I bought an IPad2 (32G, Wi-Fi) on wednesday. It has already turned into one of the best writing decisions I have ever made. The wireless bluetooth keyboard has helped me write a lot of words. A lot more than I thought possible. Let me explain:
One of the problems I've had is a pinched nerve in my left hand. It has affected me since the since the summer of 2005 when I wrote WAY too much on an old Dell laptop. I had to quit writing for a little while to let it heal, and it has been a barrier for me ever since. Whenever I wrote more than 8,000 words in a day, I would be up the entire night with a numb hand. Not good, even though my left was not my dominate hand. I felt it hindered my writing ability by not getting out those great sentences I was thinking up, or that fantastic idea I had, because if I did too much then I was punished for it.
The bluetooth keyboard is a light, little baby that works fine. I did check it out, ask friends and co-workers who had IMacs if they enjoyed their keyboard. The IPad2 was more of the convenience of a 10-hour battery, and the fact that I don't like laptops in general (they usually end up scorching my lap).
In three days, I have written about 20,000 words. A few short stories, and have started on a book idea I've had rummaging around for a while. All of this on my new IPad2 and bluetooth keyboard. No, this is not for everyone. The screen is a little small and I am attempting to adjust to the word processor Pages which does need to improve its zoom feature to push out the text a little farther. I don't always enjoy the text large unless it is a final draft that I am self-editing before pushing out to those who edit my work. I wouldn't mind folders to contain the different documents (writers rarely have everything in one document as they do compile from several others).
That being said, I have had few if any issues with the IPad2 at all. The battery is killer, I am able to sit in a bar and write (as I am right at this moment) and develop ideas without having to always sit in a stuffy office. The fact that the storage space is 32g means I won't be running out of space any time soon.
Which leads me to a question (and hopefully to prevent people from considering this an advertisement for the IPad2):
- Did typewriters or pen stop writers from being so prolific? Or did they chose their words so carefully, their ideas so restrained that it didn't allow for a lot of content to see the light of day?
I am conscious that there are a lot of things that I have written (ideas, paragraphs, sentences) that are not worthy of someone else's reading time. I get that a lot of stuff in everyone's blogs are essentially frivolous exercises in random thoughts. But does that mean that writers who provide less to their reader have a greater impact than those who provide as much as possible.
Joseph Conrad is scary as hell if you read his stuff. I wonder, if he had utilized the word processor (or had one accessible) in his time, would he have provided as much work as Stephen King. People enjoy knocking King's work, but they tend to overlook the fact that people purchase it for a reason. They feel a true connection between King and themselves which other writers have not managed to provide. Enough that they will follow him anywhere, through any story, no matter how convoluted (Rose Madder, anyone?).
Dean Koontz is just as prolific, but I wonder if he manages the same connection. He appears to be more of an airport author. I get his book in the airport, I read it on the plane, I get to the end by time I am done traveling. I have never felt the same connection between Koontz that I have had with King. I can remember several connective points that King put forth, images that scared me, ideas that still cause me to question. Koontz is an idea, a story, that's it. After you are done, it's over, baby. No thinking about it.
Some people suggest that about King. But I have to tell you, I am still scared of that damn clown from IT (the spider, no so much). I wouldn't take the garbage out at night when I was a teenager after reading IT because I thought that the curb sewer grade had the possibility of inhabiting something terribly evil. While I enjoyed Koontz's Dragon Tears and Watchers, I was neither afraid nor really thought more about those characters, images or situations until right now.
Everything is a disparity of being. Some readers may feel the opposite about King and Koontz than I do. Both were able to produce volumes of work because of the word processor. I wonder what the future holds now that we have trended in such a direction that anything and everything can be written down, sent out into the world in a matter of minutes. Whether it be this blog or someone else's, or an ebook. We may so much information that we overload as a result.
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