Weaving and Atarraya: A Diary of Book Making (18/31)

Back from camping. Wasn’t sure where to start. So, I revised and finished a draft of a few notes. Imagine Second Fieldwork / Writers, Agency, and Control? / An impromptu method, not a scientific one. Posted to the newsletter.

Writing while camping is not easy. I did a few posts, but it’s harder to find the time to focus. Also, being of the computer makes things much slower.

It’s been a month since I started this, and I’ve sent 60 of these notes. Not nearly 100%, but much better than I had before. I’ve also got about 31,000 words. I’m going to keep at it, for another month. See where I get to.

Weaving and Atarraya: A Diary of Book Making (17/31)

Short post today. I’ve been camping, running, driving, and am behind on these posts. But, no matter. Today, I posted a short piece on practice and writing as a memoir. Not sure my word count, but it’s getting there. Slowly going up.

Some other thoughts. Writing with DevonThink to find similar words, is very useful. Writing with a folder to put words that might be useful, but not here, is excellent. Writing in the slip box, as a folder of text files great, but you can use other tools to work with the text. Lots to write about on teh process of writing from a zettlekasten.

But, to today.

Weaving and Atarraya: A Diary of Book Making (16/31)

It’s Friday. I went camping from Monday till Thursday. Lots of driving. Tadoussac in Quebec was spectacular. I had no idea. What was the consequence? I edited a long piece before I left, which was something I’d written a few months ago, but I edited and finished it. It was likely a chapter, 8,000 words. This morning, I posted two short pieces, again that I’d already written and revised. These were 1,500 words.

The point isn’t always new words.

Nor is it to beat yourself up for “missing” three days. But it’s to come back to it.
For both what I wrote today and what I “wrote” on Monday, I didn’t go back to my fichero to find notes to bring similar text together. I’ll need to do that. But I suspect it’s going to be an editing step at some point.

But for now, in the midst of summer holidays, helping students finish their thesis, prepping for the term, I’m posting regularly enough to 789 Serialized, and I’m making some steady progress on the Atarraya book.

I think back to Craig Mod’s early posts, and I realize on Things Become Other Things, which inspired me for this mad rule. And I realize, I’m in the even earlier stage than he was when he started. I’m still doing the daily writing, as he would do one of his long walks. In short, a book is more like a steady accreditation of pieces than a rush. So I need to keep resisting the urge to rush.

Weaving and Atarraya: A Diary of Book Making (14/31)

Today’s post, another quick one. This time, on Trying to Get Ahead. The process is working well. Find a topic in the notes, don’t think too much. Bring all various notes on the same topic together. Read it. Delete duplication. Find a first order. Edit it. Work out a better order. Cut. File notes that don’t find in a too code folder. Revise. File. Post. Update the writer’s log. Move on. All this, after a morning stacking firewood. A good day.

Weaving and Atarraya: A Diary of Book Making (13/31)

A post a day, without too much forethought. That seems to be my mantra these days. I did a bunch on Fichero late last night, and this morning did some work on a GUI. But, then I had a swim, and then sat down around 4:00 pm to do my words for the day. I edited about 1500 words. It’s good. The part on self help for writers. Tomorrow, I’ll do something else. But, for now. I’m happy that I’m making steady publications, and the words aren’t so bad.

Making Fichero: A Diary of App Making (1/31)

Spent yesterday refactoring Fichero to get it to build on iOS. Some issues. Toga does not support Commands on iOS. Removed the Document management code, that never worked. iOS doesn’t support multiple Windows. I’ll refactor the windows, so that the views can be used in the Main Window.

This is a screen shot of it running on iOS. Not bad, for what began (and remains) a Typer CLI app.

IOS Screen Shot.

This morning, I did some design thinking with ChatGPT about the Library structure, and then the user interface on Mobile versus Desktop. I’ve been resisting doing this as an a Library app. But, I think it will make it more used.

