Glenn Birmingham

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.

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 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.

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.

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?

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

Objectively the best song ever made.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Get more from Glenn Birmingham on Patreon creating Fantasy novels!

We got hit with some big bills over the past few months (insurance and vet bills), so I'm doing everything I can not to internalize the financial panic.

I hate to beg, but if you can spare a few dollars it helps me not have strokes from stress. :)

patreon.com/BirminghamGl...

I am still alive, for anyone wondering!

Recovered enough to start looking for jobs again, but not recovered enough to do taxes, fix the website, or write.

Thank you to everyone who has given us financial support through Patreon these past few years. It gives me hope and a reason to keep going.

Sometimes I'm uninspired to write, which is different to me than being blocked. (Passive barrier versus active arrest.) During those times... I do a writing prompt and write for 5 minutes on it.

My favorite writing prompt activity is writing metaphor-as-fact!

Writing for myself or others: before the brain damage, I wrote for myself. After it, I find it more motivating to write for others, because writing in general is more technically challenging.

Poetry: NoooOOoO. Poetry makes me anxious. (Short explanation: trauma!)

Characters can go on strike when I'm trying to force them to do something orthogonal to their current life path. Usually what's happened is I've written something previously that changed their motivation or self-image. Once I figure out where I went wrong, I backtrack to there and start again.