Writing Spaces of Famous S.F. Bay Area Writers
For those of you outside of the San Francisco Bay Area or that don't know about the San Francisco Chronicle's website, here are the writing spaces of some of the most famous Bay Area writers
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/09/HOGANEMICS61.DTL
I do all my basic structure and the majority of my writing on this relic
http://www.brother.com/usa/geobook/info/nb60/nb60_ove.html
I download it all onto a carrier pigeon, er, floppy, and upload it to Compaq that still runs Windows 98. The Brother NB-60's sole advantage is its toughness. It runs on a flashdrive so that it is not affected by jostling nor the unintentional (or intentional) thumps of co-workers.
The OS is even more primative than Windows 3.1 and the screen hurts my eyes after ten solid minutes to the point that I find myself empathizing just a little too much with Elias Koteas's character in Andrew Niccol's "Sim1one" a.k.a "Simone" http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/
Still, I just love this laptop, I can't imagine what a writer's life was before them and yes I know, "typewriters and writing it down on paper." I'm the kind of writer who corrects as he writes and I like to keep the page neat as I go. So I would use up any of the "correctional" features (ribbon or ink-based) that were built into the typewriters or I would gum the typewriter up with white-out and it would wind up like Frosty the Snowman went sneezed into the keys.
Paper and pen? Good for a couple of sentences, not for an entire page with so many of my unrefined thoughts that were crossed out or darkened in that it was like a caterpillar infestation within two paragraphs. Computers are sweet, with very little to take away from the momentum and the moment of writing.
The luxury of your own writing space, is that a boon or curse?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/09/HOGANEMICS61.DTL
I do all my basic structure and the majority of my writing on this relic
http://www.brother.com/usa/geobook/info/nb60/nb60_ove.html
I download it all onto a carrier pigeon, er, floppy, and upload it to Compaq that still runs Windows 98. The Brother NB-60's sole advantage is its toughness. It runs on a flashdrive so that it is not affected by jostling nor the unintentional (or intentional) thumps of co-workers.
The OS is even more primative than Windows 3.1 and the screen hurts my eyes after ten solid minutes to the point that I find myself empathizing just a little too much with Elias Koteas's character in Andrew Niccol's "Sim1one" a.k.a "Simone" http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/
Still, I just love this laptop, I can't imagine what a writer's life was before them and yes I know, "typewriters and writing it down on paper." I'm the kind of writer who corrects as he writes and I like to keep the page neat as I go. So I would use up any of the "correctional" features (ribbon or ink-based) that were built into the typewriters or I would gum the typewriter up with white-out and it would wind up like Frosty the Snowman went sneezed into the keys.
Paper and pen? Good for a couple of sentences, not for an entire page with so many of my unrefined thoughts that were crossed out or darkened in that it was like a caterpillar infestation within two paragraphs. Computers are sweet, with very little to take away from the momentum and the moment of writing.
The luxury of your own writing space, is that a boon or curse?
Labels: Writing habits
posted by Writeprocrastinator at 8:50 PM
3 Comments:
I have a trusty old 1998 Toshiba laptop that still does the job...told myself when I sell a script I'll treat myself to a fancy new one
My friend used something like Wordstar 2.0 for DOS well into the 90's -- he developed this weird DOS-spatial-reasoning where he could anticipate how a document would look when printed even though it looked nothing like that on screen.
Quill,
Glad to see another tech hold-out. A friend of mine ran his Toshiba into the ground or rather, he destroyed its hinge. Every time he had to get up to do a job, a customer or employee would try to read his screen so he would push it closed. Eventually the hinge gave way and he had to use a jeweler's screwdriver to open and close it.
That's two solid endorsements now that have me leaning toward a refurbished Toshiba laptop to replace the Compaq desktop.
Steve,
This Model A of a word processor converts the file from "GeoWorks 98" (sp) to Microsoft Word, or ASC II, and even four different versions of Wordstar. I've never seen an actual document in Wordstar and just the name conjures visions of perforated computer paper and gals with really big hair and acid-washed jeans.
"he developed this weird DOS-spatial-reasoning where he could anticipate how a document would look when printed even though it looked nothing like that on screen."
That comes from the same part of the subconscious when you are in a solid groove and typing up a storm. And if you're lucky, it's that same section where your characters will take on a life of their own and steer you down the right path.
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