I started writing on a typewriter. For most of you, that’s one of those old things that you see in old black and white movies. You know, the ones where the old hard bitten news man is squinting because a curl of smoke from the cigarette in his mouth is hurting his eyes and causing him to swear as he types with two fingers?
Times have changed. I remember when we used to edit with a pencil and cringed when we made spelling mistakes because it usually meant the sheet of 8 x 11 in the carriage needed to be scrapped. All that might make me sound a little old, but I’m not really. It’s just that technology is racing faster that anyone’s biological clock, but there’s no need for writers to panic. As far as I can tell, there’s always a need for good writers on the Internet–basically because there’s a lack of good writing now.
This isn’t going to be one of those articles abut how bad technology is and how E.M. Forster was right in The Machine Stops because I think it’s a great thing for writers. I can produce more now than ever before and stay in touch with everyone I need to on a more or less constant basis. The fact is, the more mobile I am, the more work I can do and when I juggle that accordingly, I have more time to myself.
The more wireless things get, the more chances I have to get out and work from outside the house, which is a real bonus as I live just outside of what we call cottage county here in Canada. As soon as the Internet technology makes it feasible for me to go ‘ on the road’ and work that way for extended periods of time, I might just get that VW bus I missed in the 1970s and have a permanent mobile office. All of course with a nod to the late great Hunter S. Thompson.
I know the Web is insatiable when it comes to copy and content of all kinds, but the great thing here is the well should never run dry. That means that you can stay hooked up and run those mobile offices from almost anywhere soon.
Still there are instances I think where technology overlaps for writers. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how all the software that promises to make you a writer or novelist doesn’t really hang around that long? The reason? You need a writer and a good one at that to make people take notice.
So what are your technology stories? How many of you reading this have found a way to utilize the wireless handhelds and laptops so that you can make a real change in your life? After all, isn’t that what all this technology is all about? Isn’t that what it promised us all those years ago? It’s great because it allows us to share stories about how it all works as well.
Oh by the way, could someone please send me the lowdown on the best type of connection for those remote places? Somewhere where I can sit on the end of a dock with a laptop in my lap and my Labrador retriever at my side?
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