Writeteous!

Day 8 – The Final Push

Will Alvarez — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:48:12 +0000

It’s the day before the deadline, and I’m almost ready to submit our final product to the Jungle. One of the stories (Emily Fockler’s “Space”) went on a little too long and forced me to do some creative rearrangement to fit the whole thing in the magazine. Actually, while I was trying to figure out what to do about the extended length, I realized that I could draw original artwork from the blog itself, and got a great photo manipulation by Angela Perna into the layout. While there isn’t much else to say, aside from 2010 being almost ready for “Pre-Flight” (the final ordering of the magazine into a readable, printable form) I can say that things have been going much more smoothly thanks to my frequent meetings with Mrs. Briggs this week. Here’s the newly added photo for your viewing enjoyment.

Crossing Sign + Glare Effect + Duplicate = Awesome?

Tomorrow this task will be done, and we will be able to see if the journey was worth it.

Day 7 – Tuesday and More Distractions

Will Alvarez — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:41:02 +0000

It’s Tuesday and progress is moving appreciably quickly, compared to last week. I’ve gotten about half the pages done, although there’s still a bit more to learn about gradients, shape effects and opacity before I can produce the vision I set out to. Although only at an estimated 14 pages now, I still believe that the presence of any publication at all will ultimately create a big enough ripple for Lit Mag to generate some more buzz by next year. That being said, here’s an extremely frightening graphic while I attempt to finish this magazine.

Look forward to a full color magazine this year! Or else.

Day 6 – Progress Returns!

Will Alvarez — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:34:56 +0000

With Monday’s arrival returns work on the publication. I’ve watched pretty much all of the videos that made any sense (which were few) and I’m ready to take on InDesign CS3 with reckless abandon. Meeting with Mrs. Briggs was extremely helpful, thanks to her knowledge of InDesign CS2 and general sense of color and arrangement on the magazine layout. While there isn’t much to repot despite progress on the magazine, I did spend a large portion of the day moving forward with the layout. I expect to have something final-draft like by Thursday.

The Cover for VOX: 2010

Day 5 – Expeditious Retreat! The Avoidance Alternative?

Will Alvarez — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:48:38 +0000

It’s Friday, and InDesign is still too scary. Wasn’t able to meet with Mrs. Briggs today due to a run in with the dentist (one little cavity too many), so I remain an aimless novice in the program that is supposed to deliver us the glorious product of Lit Mag’s labor. On that front there has been little progress. Fortunately I can spare myself some of the tears by working on the Staff Guide instead!

Your humble blogger at work.

Although this is only delaying the problem, I figure that spending the day decompressing and working on something I actually know how to do (as mentioned before, Microsoft Word is thankfully NOT beyond me) will do some good in the long run. I should have this Staff Guide done by today if everything goes as planned, and then I’ll figure out whether or not I can do InDesign. I’m bound to toy with it more this weekend, but as the deadline approaches (sometime next week) I’m well aware this respite will have to be brief if my plans are going to succeed.

Day 4 – Average Man Vs. InDesign CS3

Will Alvarez — Tue, 25 May 2010 20:33:35 +0000

Anybody who knows me can tell you that my skill with computers is, at best, limited. Yes, despite being part of Generation Y, the last generation of kids to begin life without the internet, technology simply exists on another distant plane of understanding for me. While I can get the hang of some programs like Microsoft Word and Excel, I was not truly prepared for how challenging InDesign CS3 really is.

What the hell is a "Master Slug Value"?

In my defense, the program isn’t exactly user friendly. While videos do exist on the Adobe website on how to figure out basic things like making the document layout, editing text boxes, and inserting pictures, the difficulty curve ramps up dramatically after that and quickly takes the user from a place of comfortable naiveté to arms wrapped around legs, fetal position hopelessness. I’ll need to find an expert on this… maybe Yearbook people could help, or Mrs. Briggs. But at this point, I think its clear I did not appreciate how difficult it must have been for any Lit Mag staff to whip us the printing press on this scale.

Day 3 – Distractions, Distractions!

Will Alvarez — Thu, 20 May 2010 07:04:34 +0000

A bit of a slow day in terms of WRITEOUS. Due to a combination of the ending of the Zeldathon, the Spring Concert and Film Festival, I wasn’t given much time to work on the project today. But what can you do, sometimes? I did plenty of thinking about the magazine of course… at only 12 or so pages I realized that this year’s publication simply isn’t as long as I want. The 2008 piece clocks in at some 58 pages, 25 pieces, 20 original works of art, and some 35 student contributors. The impact of the 2010 publication will simply not be the same, I’m guessing.

This outcome is due to several factors, but we must not forget the silver lining.

Wednesday MADNESS!