For the library structure, this makes sense:

Library Collection Folder Folder … File Page |

Something like this:

Library
├── Chocó Mining Reports (Collection)

├── 1930s (Folder)
│ ├── Labor Disputes (Folder)
│ │ ├── Ibargüen v. Bonilla (File)
│ │ │ ├── Fiches (File-level, auto):
│ │ │ │ - auto catalogue
│ │ │ │ - auto translation
│ │ │ │ - auto keywords
│ │ │ │ - auto named entities
│ │ │ ├── Page 1
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - original image
│ │ │ │ - enhanced image
│ │ │ ├── Page 2
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - original image
│ │ │ │ - enhanced image
│ │ │ └── Page 3
│ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ - original image
│ │ │ - enhanced image

│ ├── Mining Rights (Folder)
│ │ ├── Domínguez v. Garrido (File)
│ │ │ ├── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - auto catalogue
│ │ │ │ - auto named entities
│ │ │ │ - auto keywords
│ │ │ ├── Page 1
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - enhanced image
│ │ │ └── Page 2
│ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ - original image

│ ├── Criminal Proceedings (Folder)
│ │ ├── Ibargüen v. Bonilla (Criminal) (File)
│ │ │ ├── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - auto catalogue
│ │ │ │ - auto translation
│ │ │ │ - auto named entities
│ │ │ ├── Page 1
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - original image
│ │ │ ├── Page 2
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - enhanced image
│ │ │ └── Page 3
│ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ - original image

├── 1910s (Folder)
│ ├── Mining Rights (Folder)
│ │ ├── Anglo-Colombian Dev. Co. v. Ismael Rodríguez (File)
│ │ │ ├── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - auto catalogue
│ │ │ │ - auto translation
│ │ │ │ - auto named entities
│ │ │ ├── Page 1
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - original image
│ │ │ ├── Page 2
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - enhanced image
│ │ │ └── Page 3
│ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ - original image

├── 1940s (Folder)
│ ├── Labor Disputes (Folder)
│ │ ├── Mosquera v. Chocó Pacífico (File)
│ │ │ ├── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - auto catalogue
│ │ │ │ - auto keywords
│ │ │ │ - auto named entities
│ │ │ ├── Page 1
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - original image
│ │ │ ├── Page 2
│ │ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ │ - enhanced image
│ │ │ └── Page 3
│ │ │ └── Fiches:
│ │ │ - OCR text (auto)
│ │ │ - original image

I also wire framed the user interface, on Desktop and Mobile, and did some notes.

Desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux)

  • Main Window = Library View
    • 3-column layout:
    • Collections (left, 20%)
    • Folder Tree (middle, 20%)
    • File and Content Viewer (right, 60%) (25%/75% vertical split)
  • Utility Windows:
    • Settings, Prompt Library, Plan Library, Activity, About, Help
    • Each is a **separate Window or View opened via menu or toolbar commands

Mobile (iOS / Android)

Structure

  • No separate windows — use stacked navigation
  • Navigation handled via:
    • Hamburger menu
    • Tab bar
    • Back navigation

Example Navigation Flow

  • Home screen = Library
    • Tap through:
    • Collection → Folder Tree → File Fiches (auto catalogues etc.) and Pages (images, etc.) Viewer/Editor
  • Tap menu or tab for:
    • Settings
    • Prompt Library
    • Plan Library
    • Activity
    • Help
    • About

Weaving and Atarraya: A Diary of Book Making (11/31)

More revising. It’s feeling quite workman like. Which I love. What section am I working on? Decide. Where are my notes? What have I already written about this? What is duplicated text from various drafts? What ideas go together? Put them together in a drat. Cut, edit, reorder. Rewrite. Rewrite. I’m done. Rinse and repeat. Repeat.

Today, I did a section on Wendy Belcher’s brilliant book, Revising Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks (525 words), and then a paragraph on books on grammar (215). Plus, a bit of a critique (95 words). And a paragraph on what this book is not (100 words.) Doesn’t seem like a lot. But, but it’s good.

I think tomorrow I can go a lot faster.

EasyFind and BBedit are the tools for this.

Weaving and Atarraya: A Diary of Book Making (10/31)

I’ve been revising, editing, and removing duplication for the Reader’s Guide. A section basically summarizing some of the excellent work out there that is how-to advice for writers. Of course, this book is no how-to book. But sometimes it’s important too know what you are not.

Also, spent a bit of time working on a script that integrates Bookends to CiteProc with Marked. Works wonderfully. You can write with Bookends in Markdown, and get back CiteProc, or move it to Word or Mellel. Took some fiddling, but I’m very happy. It’s perfectly formatted, Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition for books.

Bookends in markdown to htnl and markdown.