A small forest

Year Six -- Week 23 -- November 3, 2003


A small forest gave up its life for my novel.

How did Shakespeare write without a computer? It seems impossible to me, a writer of the 21st century, a writer whose hand starts to ache after using a pen for more than ten minutes. And how did he make those final revisions with just ink, quill, and parchment? I tinker with words, sentences, paragraphs, and all too often, entire chapters. I add and subtract to a manuscript as if I’m firing a machine gun. I blast away at a page in hopes that at some point I’ll find the target. Eventually I get there, but not before wasting away reams of paper and numerous ink cartridges.

A computer is supposed to make us more productive, but if we are not careful, we will fall into the technology trap. In the sixties, it was “Better Living Through Chemistry.” That industry brought us white bread, TV dinners, and instant coffee, innovations that were all welcomed with open arms. Forty years later, what was simply considered food when I was a kid, has today blossomed into the fastest growing supermarket segment – organic. Will writers one day also face this technological backlash, where pen and paper are considered luxuries that we will pay a premium for?

Some say we have already hit the wall. Just take a look at the best seller list. Technology hasn’t improved the quality of the writing, they say, it has just enabled the industry to increase the amount of trash it publishes. Perhaps writers who came of age before the computer chose words more carefully. They had to, because it was so damn difficult to change and rearrange. Perhaps they also thought longer about what they wanted to say before actually putting pen to paper. I know that I am guilty of doing more thinking after I’ve written, and perhaps that explains the endless loop of editing that I find myself in at the moment.

Does the computer make writing and editing too easy? It’s a bit like the calculator -- you don’t need to know math anymore, just how to push buttons. Is it the same with writing?

It’s too late to do much about this novel, I’m almost done. But the next one will be different. First off, I’m going to use pen and paper for outlines and early drafts. And I will look for other ways to wean myself away from this technological habit. For instance, instead of hitting shift F7 for alternate words, I will pull out my hardcover Thesaurus. When I put a scene in the computer, I’ll print them out more often to edit manually instead of on-line. And to stay consistent, I’ll even pledge to balance my checkbook without a calculator.

Will these changes improve my writing? Not necessarily, but if it makes me feel better, then why not? Perhaps a few more trees will live, and with a little luck, I’ll be able to use a pen for more than ten minutes without cramping up. That's got to be worth something to somebody.