While this year’s pamphlet is not as long, I’m extremely thankful that it is going to exist at all. And regardless of length, it will still be good… the writing and artwork we have is right up there with the best of them. But it’s only a taste. If anything the 2010 pamphlet will be a stepping stone, a template for artists and writers to follow. In the end that’s probably what the project is all about.

Day 2 – Layout Adventure! It’s A Secret to Everybody…

Will Alvarez — Wed, 19 May 2010 05:31:56 +0000

Today I visited with Lit Mag members Colton Purvin, Katie Taylor and Mrs. Briggs about the layout of the magazine. After linking up some of the art with the writing, and making a particular edit to one of our competition submissions, we created a solid outline for the magazine. Thankfully, we had an excess of quality art and photography to use from the competition submissions, so it was easy to pair up poems and stories with graphics we felt were relevant. (One especially fine match was Tristan Herrera’s photoshopped design “The Skull” which we paired with Kat Gregory’s equally foreboding “Nyctophobia”).

Now I have to get cracking on InDesign, which I’m still toying with. Mrs. Briggs recommended using colored lines and shapes to accent the white space that will inevitably end up on the pages, since we don’t have a lot of artwork we can use (although Colton is trying to talk Mrs. Scott into letting us scavenge through the AP Art portfolios) Anything to keep readers focused. And not hate books.

When do we get to the pictures?

Day 1 – Talk with Briggs and Playing with InDesign

Will Alvarez — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:16:59 +0000

Today, I met with Mrs. Briggs to discuss the state of the publication. Since the price has been ramped up so high as of Colton’s measuring (some 30-40 dollars per piece) we had to strategize on how to reduce price. Here were a few things we took into account:

1. Page count. Since color is non negotiable, we may have to get creative with how we use our images and short stories. Breaking up the short stories into dual pages, by attaching images and photos to sections, is one tactic to conserve on page number. Each page needs to serve more than one purpose, ideally.

2. Bindings. Since simple bindings (traditional book binding) is too expensive, we moved to tape binding. Now, however, we may have to think cheaper and go for staple binding, ala the 2008 publication. Mrs. Briggs and I were in agreement that stapling, although cheap, is the best for affordability. We’ll have to run it by Colton tomorrow.

3. Work division. While not a pressing concern, it might be good to plan ahead in case I can’t get the designing done by Friday or next Monday (our “ideal” and “final” due dates respectively). Since I’m an active part of Sam Wolfe’s project, it might be in our interest to mix up the work a bit. I plan to attend the weekly meeting tomorrow to talk more about this on length.

That’s all for today. Go to: zeldathon.blogspot.com to support Sam Wolfe’s epic quest to raise funds for Child’s Play!

Before the Break – Status Update

Will Alvarez — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:30:40 +0000

So we approach the beginning of the end. The two week break is here, and it’s time to get cracking with the end of year publication. Mrs. Briggs has generously donated four CD’s worth of magazine designing, layout editing, ass kicking In-Design, the program we hope to use to create this year’s publication.

President Purvin contacted our publishing company, the Jungle, on Wednesday, and revealed to us some disturbing news. To create the 8 by 11, 20 paged, taped back copies we want, it’s going to run us $40 a piece. That’s a bit out of our price range for the projected 50-60 copies we want. Reducing the dimensions might balance this number down to something more manageable (say 7-10 dollars a piece). More on that soon.

My task is to familiarize myself with the program this weekend so I can meet with Mrs. Briggs on monday with some experience with InDesign under my belt. Although I’ve committed myself for a few days to Sam Wolfe’s Zeldathon! project (http://zeldathon.blogspot.com/) I don’t forsee any major complication in completing the publication within the next week and a half or so. My goal is to wrap up the design before the beginning of the second week off, but depending on the length of the marathon, it may be a lot sooner or bit later than that.

20-Second Story

Will Alvarez — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:40:34 +0000

Title: Writeous! Rebuilding Priory Literary Magazine

It’s not easy to be a creative writer at Priory these days. While the visual arts, music, and theater departments all hold annual events and maintain a strong presence at school, aspiring authors and poets have no school institution through which they can share their work. Fortunately, one student organization possesses the potential to serve this community: VOX, the official Priory Literary Magazine, the perfect platform for Priory’s lesser known writers and artists to celebrate their labors. Due to lack of student management, however, VOX has fallen into disorder, with virtually no annual schedule, no end of year of publication, and no defined direction. To re-establish Lit Mag, we must fill in the gaps left by last year’s staff, as well as creating new elements to ensure VOX’s continued success. By creating a staff outline, designing new events, and bringing back the end of year publication, my project aims to rebuild Lit Mag as a prominent club on campus, and give the Priory writers the recognition they deserve.