Scribus Lepus

Where the Rabbits Write

Auteur: admin (Pagina 1 van 2)

Kobo versus Kindle

3 januari 2026 / / Geen reacties

In my country Kobo is much stronger than Kindle. And even though Kindle seems too own so many books and authors when it comes to an online store and books… it is pretty much Kobo Country here. Even the library run that Amazon DRM scheme so you need to import it to your kobo e-reader.

I heard some countries have an open library app that allows them to login once and then just get those books in the library area. Thing is here is takes a few more steps. Still, both seem quite even.

I own a Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition. Because I hate adverts and it was cheaper during one of those special weeks of the year. It has color and a 7” screen. Without being to heavy. Obviously it still has the “amazon” way of using most of the screen for non library usage. 

Equally I own a Kobo Libra Color, again a color device. 7” and weight size very nice. Easy to synchronize and you don’t need much space for a full library of books. 

There are a few differences like Buttons on the Kobo Libra Color, and Kobo being Kobo the screen is pretty clear of “buy your next book here” trash. What can I say the European in me in speaking.

Yet much of them are equal, same screen, same colors, much of the same functionality. The differences hardly seem to be there. 

There is one difference though, and that is the choice of books. Some authors don’t publish wide. And with publish wide I mean publish outside of Amazon. Neither digital or physical. 

Though some will do a physical release somewhere else, digital it is all amazon.

And that makes sense, if you check the income guidelines then yes amazon gives “loyal” authors more money, even if it is just for a month or six. And after that some authors take the time to also add an ebook to other stores. 

The choice is different, the actual reading of the books? Not really! Quality of screen? Same Screen! One has buttons that is nice… they each use a different store.

The biggest choice in the very end is the books. And where I live Kobo Reigns. And Amazon, trying to crawl in, fails. 

I don’t mind having two devices and reading where the book is. Though my personal choice stays the Kobo. 

And with too many books on the Kobo still to read I will be kept very busy.

Another Update

15 december 2025 / / Geen reacties

Surprisingly I found time to return to Fairy Flight. I tell you close to 8000 words a chapter is painful. Seriously, fantasy is rough.

Yet progress! I can close off this “day” as I write in days and move to the next. Oh happy me. The book itself, book II, needs a bit more love and attention before I reach its end. And then there is book III, hooray! I already have plans for book III. I just need to write it.

But that is the life of an author.

December Update

12 december 2025 / / Geen reacties

November was writing month, I put myself on a measly 25k words and well it kicked it down to 20k because the story didn’t want to flow. 

Ever had to deal with a story that doesn’t flows? Well it happens! And it sucks… you got a basic story and it just doesn’t wants to go anywhere. Crazy right? 

Luckily I found out in the first week. The rest of the month I filled my word count with miscellaneous stuff. Most of it is utterly worthless, just opinions about stuff. As if one is talking to someone else. What you watched on Netflix, why certain series suck, why owning a DVD collection is so good. Stuff like that. Filler. 

Beyond that December is slow. But that is fine. I really hope to get stuff back in running in January. Fairy Flight for instance has had two months of rest and I should be closing in to the end of book II at a point. Yup, that would be nice. Even if it is was a first edit… just say THE END or … Book III… would be nice.

A lot of stuff needed to get done too so eh. What can I say I don’t like visiting the doctor but sometimes you have too. Life right? I was hoping that the month wouldn’t fill itself up with all kinds of things yet those things happen. And you deal with them. 

I don’t expect much from December. It is a weird month in what everything has to be done in TWO WEEKS. After that it is worthless and we are reaching it soon. Much like the Blu-ray with Interview with the Vampire, season two, will only come to me at the end of January? Sure.. makes sense. Order something now get it much later. I know this stuff happens because… yeah. 

In many ways this is why I wanted to do as much as possible in November. The one month that isn’t crazy yet. There is always January but that month is empty, nothing. Which is good, and bad, some call it boring. I call it relaxing. 

So January? Lets get back to writing a lot that month. 

Summer goes by and Streaming Services

20 september 2025 / / Geen reacties

Checking the date of the last post, wow that has been a while. Ah the summer went by, hot weeks, not so hot weeks. Relaxing in many ways. 

Not that I haven’t written during it. Or that new projects didn’t show up. Far from.

I picked up painting. Indeed I paint now, badly, but I paint. 

And I am picking up drawing, because that has to be done too. 

Writing wise projects are slowly moving along. Slowly that is a given but now the summer is over and the “stay inside” weather is rising I should find more time for one mayor thing.. writing. 

Also I have been “wasting” time into watching series. I don’t call it a waste as a good story can stick to the mind for later writing.

See I got multiple streaming services. And all of them cost money each month. So to make decisions if they can stay I began to start a log. 

