Tags
Sometimes I wonder if the universe is telling me to go back to writing by hand on paper. Well, not sometimes, but most days actually. Because most days I open up either my laptop or my netbook, all ready to forge ahead with my novel or my thesis only to spend a minimum of two hours trying to get either of the machines to work.
It is extraordinary how the machines pick up gremlins overnight. It makes no difference if they spend the night in the sitting room or in my bedroom, something ghastly happens to them during the dark hours. I suspect they are like the princesses in the Twelve Dancing Princesses, who crept through a secret door each night and danced with princes all night before returning to their bedrooms. The only evidence of this night time activity was their twelve pairs of shoes, completely worn out.
My laptop and netbook have obviously been taken over by MI6 or the CIA or perhaps even the KGB, whose clandestine use of my technology has utterly worn them out, leaving them recalcitrant by morning.
This is my plea to those organisations named above: Get your own machines. Leave mine alone. Or at the very least have the goodness to leave my machines in the condition you find them in.
I’m a firm believer in Moleskin A5 lined notebooks and stolen pens…
I was sooo tempted to steal Helen’s lovely fountain pen after she lent me it yesterday! Moleskin, sadly is not as yet within my budget! Poundstretcher do quite jolly notebooks though!
Oh I like the moleskin, and those yellow pages copybooks, like they used to make….however, even if writing by hand is not a problem in the fervor of creativity, once I have to type it all back into a file, I get as recalcitrant as a mule.
That said, I share your pain with technology! In as much as it’s great for many things, it’s not everlasting. I’m contemplating a revamp of my system, which should be good for the next 5 years at least. If only I can magik the pennies out of the hat, that is
I feel your pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve stopped trying to count the times this has happened… I now back up twice a day the important work (writing, theses, poetry) onto a stick, and if need be, I can get a lift to a uni or libray computer where they don’t seem to have such problems with MI6, the CIA or perhaps even the KGB.
I sympathise. Perhaps it’s time to form a group – writers against computers. WAC for short. When they cooperate, however, they are wonderful creatures. Perhaps they sense your dependence on them. Perhaps it’s time to walk away from them – for a while. Then see if they miss you….