So, admittedly, I'm late posting this entry. It took my laptop a little longer than usual to warm up today.
For months, my writing has been steadily building, becoming more and more reliant on technology. I don't know about you, but I've come to rely on technology so much that my writing would be severely hampered without my computers.
I'm of the era that, although my college classmates had computers, I didn't see the need until I had my 100-page senior thesis to write. Remind me, how did they write long form without the computer? By the time I graduated, I fear I had forgotten. Plus, by then, I was dating a computer science graduate.
Bring on the technology revolution!
Until recently.
For the past several months, I've limped along with a laptop that seems to be running on its own leisurely time and pace. Generally, I wake up at 5 a.m., start my laptop, make and eat my breakfast and my tea before my technology is ready to go. My husband brought home a computer from work that no one was using. I now know why. While no one claims that it happened to them, with this computer, I've encountered more so-called "blue screens of death" than I care to remember. So many, that I've grown attracted to the bright blue and am thinking I should consider a color change to my walls to reflect my lack of fear.
Bring on the blue screens!
I can interview someone by telephone. I can take notes, make lists and doodle with my trusty pen and paper. I can write my stories and take notes long-hand. I can outline my novels on index cards. But all of it is for nothing if I can't get the information to the computer.
I know I can be creative without a computer. I just can't be as fast...or as wide read...or, ahem, paid, without using a computer.
I know that I can't do without e-mails for keeping in touch with friends, family and clients.
But for a few weekend mornings, I'd like to be able to make the decision (not have it made for me by my technology) to sit down to write. Fueled by my creativity and my pen and paper, some days I wish I could just write without thinking about Internet connections.
How about you? Do love technology so much that you're not able to write without it? Or do you look back, wistfully, wishing to tap into your creativity and share your writing with others without having to jump-start your laptop. I know I do.
Especially today.
Elizabeth King Humphrey is a creativity coach and writer living near the North Carolina coast.
Technology: The Hiccup in the Road to Being Read
Sunday, August 15, 2010
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3 comments:
I fire up the laptop first thing in the morning. But many times, I put the pen to paper when it's time to write. There's something energizing about writing words on paper, something that ignites a deep part of the brain and makes a connection that just doesn't always happen on the computer. While I, too, love technology, there comes a time when it's just...not the same as the physical motion of writing.
Thanks, Annie. It's good to know I'm not alone! I think sometimes it seems odd, but I'll fire up the computer and then turn my back on it, working on pen and paper to actual make some progress on something I'm writing. In a way, it feels like I'm getting closer to my writing that way.
Elizabeth
Your computer is giving you light therapy. It's only trying to help.
(See http://www.livestrong.com/article/194038-blue-light-therapy-benefits/)
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