Is it the pen or the iPad? Some say the pen is mightier then
the sword but is it mightier then a fully charged laptop?
As technology
evolves it does impact on writing style. The quill produced Hamlet and
Romeo & Juliet. Would that Rose have smelt as Sweet if old Will labored over a
MacBook Pro?
Would Raymond Chandler have crafted the
perfect staccato crime fiction without the tap tap machine gun tap of one of
those new fangled electric typewriters.
I was moved to write after reading of legendary crime writer Elmore
Leonard’s passing. He worked from 10am to 6pm everyday. His preferred
method was writing long hand with a biro on a yellow A4 legal pad. When he filled a page up he
would type what he had written, editing as he went. His goal was to complete 6
pages a day. Using that simple process Elmore Leonard crafted some of the most
memorable crime fiction to come out of America in the 20th Century. Would an iPad have made his dialogue funnier and sharper?
What are the great word processed novels?
Do they exist?
There’s no doubt that computers make the
work flow flexible and infinitely malleable.
Books have been written longhand, dictated,
typewritten, and word processed. Sometimes with combinations of all. It’s all
good as long as you have the discipline.
If there is a point to this blog post it’s never use lack of technology to hold you back. Writers write. Anywhere and with whatever is at hand. It’s the idea that counts, not the machine.
Are you waiting for a new iPad or Laptop or software before you start writing? Just use what you have and write. My good friend Graham Cain wrote his travel guide Troubadour Travels using Notepad. He used what he had in front of him. The raw file didn’t look pretty but the words and ideas were. We gave his words a great layout and design and now he travels the world promoting his eBook.
How do you write? What tools work for you? When will you get your eBook published? Leave me a comment below.
Mike Dancy says
November 23, 2013 at 11:00 pmMy main tool is a $250 laptop and a $0 app like Notepad. Once I get it all down and out of my head, I’ll then put the story into an editing program and check for typos and start with the editing process. The only “must have” object that I can think of is a comfortable keyboard and ideally a way to save the story online. Google Drive or Microsofts Skydrive or even Dropbox works well.
Natasha says
November 29, 2013 at 11:04 amThe way it has always worked for me was planning on paper and then typing the actual story straight onto my computer. This is mainly because I have previously broken my wrist and it hurts to write for more than 30 minutes which is a great shame. I disconnect my internet and just write in long sittings.