating what tool to use for writing and editing. Frankly I really like NovelPad.

I ordered this pen on a whim, specifically for the neon green plastic pen body. At $4.50 it’s not the cheapest but it’s certainly not expensive. It took a very long time to arrive from China and was tied up in customs for months. (It’s currently not available on that link, but keep an eye on eBay as it’s likely to pop up again, possibly under another name.) You might notice that the color of this pen does not photograph well, it’s so bright and truly neon that it looks washed out on the notebook. The Jinhao Candy fountain pen is bright and fun.

Jinhao Candy Fountain Pen Bright and Fun

It arrived in a simple bubble wrapped envelope and sleeve. It barely fit into the package. Fortunately the pen is made of very sturdy plastic and arrived looking great and in pristine condition.

The plastic pen body is made of thick sturdy plastic. When I looked at it I was surprised at how thick the plastic was. It’s not heavy but feels good. Some plastic pens feel cheap, this one does not. The grip is slightly short but isn’t uncomfortable. It’s narrow so this isn’t going to be for those large fingered big fisted folx. It’s not a dainty pen but sort of in between. The body of the pen is short-ish, and I found it uncomfortable to write more than a few notes without *gasp* it posted. Yes I post this pen.

The cap posts perfectly and tightly on the end of the pen and extends the pen to a perfect balanced length. This pen is surprisingly well balanced for my writing and grip style. I’m not gonna lie, I love that ball end wire clip. It’s fun and works surprisingly well.

The nib as it arrived was a fine, with a fair amount of baby’s bottoming and while I did attempt to smooth this out, it would not work for me. It worked intermittently and they the ink just wouldn’t flow. So I ripped it out and replaced it with a similar nib. If you decide to play around with Jinhao and WingSung pens, do yourself a favor and order a package of replacement nibs. The money spent is worth it. With the new nib in, the pen is an extra fine with a smooth wet flow.

Honestly I like this pen FAR more then I ever expected. It is a cart/converter pen but it’s fun, bright and a joy to write with. The tiny converter means I get to switch ink colors every few days, though I’ve been cycling through green inks.

I’ve been using this pen daily since it arrived. It’s tough enough to stay strapped to my ScribblSheets Orange Opal journal and get tossed in my bag.

Continue reading →