{"id":35113,"date":"2018-07-02T06:30:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T18:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=35113"},"modified":"2018-06-24T17:34:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T05:34:39","slug":"artefacts-of-the-writing-life-7-laptop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2018\/07\/02\/artefacts-of-the-writing-life-7-laptop\/","title":{"rendered":"Artefacts of the Writing Life #7: Laptop"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Desk, chair — & laptop!<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the past six months, I\u2019ve been sharing a few artefacts* of the writing life with you. You can find the previous entries under \u201cAbout Writing<\/a>\u201d \u2014 just look below \u201cCategories\u201d in the far right-hand side bar. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

As you’ve guessed from the title, in this edition the spotlight\u2019s on the (probably already outmoded!) laptop.<\/p>\n

I do have a desktop machine but the laptop is my primary writing tool, mainly because it can travel with me wherever I go so no writing opportunities are missed. High five to not<\/em> missing writing opportunities. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

The great advantage the laptop (or any PC for that matter) has over pen and paper<\/a> and the notebook<\/a> (click on the links for earlier entries) is that you can retain innumerable versions and options for the story in a readily accessible and reusable format.\u00a0And…um…I do<\/em>—a great many versions in some cases!<\/p>\n

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Open for some serious worldbuilding business…<\/p><\/div>\n

Now,\u00a0 although it can<\/em> be rather disheartening at times to have quite so many versions and options (because it would be quite awesomely wonderful if the writing process could be linear, direct, and certain <\/em>the first time!) it is also incredibly useful when I get to a point where I think, “Oh, that scene I wrote two years ago and loved but didn’t seem right at the time—it really would be perfect right here, right now…”<\/em><\/p>\n

Lo! With the trusty laptop at hand, the required text can indeed be deployed right here and right now, which is fabulous.<\/p>\n

Is there any downside to the laptop (and PC technology generally)? Well, yes, there is. It’s just too darned easy to go back and re-edit, which is great when you’re editing, but when you’re creating it can become a safety blanket that soon becomes counterproductive, because in the creative phase it’s best to keep the story moving forward.<\/p>\n

*Artefact: \"a functional or decorative human-made object.\"<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the past six months, I\u2019ve been sharing a few artefacts* of the writing life with you. You can find the previous entries under \u201cAbout Writing\u201d \u2014 just look below \u201cCategories\u201d in the far right-hand side bar. \ud83d\ude42 As you’ve guessed from the title, in this edition the spotlight\u2019s on the (probably already outmoded!) laptop. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35113"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35355,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35113\/revisions\/35355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}