I am in the process of editing the first printed draft of my translation of the 15th century manuscript De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. This involves old-school actual writing with pens and stuff. I normally do this kind of thing in the mornings at the kitchen table- it has the best light and best access to tea in the house.
This looks like this:
This looks like this:
And produces results like this:
This is clearly sub-optimal- I can barely read my own writing. And after an hour, my arm was banjaxed and I had to spend about half an hour fixing it with my anti-tendonitis forearm exercises and massage.
Finding myself early for a scheduled private lesson last week I was planning to do my breathing exercises, but found myself knocking up a quick and dirty writing slope instead. This is made of a leftover ikea solid pine shelf, a bit of leftover two-by-four, three screws, and two scraps of leather. Total time spent about 45 minutes.
Does it work? Let's see…
Added to this is swapping out the ghastly biro for a Mont Blanc given to me by my parents-in-law as a wedding gift, and we get this:
And more to the point this:
And even more critically, my sword-hand (um, writing hand) is in no need of extra attention. Result!
Now, back to work…