In the final chapter of his book On Becoming a Novelist, John Gardner addresses a question often asked by aspiring writers. "Do you write with a pen, a pencil, a typewriter, or what?" He says, and I agree, that the question is more important than it appears.
It calls to mind the kind of things professional gamblers are said to worry about, Gardner writes. Should one where a lucky hat? Which color of shirt is best when playing poker? And so on. It asks (without asking) if there is any hope at all for the beginning writer.
Desktop computers and blogs have made writing fast and easy. Is this a good thing? Yes and no.
Remember, just because you can write easily doesn't mean you should. Our world is fast-paced, chaotic, and always has been. But writing is not. It shouldn't be. Writing requires slow, careful concentration. This is as true for you writing e-mails in the 21st century as it was for Lev Tolstoy writing War and Peace.
I compose my stories, articles, syllabus, and blogs on a Sony Vaio laptop computer. Usually I write in Microsoft Word 2008, and I keep the files on a titanium jump drive that, if not on my person, is usually close to me (on my desk, my bookshelf, something like that). Most people write on computers, these days, whether in the library or at home or at work.
It's important to remember (this is a friendly reminder) that writing is a process, a habit, and an act of mindfulness. It is not a physical process. Writing with a pen may be different in some ways than writing on a laptop. The important difference in the physical process, or the actual activity of writing, is a difference, too often, of quality.
Pencils and pens force us to go slowly. To think, compose in our heads, and to move forward with ideas instead of going backwards. Who wants to rewrite the first chapter of a novel 100 times in ink?
Yet computers are important. Remain mindful of computers and research venues (Google Scholar, Lexis Nexus, etc.) as tools. Only tools. A computer may help you write a novel faster, and it may even be good, but in some ways it may also harm your ability to write.
The best artists in this age of technology (and here I mean graphic designers, painters, sketch artists, photographers, and writers, too) understand the power of tools like Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, but they never forget that the programs cannot make the art for them. They still pour in the attention of Tolstoy or Picasso, and the new technology takes them in different directions. In all its complexity, this is the one element that will never, ever become digitized.
It calls to mind the kind of things professional gamblers are said to worry about, Gardner writes. Should one where a lucky hat? Which color of shirt is best when playing poker? And so on. It asks (without asking) if there is any hope at all for the beginning writer.
Desktop computers and blogs have made writing fast and easy. Is this a good thing? Yes and no.
Remember, just because you can write easily doesn't mean you should. Our world is fast-paced, chaotic, and always has been. But writing is not. It shouldn't be. Writing requires slow, careful concentration. This is as true for you writing e-mails in the 21st century as it was for Lev Tolstoy writing War and Peace.
I compose my stories, articles, syllabus, and blogs on a Sony Vaio laptop computer. Usually I write in Microsoft Word 2008, and I keep the files on a titanium jump drive that, if not on my person, is usually close to me (on my desk, my bookshelf, something like that). Most people write on computers, these days, whether in the library or at home or at work.
It's important to remember (this is a friendly reminder) that writing is a process, a habit, and an act of mindfulness. It is not a physical process. Writing with a pen may be different in some ways than writing on a laptop. The important difference in the physical process, or the actual activity of writing, is a difference, too often, of quality.
Pencils and pens force us to go slowly. To think, compose in our heads, and to move forward with ideas instead of going backwards. Who wants to rewrite the first chapter of a novel 100 times in ink?
Yet computers are important. Remain mindful of computers and research venues (Google Scholar, Lexis Nexus, etc.) as tools. Only tools. A computer may help you write a novel faster, and it may even be good, but in some ways it may also harm your ability to write.
The best artists in this age of technology (and here I mean graphic designers, painters, sketch artists, photographers, and writers, too) understand the power of tools like Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, but they never forget that the programs cannot make the art for them. They still pour in the attention of Tolstoy or Picasso, and the new technology takes them in different directions. In all its complexity, this is the one element that will never, ever become digitized.
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