In the process of working out the fourth piece of Project 105, I decided to handwrite a copy of the story that is being illustrated. This was no easy thing because I had to fit the entire story on a single sheet of paper. To guide me, I formatted and printed a copy of the story on a sheet of paper that was about the same size as the one I was going to use. The process gave me a new respect for how medieval monks must have been copying their books.
We are used to consuming mass-produced stories from books, magazines, movies and TV. Rarely is a story written just for our benefit. Even our birthday cards are pre-printed with standard wording.
It took me over an hour to hand-write a copy of the story. I called this "slow writing" and it felt wonderful and a little scary because I used a precious sheet of 90-year old vintage paper and I did not want to mess it up.
At the bottom of the page I wrote my name, the date and the name of the person the story is intended for. And that was the best part: to know the name of my reader and be able to write it down.
I have not yet decided whether or not to hand write every story but I am particularly excited about this one. I will be delivering it later this week and will share the story and illustration with you afterwards.