Janet Gogerty's Blog: Sandscript - Posts Tagged "lap-tops"
Sandscript on Holiday
What does a writer take on holiday? Some might say nothing to do with writing, if it is supposed to be a holiday. Away for nearly a month, driving around the north of England and Scotland, the first essentials were clothes of every description to cater for any kind of weather. Then the other essentials, cameras to record our travels, including card readers and battery chargers, kindle, knitting and a bag of toys (electronic) to keep the rest of the party occupied while I wrote.
Fresh air, walking, seeing new cites and remote rural areas, meeting interesting people and getting inspiration for settings and characters, all important ingredients of a trip.
At a secluded cottage one can pretend to be a writer who has cut themselves off from the world. But with the right equipment an author can write anywhere.
Take a clockwork lap top and at least one memory stick with the current novel and all other writing. If wi fi is available the blog can also be kept up to date.
Always have a notebook handy for those pleasant times when the sun shines as you sit by the river with your coffee, or on the cathedral green with afternoon tea.
Take the paper manuscript of the novel in progress; if the electronics fail you can read, edit, check the plot lines…
Did I do all these things? Yes.
I downloaded photographs every day onto the lap top ready for my website and Facebook and when rain or mist descended I typed up the notes scribbled in the sunshine.
I’ve edited my novel and knitted a scarf for a family member visited on the way home.
Of course the other advantage of taking manuscripts, paper and electronic... if one should arrive home to discover the house blown up in a gas leak or flattened by a meteorite, at least the writing has been preserved.
Luckily our house was still standing when we returned.
And did the driver complain that I had taken too many bags on holiday? Yes.
You can see some pictures of places visited on my website; in the picture quiz and in Beachwriter’s Blog.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...
Fresh air, walking, seeing new cites and remote rural areas, meeting interesting people and getting inspiration for settings and characters, all important ingredients of a trip.
At a secluded cottage one can pretend to be a writer who has cut themselves off from the world. But with the right equipment an author can write anywhere.
Take a clockwork lap top and at least one memory stick with the current novel and all other writing. If wi fi is available the blog can also be kept up to date.
Always have a notebook handy for those pleasant times when the sun shines as you sit by the river with your coffee, or on the cathedral green with afternoon tea.
Take the paper manuscript of the novel in progress; if the electronics fail you can read, edit, check the plot lines…
Did I do all these things? Yes.
I downloaded photographs every day onto the lap top ready for my website and Facebook and when rain or mist descended I typed up the notes scribbled in the sunshine.
I’ve edited my novel and knitted a scarf for a family member visited on the way home.
Of course the other advantage of taking manuscripts, paper and electronic... if one should arrive home to discover the house blown up in a gas leak or flattened by a meteorite, at least the writing has been preserved.
Luckily our house was still standing when we returned.
And did the driver complain that I had taken too many bags on holiday? Yes.
You can see some pictures of places visited on my website; in the picture quiz and in Beachwriter’s Blog.
http://www.ccsidewriter.co.uk/chapter...
Sandscript Skyping
Sandscript Skyping
Once upon a time the future was a Telly Phone. We would sit at our phone table, the earpiece and mouthpiece still connected to the phone by a curly wire, the phone still attached by a cable which eventually led out of the house and to the telegraph pole. But also on the table was a small screen on which we could see who we were talking to. Most of us wondered if we would like such an invention; you would have to get dressed before you phoned someone, you couldn’t leap out of the bath and wrap a towel round if the phone rang.
It has come to pass, but like most predictions of the future not in the way we imagined. At first we wondered what people were talking about when they asked if we Skyped Australia or the USA. It started with desk top computers, a time was prearranged by email or perhaps the real telephone, because it would not work if the other person was not on line when you called.
Now we use a variety of devices to Skype, Facetime and WhatsApp video; most people are on line most of the time with their smart phones. We are still chatting on the phone. In universal scenes, several generations may be peering at their ipad and greeting Great Grandma on the other side of the world, marvelling at the clear picture. Using a mobile phone enables the caller to take you on a tour of their new house or make you jealous as they broadcast live scenes of their holiday to your lap top.
It is not always perfect, the feeling of being in the same room can be marred by your loved one’s face becoming pixillated or their voices taking on an underwater timbre. Is it the weather conditions or the fact that they have Apple and you do not? We grumble, but it is a miracle that we are seeing each other at all.
In my novel ‘Quarter Acre Block', the Palmer family emigrate to Australia in 1964. Their friends and family have no idea how they are getting on until they write an aerogramme, then comes the wait for a reply. Phone calls back to England were possible for migrants, via cable laid under the oceans, a wonder of technology itself, but very expensive, with fathers standing by with a stop watch to make sure three minutes was not exceeded...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quarter-Acre...
Once upon a time the future was a Telly Phone. We would sit at our phone table, the earpiece and mouthpiece still connected to the phone by a curly wire, the phone still attached by a cable which eventually led out of the house and to the telegraph pole. But also on the table was a small screen on which we could see who we were talking to. Most of us wondered if we would like such an invention; you would have to get dressed before you phoned someone, you couldn’t leap out of the bath and wrap a towel round if the phone rang.
It has come to pass, but like most predictions of the future not in the way we imagined. At first we wondered what people were talking about when they asked if we Skyped Australia or the USA. It started with desk top computers, a time was prearranged by email or perhaps the real telephone, because it would not work if the other person was not on line when you called.
Now we use a variety of devices to Skype, Facetime and WhatsApp video; most people are on line most of the time with their smart phones. We are still chatting on the phone. In universal scenes, several generations may be peering at their ipad and greeting Great Grandma on the other side of the world, marvelling at the clear picture. Using a mobile phone enables the caller to take you on a tour of their new house or make you jealous as they broadcast live scenes of their holiday to your lap top.
It is not always perfect, the feeling of being in the same room can be marred by your loved one’s face becoming pixillated or their voices taking on an underwater timbre. Is it the weather conditions or the fact that they have Apple and you do not? We grumble, but it is a miracle that we are seeing each other at all.
In my novel ‘Quarter Acre Block', the Palmer family emigrate to Australia in 1964. Their friends and family have no idea how they are getting on until they write an aerogramme, then comes the wait for a reply. Phone calls back to England were possible for migrants, via cable laid under the oceans, a wonder of technology itself, but very expensive, with fathers standing by with a stop watch to make sure three minutes was not exceeded...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quarter-Acre...
Sandscript
I like to write first drafts with pen and paper; at home, in busy cafes, in the garden, at our beach hut... even sitting in a sea front car park waiting for the rain to stop I get my note book out. We
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