Weekly Virtual Writing Session for 3/27/07

Nice warm spring day today, and it's also crunch time. The second issue of our comic book, Zephyr & Reginald: Minions for Hire, is finally heading to the printer this week, and we're in rush-mode.

Part of this process is editing and proofing, so we're heading over to Borders in Hyannis MA for our writing/drawing session with printouts of the comic to be proofed. Lynette and Miranda are expecting to be there. 

Last Week's Goals: More zine layout. In addition to layout, I'd like to get a poem written, and read/review one or two comics and/or children's books. I've started up a comic book review group here on Gather called Panel Discussion, so I'd like to have some new material written for that community.

Last Week's Results: I got a decent amount of layout work done last Tuesday, enough that the zine was finished on time for the Boston Zine Fair. I read and reviewed two comics and wrote one poem. I did not manage to get the comic reviews posted yet, but that should happen this week.

This Week's Goals: This week I am working on the editorial & advertising pages for the comic. The objective is to get the editorial and the "Supervillain Profile" written and to do as much layout as possible. I also need to proof the comic pages that are printed, and we are expecting Miranda to bring some of her latest fiction to be critiqued as well. In between all of that I will be reading and reviewing zines I picked up at the Boston Zine Fair.

Question of the week: Do you print out you material for editing/proofing? Do you read it aloud? Any other technique that helps you catch your errors?

I do print out material to edit, if it's a fairly important piece. I don't usually read the piece aloud, but I do occasionally. I have also heard that changing the font to Courier (or a similar font with typewriter spacing) can be helpful for spotting mistakes. I will probably give this a try on future fiction pieces.

If you're writing tonight, we'd love to hear from you. Comment with what you're working on or your goals, or give your answer to the question of the week. Have a nice, creative evening!