A basic log keeping track of what I watch on what service and how long those series/episodes are. Useful, so far I learned that I use HBO Max the most, which due to a grand-fathering structure I get permanent 50% off. A lot of fun little series on that service. Another thing I learned is that yes I do watch Amazon Prime, but not the huge shows… but the smaller things. I like 25 minute videos. Or 44m max. The loser here is also the most expensive, Netflix, still it has a few pretty nice series. 

Amazon Prime has after a few years updated its prices too, in a sneaky way. The 4.99 I had for years [a month] now is advert based. Still have to decide if I keep it. For “only” 2.99 I can remove the adverts. Sneaky! 

And Disney Plus? Long Cancelled, I hoped to get a few older Disney movies… little in that. And the newer stuff just isn’t for me. So that was an easy choice to cut many months ago. I think I still get once in a while a notice that for only 4.99 I can get Disney Plus, yeah the advert based one. 

In the end it isn’t much of wasted time, progress in many areas, maybe not writing. But such can happen. Such is life. 

Updates and Tribulations

29 juni 2025 / / Geen reacties

Updates and Tribulations

Time seems trivial, this month has moved on as expected, the summer is closing in and things have been moving in place. Between the heat and the painters…

The painters outside are almost done so that is great, no more waking up too early with the sound of painters busy. You know the type of sound, the music, the talking, the sound of work. It makes life really interesting. 

There have a few other things I dealt with, so real life being real right. But mostly took it mentally slower. My speed in writing and projects has slowed down as expected. Still not all was lost.

I even got back into writing/editing so that is good. Fairy Flight is back in action, editing wise. Fluffed up some areas. I did write a little further even. So that is good news. But mostly editing, and making sure things flow right and the right words are used. You have to smooth things out, but also prepare the reader for what lays ahead of them. Put little hooks and herrings in places. Such is important.

As a story grows details need to be planned, hooks to future events and knowledge need to be set. And don’t forget about the themes and so on. In short, a lot of little improvements that make a book so much nicer to read. The first four chapters are quite nice now. And I could put in it the little things that will happen in future chapters. 

And the best news is that it adds more words, which you know, is great to have more words. Quality words yes, not quantity words. You could have a lot of words that do little to help the story, theme, or set up what is coming ahead and that would be just in the way.

Ah I was reading for book club, yes running a book club, a murder mystery and at a point there were just too many characters, to many “clues” that it made it impossible to keep track. I guess that is the whole murder mystery thing… but if a puzzle has too many pieces does it work? At a point I was like “Who are all these people? And why should I even know their name?”

In Fairy Flight quite a few characters have no name. Because I go by the rule of the pyramid.

Oh that is another topic isn’t it, in short the pyramid sets characters based upon their importance. The main character(s) are very important and hence need a name, details, and a lot of work in connections. The secondary characters, those directly around them, are also important so need some work yes. Then the tertairy show up, and slowly but surely you end up with the grey masses. 

Because does it matter what name the guy has that sells the main character(s) ice cream? No! Or if they have kids? Not really! 

But that is just my insight in it, too many characters/names and it becomes a mess. Fairy Flight won’t have to deal with that, I can tell you that. 

After the Early Writing Month

5 juni 2025 / / Geen reacties

Did I succeed to write 25k words in one month? Sure? Even with a lot of work being done at the apartment complex, think painters, fixers, and so on. Making sure that from early morning till midday silence didn’t existed. Hence why I decided on a lower then 50k word scale. I succeeded. And it was quite doable with less than 1000 words a day. 

You have to adjust to the situation in the end. Nobody is at its mental top when the building sounds around you are many. 

In news: The National Novel Writing Month website is gone. People were warned about this by the organization itself. The organization is now really closing down. Just think of how many people gotten their first footsteps into writing through such. And how many are published now, even self published yes. Still the idea was great, and still is great so the spirit remains through other things. 

I remember finding out about it and trying it, 50k words in one month seems simple. Right… still I did hit the mark many times. And have written a lot of trash that way. Still some stories have reached a status of “this could be good” so are in being revised, reworked, and most important checked if there is even a market for it. But that is a whole other topic.

Ah, the forums, the different groups, the other writers you would meet. Many of which were not writing to get published that is fair. Or would publish on places like Wattpad or Archive of our Own.

Good times. Good memories. 

NaNo did a lot of good, and a few pretty bad stupid things. Let’s retain that spirit of a good idea and keep it moving along. 

The begin of writing month

3 mei 2025 / / Geen reacties

Writing month has started! A non National Novel Writing Month as we gave it our own spin.

I have written myself in on only 25k words? Should be doable. I might even count the words I am writing right now to that goal. Why not? 

And as expected the first two days were interesting! 

