Computers and writing…
Whether writers are self- or traditionally published, they’ll probably be spending a lot of time on their computer. While there might be a few who still write manuscripts longhand, nowadays it’s hard to be a complete Luddite.
My writing life has been a history of resistance to the computer, though. I never wrote an MS (manuscript) longhand, but I certainly made lots of notes for my storytelling on a lot of media that didn’t involve computers—napkins, post-its, backs of takeout menus, and so forth. I still make notes, of course, but I now transcribe them into MS Word files. And early on, if I sketched out story ideas or wrote some short fiction, I did it on my mother’s Remington or later on my Olympia electric. All that activity served as R&R from intense courses that today would be categorized as STEM in high school and math and physics at the college level. I’d made the decision to work on something in science and technology because I couldn’t imagine making a living as a writer (I still can’t, but we all know a few who can).
In those days, computers were either for business (COBOL) or science and technology (FORTRAN); it was also a punch-card era. I wouldn’t even have had access to a computer if I hadn’t worked part-time during my college years and full-time in the summer with an R&D organization. And no word processing on computers was done back then, only later on Wang machines especially designed for that (I wrote my thesis on one!).
My first very own word processing software was on a Color Computer. The only thing I remember about it was that it was all text with no special fonts, primitive software compared to MS Word, which, even when it first came out, tried to do everything. Laser printers didn’t exist either; my first printer was a dot-matrix beast best described today as a doorstop.
Time-travel now with me to the present day. We submit our manuscripts as email attachments, we receive edits as an email attachment, we check our masterpiece’s voyage to become a published book online, and we promote and market our books online. Even if we do some of those old-fashioned promo events like book signings or book fairs, we set those up on online. I can’t imagine how a modern author can avoid owning a computer and using the internet. Even Stephen King is on Twitter.
But, like I said, I’m an example of resistance to the computer revolution as far as my writing goes. I’m only recently on Twitter and have mixed feelings about it. My Facebook page is more a complement to my blog, and about half my time on Facebook and Twitter is dedicated to advertising that blog and my books. The rest is more akin to the true definition of social media—meeting and helping other authors with tweets, retweets, and sharing posts. In this process, I’ve considerably increased my group of friends, which now far outnumber those I have locally. A lot of that also has nothing much to do with writing.
My blog is part of my writing life now, where I’m a lot more active than I am on Facebook or Twitter. The blog represents a continuous reminder that I could have made money writing early on as a journalist, which often leads to fiction writing, something I always wanted to do. No regrets, though. Science and technology are creative activities too, and they put food on the table.
For hardware, I now use an HP laptop—its footprint on my desk is a lot smaller than that old Digital desktop I used for many years where I used to perfect an MS corresponding to my first novels. This is only my second laptop—the first just became too slow. The keys on the second have the letters worn off and several are dysfunctional, so I bought a USB keyboard instead of buying another new laptop. (Some of those keys’ letters are gone now too.) Resistance is my middle name when it comes to computer upgrades. Of course, that standard-sized keyboard increased the computer’s footprint, so I’m back to the old desktop’s waste of desk space.
For software, I’ve been forced to use MS Word. It’s the standard now, although there’s special writing software out there. The latter doesn’t work for me because I don’t outline—I’m a “pantser,” i.e. seat-of-the-pants all the way (I content edit as I go). I gave up on using LaTex, which is powerful but arcane and not well-liked by even tech editors. One can edit PDFs—some of my editors use that system—but small presses generally use MS Word’s “Track Changes.” I hate the latter because those side panels slow paging to a crawl and often crash the program, but MS Word is the standard for traditional publishing and many professional editors.
I’m beaten and admit defeat. I can’t resist the trampling tech T-Rex anymore. Computers are a necessary evil in my writing life. But I have some revenge. Smart phones have become like little computers. I don’t use one! And I rarely use DM (yes, I know what that is)—if you want to contact me, the best way is to use the contact page at this website. And that way, you’ll never have to remember the email address.
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Comments are always welcome.
The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. DHS agent Ashley Scott is wondering if she should retire. By teaming up with an investigative reporter and discovering a government conspiracy engineered by the Raven, a shadowy character, she almost retires…permanently. A special secret program is involved; it solves the problem of dealing with old agents and scientists the government fears will divulge national secrets. Intrigue and romance define this suspenseful thriller. Available in ebook format at Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lenders (Overdrive, etc.)
Note: To understand all the connections between several of my series, download the free PDF “Future History Timeline”—see the web page “Free Stuff & Contests.”
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
