Hi everyone, I ran across this site and I’m happy to be able to join up. Both my parents at some time in their lives were stenographers so I grew up with Gregg shorthand books around. I’ve tinkered with it off and on for years. I’m no expert but I recall one of my college English instructors returning an exam once to me because I had written it in shorthand, assuming she could read it. For a while I have been bringing it back, studying it daily, using Diamond Jubilee 2nd Ed. As a language nut, I like Arabic and Russian because they have strange scripts, so shorthand falls into line with that. I write books and one my crazier ambitions is to write a novel in Gregg and publish it. So I took my scifi / horror novella Frenzy and started transcribing it into Gregg. For comparison, the Latin character version of Frenzy can be downloaded for free at Smashwords under the author name Glenn Lazar Roberts. These jpg’s look clear on my computer; I hope they show up just as clear when posted.
I just edited this to enlarge the jpg’s.
Welcome to the blog, Glenn, and thank you for your contribution!
Your writing is very clear. There are some minor mistakes in outlines that I will post later. I'm wondering why you are leaving space between the lines. Also, I see that you decided to not use the paragraph symbol, and instead, just to write as if you were writing longhand — you will be using more paper that way!
As a general comment, practice your proportions, especially making the a circle very big and the e circle very small, and paying attention to the length of the straight strokes. For example, on the third page, where it reads "I'm taking you to Miss Mary's today", the outline for "today" looks like "day", and in the next sentence, "they" looks like "that."
Another little thing is that you are not using the complete space between the lines. For example, in that same page, the b in the word "between" in the phrase "she said between kisses" should start at the top of the space, touching the top line. In that way, you have the whole space to work with and the b will not get confused with a p (which would start near the middle of the space).
Thanks for the very useful feedback. Despite the years I'm actually very much a beginner and self-taught so a second set of eyes is helpful. To compose a publishable book, I am still trying to figure a way to get it on screen without having to draw as if drawing a picture. Then I would not have to worry about penmanship. BTW, one of the words in the text might be confusing: shlepped into the room (p2).
As promised, here are some outline corrections:
Page 1
1. The f-r of "frenzy" should be written without an angle, that is, the f and the r should be blended.
2. There is no sh- in "published", as "publish" is a brief form written as p-b.
3. There is no e in "review."
4. "websites": oo hook-e-b-right s-broken circle-t-left s
5. "good reads" looks like "greeds" — I suggest to separate both words.
6. "authors": oo hook-under th-r-left s
7. "Carm" does not have an a, and is missing the capital letter sign underneath.
8. "as well" and "from her" can be phrased
Page 2
1. There is no r in "weather."
2. The left s is missing in "voicemail."
3. The r in "print" is hardly noticeable.
4. Commas are usually omitted in shorthand.
5. Hyphens in shorthand are written doubled, so as not to confuse them with an n.
6. There is no "e" in bird.
Page 3
1. The s in "that's" is a right s, not a left s.
2. "stamped": right s-t-a-m-p-t
3. "Mom" is written with the o-hook, not the oo-hook.
4. "His" is just left s.
5. The outline of "we have" starts at the top of the space.
6. "Carl" does not have an a (and needs the capital letter sign).
7. There is no oo-hook in "funny" by the omission of short u rule.
8. "Father" is written f-a-under th (there is no r). Contrast that to the word "faith", which is written as "f-a-over th."
9. "We've seen" can be phrased.
9. "how many times" can be phrased.
10. The d in "paused" looks like a t.
11. "In a few minutes" can be phrased by omitting the word "a."
Thanks for the reading material! I'm so curious how other people write in Gregg and what they use it for. I chuckled at "home of the just plain weird." I also write books, and Gregg has been useful for a faster, more private way to write draft material on public transportation.