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A writer posting on movq.de on Oct. 31, 2026, said he had completed two novellas, about 15,000 and 40,000 words, and does not plan to publish or share them. His report focuses on how he used groff to typeset the manuscripts and describes a longer project completed in 10 days. The post does not identify the writer by a personal name in the supplied material.
A writer behind the technical blog movq.de said on Oct. 31 that he had finished two novellas, one about 15,000 words and the other about 40,000 words, but does not intend to publish or privately distribute either manuscript. The report is instead a practical account of using groff, a Unix typesetting system commonly associated with formatting manual pages, to produce book-like PDFs.
The blogger described the shorter work as roughly 50 A5 pages and the longer one as about 120 pages. He noted that the lengths sit near the boundaries of what is usually called a novella: the first may be too short and the second slightly too long. These are his characterizations, not a formal classification.
He said the first manuscript took more than seven months to write, while the longer one took 10 days. He did not provide titles, plot summaries, or excerpts. The post says directly that neither work will be published or sent privately, describing private sharing as effectively similar to publication.
The technical account explains that both works were typeset with groff, which the writer chose for being relatively small and fast while producing what he considers high-quality output. On his 13.5-year-old computer, he said document generation took about 700 milliseconds for the shorter document and 1.6 seconds for the longer one, including some preprocessing. Those timings describe his setup and documents, not a general performance benchmark.
The post offers no forthcoming release for readers to buy or review. Its public value lies in the production method: it shows one writer adapting a traditional Unix tool to make book-length PDFs, with a small custom macro package for chapter headings and paragraph formatting. That may interest readers who prefer plain-text workflows or are curious about book typesetting without a large publishing application.
The account also records a change in the writer’s relationship with fiction. He said he had read about 30 novels since July 2025, after previously reading fiction infrequently, and that the reading prompted him to try writing. The number is his estimate of books read over that period; the post supplies no independent record or further details about the titles.
For readers primarily interested in the manuscripts themselves, the boundary is clear: the writer shares process details, not the stories. The article therefore matters as a personal technical report rather than a literary publication announcement.
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From Reading Fiction to Typesetting
The blogger said he began reading books that had been sitting in his apartment around July 2025 and found the experience more enjoyable than expected. Before that, he said, fiction had often felt slow or boring, and he might read only one book in a year. He connected the new reading habit to his decision to attempt writing fiction himself.
He also described writing as something he had disliked at school, except when it involved technical subjects such as mathematics or physics. His post keeps that technical sensibility: rather than publishing excerpts, it walks through the tools and layout choices behind the documents. The supplied report begins with groff and basic formatting, then outlines planned discussion of page numbers, headers, text processing, Vim, and the writing process.
Groff is a typesetting system that can generate formatted documents, including PDFs; it is also commonly used in Unix and Linux environments for manual pages. The writer says he made a small macro package for his needs. He presents the work as an ongoing learning process and acknowledges that some technical details remain unresolved.
““Don’t even think about it: I won’t publish it. Nor will I send it to you privately.””
— The movq.de blogger, in the Oct. 31, 2026 post
What the Post Leaves Unspecified
The report does not provide a personal name for the writer in the supplied material, nor does it give the novellas’ titles, plots, or intended audience. Their precise genre and formal classification are also not established; the writer says their lengths barely fit the novella category.
It is not clear whether the writer plans to produce further fiction, revise either manuscript, or share additional technical material about the typesetting process. The source excerpt includes a table of contents and begins discussing page layout, but the provided text cuts off during a technical explanation. No independent assessment of the stated word counts, page counts, or generation times is available.
No Release Date or Manuscript Plans
The post announces no publication, submission, or distribution plan for either novella. Readers can consult the blog for the technical account of the writer’s groff workflow, but the source material does not establish when or whether the remaining sections described in its contents will be posted.
For now, the confirmed development is limited to the writer’s report that both manuscripts are complete and will remain private. Any further writing or changes to that decision would require a new statement from the blogger.
Key Questions
How long are the two novellas?
The writer estimates the first at about 15,000 words and 50 A5 pages, and the second at about 40,000 words and 120 pages.
Will the novellas be published?
No. The blogger says he will not publish or privately send either manuscript.
What software did the writer use?
He used groff, a Unix typesetting system, along with a small custom macro package and some preprocessing.
How long did writing each novella take?
The writer says the shorter work took more than seven months; the longer one took 10 days.
Why did the writer start writing fiction?
He said he began reading fiction more regularly around July 2025, enjoyed it more than expected, and decided to try writing a story himself.
Source: movq.de