First day I had to deal with a goblin, I won’t tell the whole story, but I am part of a group where I have a leading function. Me and others, and we had a troublesome new member. Because of course. That was great… ate up a whole day of our time. The Iron Shoe of Bootkicking became handy again.

And the day after, planned power outage. They were working on the power in the area. A planned power outage so that morning there was no power. More than time enough to do other stuff, right? Besides making the whole house ready for no power for a few hours. I tell you FUN. At least one gets to test out the emergency supplies, and if one has enough batteries in the house. It was a cozy relaxing morning listening to the radio and all was fine. 

And there were many hot days. Free Sauna in the house! Ah, hear me complain right. Shit happens when something is just starting. But there is a whole month to go, so let’s use that. LIFE has a way of making things happen. Keeps it interesting, if they go smooth and nothing goes wrong that is the odd thing out.

Still, all in all. I still got to my goals. With only 25k in a month the goal is quite doable. Less than 1000 words a day? I would have written myself in on 50k if I had a big project. But even Fairy Flight has slown down. And other potential stories have been put on the backburner. There is always enough to do, but sometimes what needs to be done is the little stuff. 

And I returned to Fairy Flight. So that is good news. It feels right to return to that story, to put the emotion in the characters, and set things up for the future. 

25000 words isn’t much but if this month is going to behave like this? It is perfectly fine.  It still pushes one forward to get sh*t done. 

Yeah, the great idea behind NaNo of course was 50k words in one month. Some writers are experienced and write 100k a month. Others are just beginning and are happy with 10k… 

In the group we even have a 12.5k goal. A lot of fresh writers who want to take the short marathon. And that is fine, it gives them a reason to try, any goal is a goal.

Personally? It is also very nice to have other authors and spar with them. Writing can be a very solitary thing to do. And that probably won’t change much, but hanging out with other authors, sharing good and bad times. Sharing ideas and asking questions. And giving advice where needed? That is what makes it worth it in the end.

YES, it is your novel, but you are not alone. Others are in the same situation and can guide one to progress and give that last push. 

And whom else is going to accept your word jokes? 

A slow month

10 april 2025 / / Geen reacties

I must say that little progress has been made. Sadly, mostly due to real life doing its thing. I had a death in the family, and you know how that goes. For other projects I needed to spend time and energy. There is a book club book, two! Keeps you busy. And I got a whole stash of digital classic comics that I was suggested to read.

I also decided to take a month vacation from Fairy Flight. At a point you need a break. 

And since National Novel Writing Month, or NaNo is burning down officially I also need to prep to join our own local replacement. In short, busy times. Indeed, a month of writing lays ahead if it is officially NaNo or not. 

But I picked up some tools. http://trackbear.app to track the writing. And I redownloaded Obsidian [http://obsidian.md] to help tracking things.

Ah Obsidian is like a local mini wiki. Lacks support for pictures but it weaves a web of connections. And that is good. 

Back to the preparations. A good slow month, ha I hope that in the summer I can make real progress in BIG projects. 

Editing

20 maart 2025 / / Geen reacties

The joy of editing, currently thickening up whole sections of the first book. 

Thickening up? Well sometimes you have half sentences, or just not enough information. The way to fix it is to rewrite whole sections. Or move things around. And that is the fun stuff about writing. 

Chapter one has six hundred more words now. That is about two pages for those who keep count. The flow is better and what should be there now is there. 

There is a lot of work still I need to go through everything I have written and that is over 130k words. And make sure all the things are smoothened out. The emotions are right, the characters make sense, that the characters do and know things that you expect from them.

Yes, writing is a lot of work. It isn’t just getting an idea down; it is a lot more. There is also this part of the job. And even in the end a published book still will have at least one small fault or error. It will happen. 

If you ever get to writing your own book, you’ll spend a lot of time in editing too. It is just what is required. And part of the fun. 

Scribus Lepus

Blurbs

8 maart 2025 / / Geen reacties

Bleh, Blurbs. Just how much should you give away and how much should you keep so the people will read your book?

Give away too much information and they will guess it all.

Give away too little though and you are bound to have people walk off.

I wonder how other authors do that. The desire to tell too much is always there, to welcome people into your world. Yet the business side is all about products and trying to get readers.

How do authors survive this alone? But then I am not alone in this battle. It helps to share your troubles with other authors. Shared Experience is pooled.

And the books are not at the point yet that the blurb pages need to be published. So good times.

Oh how far they are? Book One is in second/third stage revisioning. Oh yes revisioning, the bane of all writers. You want to produce something of quality you need to rewrite, revise, deal with grammar and spelling, make sure there are not plot holes and. Ah that is another topic.

« Oudere berichten

© 2026 Scribus Lepus

Thema gemaakt door Anders Noren — Boven ↑