As an experiment, I’ve decided to write The Book entirely on my computer. This might not be a revolutionary move for some people, but it’s a revolutionary move for me. Ordinarily when I write, I have all sorts of paper flotsam — notes from interviews, printed-out specs with more notes from meetings, sketches, and so on. However, for The Book I’m trying to do everything in software.
On the face of it, this is a pretty stupid idea.
| Characteristic | 12″ iBook | Pencil and Paper |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $999 | $1.79 |
| Weight | 4.9 pounds | 5 ounces |
| Battery Life | 5 hours | Infinite |
| Resolution | 1024 x 768 @ 106 dpi | 600+ dpi at typical viewing distances |
| Uptime | 99.99% | 99.999% (with hot-swappable backup pencil) |
| Operating Temperature | 50 to 95 F | -459 to 451 F |
But despite the obvious advantages of paper, I am trying to do everything on the iBook anyway.[1], [2] The main reasons are:
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Backups and archiving.
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Organizing. (I have a much easier time keeping virtual things organized than paper things.)
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Hyperlinking.
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Searching.
In particular, I think the first and fourth items are what will make the effort worthwhile. And there is, I believe, a qualitative change between going 99% digital and 100% digital. It’s the difference between knowing that everything related to The Book is archived, versus “everything except for my story maps, and those scribbled notes from the coffee shop last October, and …”
Of course even if you buy all that, there are still major tradeoffs to consider. One drawback is that you lose some spontaneity, because you have to have your laptop to write. This would be a huge pain for writers whose modus operandi is to scribble huge piles of notes whenever inspiration strikes. Unless you’re a whiz with your PDA or smartphone, you’d have to resign yourself to a lot of transcription.
Another drawback is that certain writing techniques don’t translate all that well over to the digital world. For example, I find that while storymapping can be very useful when using pen and paper, it basically sucks on the computer. In my next post, I’ll describe a couple of things I tried to make storymapping on the computer suck a little less. At least on Macintoshes. As for making things suck less on other platforms, I wouldn’t really know where to start.
1. Despite the title of this entry, I am not actually doing this to “save trees.” At this point in my career, I’ve killed far too many trees for me to start worrying about them now. See, the first time you print out a huge manual only to discover that the global template was screwed up and you have to junk the whole thing — yes, yes, you feel horribly guilty. The second time this happens — you still feel pretty guilty. But by the seventeenth time, you feel nothing but cool professional detachment. Presumably, contract killers progress psychologically in much the same way.
2. And lest you dismiss the whole enterprise as the gimmick project of an effete, technology-obsessed Silicon Valley man-child, I should state for the record that I cannot possibly be any of these things, as I do not own a cell phone or even a working[3] television set. So there.
3. The key word being “working”. I actually do own a TV, but I have no cable subscription, and the antenna reception is awful, so the television sits unplugged in the corner of my office, serving as an ugly and not very practical end table. I keep it around mostly because I think that at some point in the future, I might want a TV. That’s the theory, anyway. Unfortunately, the truth is that I am, in fact, an effete, technology-obsessed Silicon Valley man-child… and so when the time comes, I know quite well that I will go out and get a fancy super-thin high-definition whizbang TV, and my current TV will remain an ugly and impractical end table.
Yes, but what about the readability factor? It doesn’t matter how much editing I do on screen–and I do a lot–I *always* see lots more stuff when I print out the manuscript and read a paper version.
As for the guilt, I assuage that by printing out drafts on the back of scrap paper saved for that purpose and then recycling. (Just for the record, I’m not one of those “granola” types. . . . Well, I would be, but granola is *way* too fattening.)
Mom
P.S. For the curious who don’t know me, I’m not a tech writer or a fiction writer, and I know zilch about markup, as you can see by my inability to put “always” and “way” in bold. My specialty is analyzing and synthesizing the obstetric research to establish what constitutes safe, effective maternity care.
Have you considered putting the TV on CraigsList? Maybe something like $30 OBO?
BTW, hope you don’t mind, but I’ve syndicated you so I could add you to my LJ friends-page.
Also, on the topic of maps, scribbled notes or sketches, etc — I hear that Wacom tablets are pretty cool. *g*
Congratulations on digifying. Don’t forget to save early and save often.
Hi Ma! Sure, I’ll print out sections for editing on occasion. You’re right, there is something magical about printing documents that makes you find twice as many errors… Still, any edits I make will get entered right back into the laptop, so it’s still all software.
Auros — don’t mind a bit about the syndication. I’m not too familiar with the ins and outs of LiveJournal — what is that doing differently from my normal feed? As for Craigslist, that is a fine idea. I don’t suppose you want a spare TV, cheap?
Sometimes, spontaneity and/or circumstances, may still require a pencil. Use a scanner. Then you can kill a tree and burn coal all at the same time. But you will get your archiving, etc. Sure you can dig out the laptop at starbucks. But sometimes a little pad of paper is all you need.
The old paper-and-pencil combo is hard to beat, and a scanner is an excellent idea.
Note that in theory (depending on my choice of coffee shop and drink), I could kill a tree, burn coal, and damage the economy of an impoverished tropical country all at the same time…
So what’s your archiving plan? Version control software has gotten free and really easy to use. I’ve just installed Subversion on my computer and love it. As long as you use text formats (no word processors!), you get diff to look and changes between versions.
CVS is free, too, but seems royally lame to me as someone who was looking for something quick and easy to install.
I think the Subversion project’s original mission statement was, “Make a CVS that isn’t royally lame.”
Hmmm. If I were to use a full-fledged versioning system, I would choose them in the following order (based on both reputation and personal experience):
1. Subversion
2. CVS
3. Visual SourceSafe
.
.
47. IBM Rational ClearCase
But right now, my versioning system is, “Occasionally drag my /Story folder over to my iPod, appending a number to the folder name.” I should probably be doing something more sophisticated. Presumably all the cool kids like Cory Doctorow are using versioning software at this point…