Hello world out there world!!
I saw this picture a while back and couldn’t help but think, “Thank goodness for computers.”
With the amount of time I spend writing and rewriting my drafts my room would resemble… nay my house would resemble this picture. Just imagine not having a computer for a moment. As a writer we do not fathom how much paper we would have gone through between our first draft to our last draft with the commonness of computers now-a-days. Some of us still use notebooks but those are organized pieces of paper that can easily be filed away on a shelf or in a drawer. Yes they do take up space but not as much as crumpled pieces like this picture. Imagine every mistake you make and every piece you rewrite only to crumple it and leave it on the floor. Within a couple of hours your room would be filled to the ceiling; you wouldn’t be able to open the door, and a candle would be a death sentence…
We write so much with this technology that permits us unlimited space.
For example: look at your picture file on your computer for a moment. There are hundreds of images both those you’ve taken and those you’ve copied from online sources. If you were to print all of these pictures you would likely run out of wall space before you were halfway finished. On a computer we can store all these images without taking up physical space that wouldn’t have been realistic if we were to make them a physical copy.
Now, consider how many pages you’ve written… even the blog posts you’ve posted. Each page doesn’t take up physical space but if printed how much room do you think it would take up. With my books averaging around 250 pages and I do at least three drafts for each, I know I would run out of room quickly.
You don’t really think about your writing taking up physical space now that you have a computer that keeps in hidden behind zeros and ones. All we need to worry about now is our hard drive running out of room or our keyboard breaking from overuse, (which recently happened to me). Those of course can be fixed or improved. You can add more drives to your computer that sits in the corner of a room taking up very little space. You can buy yourself a new keyboard, maybe one that is graded for hard use like a ducky or alien. At the end of the day we sit here in front of this device that grows in kilobytes whenever we use it. Those books that used to take up the bookshelves in our living room now fit on a device that hardly takes up a corner of a kitchen table. We can read hundreds of books that we couldn’t imagine dragging around in a backpack now on our phones through applications designed to keep your life as organized as possible.
Thank goodness for computers… as my house would be a fire hazard on the daily without it.
But, at the same time I feel like that chaos caused by my paper rewrites and my walls plastered with hardcover books is something a writer or reader enjoy. With the amount of crumpled paper around your feet keeping you stuck to your desk shows that there is progress. Those hardcover books lining the shelves gives you a sense of wonder that each text was someones creation that you can hold in your hands and examine. Sometimes I like the physical messes writing causes. It gives you a sense that the written word can invade your life and take over your living space. It reminds you that its there… unlike on a computer where you can lose a document and forget about it. With a physical book or physical copy of your writing you’ll happen across it eventually when cleaning or reorganizing your work space. The same doesn’t always happen with your digital version.
I am thankful for computers as it has helped me stay organized but I do love the physical chaos paper can bring to a work space.
July 6, 2016 at 2:47 am
Oh man! I feel this! I love love love having tangible books lining my walls. I like posting random notes to myself for story ideas on my corkboard. I keep a notebook for each book I’m writing and all the little papers that go with it shoved inside. And it’s not efficient. Man do I know it’s not efficient, right about the time I pick up a notebook and a dozen pieces of paper come flying out in all directions, but there is something so much more freeing about handwriting thoughts. They stick better. They mean more. They develop more. Typing on a computer is great for fast thoughts, but something that needs some more time should be written by hand. It makes it more real than a bunch of zeros and ones that could be swept away with a simple click of a button on a blog. (But I still can’t imagine writing an entire novel by hand… especially with my handwriting. *cough* >.> )
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July 6, 2016 at 3:57 am
I know the feeling. I have a binder with all the background info for my world and everytime I open it I spend at least five minutes picking up everything that’s fallen out onto the floor. I like handwriting ideas because I find handwriting helps make it stay in my mind longer (like you mentioned). It is also like looking at a time machine as you could tell your writing has changed over time and even those ideas could have morphed into something completely different than what is written in the notebook vs the computer. XD
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July 6, 2016 at 1:11 pm
Oh yeah! Totally! Not to mention, there is something nice about being able to spread out the sheets of paper and have them all in front of you at once as opposed to flicking between windows on a computer screen. (Not the same effect).
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July 6, 2016 at 4:02 pm
I like the smell and feel of paper. It is just comforting to hear it crumple or hiss under the pressure of a pen nib.
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July 6, 2016 at 7:22 pm
Oh yeah! I think feel of paper is a big one for people. I know people who buy specific notebooks because of how the paper feels. :p
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July 6, 2016 at 9:15 pm
The feel and sound of paper is really popular as the ASMR community will tell you… (research!)
I’m also guilty for buying a notebook for it’s cover. If it isn’t pretty I just can’t write in it…XD
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July 7, 2016 at 2:00 am
Bahaha! Totally feel ya on the prettiness factor. Sometimes I’m like ‘oo! That’s pretty! But I don’t need another notebook. :,(‘
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July 7, 2016 at 2:28 am
Oh I know I don’t need another notebook but somehow it gets in my basket and at the checkout… which then I’m too awkward to say I don’t want to buy that notebook and end up getting it anyway… XD
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July 7, 2016 at 6:31 pm
Haha! Reasons why I try to avoid bookstores. :p I’m all like ‘look at all the pretty books and notebooks!’ and then I have to walk out of the store with nothing. It’s such a tease!
And I already told myself I can’t buy any new notebooks until I fill up the ones I have leftover from college. >.> There’s a lot apparently. 😦
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July 7, 2016 at 6:51 pm
That is a good goal to have. I just find that I buy notebooks but never fill them because I spend so much time typing on the computer. XD
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July 8, 2016 at 4:21 pm
Haha! Writers: it’s not ‘oo shiney!’ It’s ‘oo! pretty notebook!’ :p
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