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Piles of paper |
Going paperless. It
sounds as if I am being noble and jumping on the Go Green bandwagon, but sadly,
that’s not the case. Not that I have
anything against being green or trying to help nature endure and saving
resources and all of that other “do it for the environment” hoopla. I recycle and I try to conserve water and
energy, unless, of course, I’m super hot and then that air conditioning is
being cranked on high, electric bill be damned.
It’s always based on my comfort level, as well. To the rest living here I merely encourage
them to buck it up, they didn’t have air conditioning a century ago and people
survived.
No, what I mean about going paperless is in connection with
my writing. If you’ve been reading The
Mess for any length of time, then you know that I write everything out with pen
and paper before committing it to the keyboard and virtual memory. Computers crash and my trusty notebooks never
have, which is why they are my trusty notebooks. The laptop I am using now has frozen up on me
twice this week and almost locked me out, which caused me to move my writing
back to a flash drive for storage.
Technology and I get along about as well as I do with cars and we all
know that isn’t very well.
I also used to write everywhere I went, on car rides, at the
barbers, at friends’ homes, on the toilet.
My notebooks were mobile and easily snatched up at the last minute. I could have several notebooks going with
tons of plotlines and carry only what I needed or everything. Usually it was everything, which the girls hated
when we went on overnight trips. I had
one bag of writing for every bag of luggage they carried to the car.
However, over the past couple of weeks, I have been
rethinking my philosophy. The idea is to
be more productive and writing in notebooks, and then typing up what I’ve
written, while helps with edits, is time consuming, as well. I realized that in order to get more
accomplished, I needed to change my methods.
It was time to type first and ask questions later. At least the laptop is still mobile, so I can
carry it with me most places. Except the
toilet. It’s hard to balance it in
there.
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Without the flash this ink barely showed up |
Furthermore, I found that it also helps me keep track of
everything a little bit better. I have
been writing since I was in ninth grade and because of that I have files and
files of manuscripts, some finished; some just partials or ideas on paper. I have lists of characters and outlines of
stories that have been moved from one file cabinet to another throughout the
years. The paper is getting yellow with
age and the ink fading on some of them; the words lost. Some of the pages of manuscripts had become
lost through the years and great ideas forever forgotten. It was also taking up quite a bit of room
that I could be using for holiday decorations in the garage.
Therefore, I stacked all of my writings up and two weeks ago
began the tedious, but enlightening process of typing them all into the
laptop. I had found projects that I had
forgotten about but which had some strong possibilities and revisited old ideas
that needed to stay old. Yet, I wanted
to preserve them as lessons of where I had been and how far I have come. And the writing did just that. I was able to see my progress over the years
as a writer, where I was weak and grew and where I still need to grow even
more. It put a burst of excitement back
into me that kept me at the keyboard, plucking away with my two fingers as I
search out the right keys to type the word “the.”
My typing will get better, I’m sure. I also still edit with red ink on the printed
out versions. I can’t go all techie
overnight, now. Yet, this process of
doing away with the paper and dealing with pixels has helped me produce more
work in a faster amount of time and for that I know I made the right move. I miss my notebooks and I can’t use my laptop
while sitting in the pickup line waiting to rescue the 8 year-old from school,
but I can use that time to do something else like research, character sketches,
or edits. I’m still productive, but also
more organized. It’s taking awhile to
get used to, but I think it’s well worth the effort. Of course, now I need to come up with another
reason to buy all of my fancy notebooks and journals, but I’ll think of
something.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Other posts you might enjoy ~ Take Two Aspirin and Text Me in the Morning
Thanks for visiting The Mess! Keep chasing your dreams!
Oh thank goodness you didn't include the photo of you typing on the toilet. We all know you do it, regardless of your denials. LOL Well done my friend. Change is difficult but modern technology does have benefits. I only started paying all my bills online about three years ago but these days, I never have a late fee. No more racing to the mailbox, buying stamps and praying the snail mail gets there in 48 hours. Welcome to the dark side!!!
ReplyDeleteI was quicker to pay my bills online than I was to commit my writing to the computer lol. Clothes in the pool..computer in the loo....it seems typical for a Mess. lol
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