On Computers and Writing…

Hi everyone,

 

I handed in the final draft of Stolen with Style just before Easter and have since been enjoying the bliss of not having a major deadline hanging over me! So one of the projects I’ve finally had a chance to catch up on – and one I’ve been meaning to do since February! – is the setting up of my new desktop computer…

 

 

I’ve never had one (I’ve only worked on laptops until now) so I keep staring at it and looking at it as if it were a new puppy, or amazing species of flower, or something. Sad, I know!

 

I’m often asked what I work on: paper or computer? And if it’s a computer, then what kind of computer? Those questions are inevitably followed by something along the lines of, “I have this book I want to write, and I’m thinking I should get a computer with more memory, or some special writing software, or maybe a small laptop that I can take everywhere, a bigger battery, etc.,…What do you think I should do?”

 

My answer to these questions is always the same: If you want to write a book just start with what you have. You don’t need anything fancy. Really – I promise. Because while the computer – in my case, anyway! – does indeed have a vital role to play…it is a supporting role – not a leading role. You’re the one doing the writing – not the computer.

 

So, again, just start with what you have. If that means writing at home on your family’s one an only computer then do it. Schedule a time when no one else will be using it – 5am, 3pm, midnight, whatever – and sit down and write. If it means starting your new book on your ancient laptop (that’s what I did), then just start on your ancient laptop. Or borrow a friend’s, or family member’s, whatever…just start where you are.

 

As the head of fiction at one of my publishers told me – and I love this: “The only way all of this happens,” she said as she waved her hand around the book-packed hall we were standing in at the Frankfurt Book Fair, “is if you, the writer, actually put your bottom on a chair and write.”

 

And she’s right.

 

More computer memory, or a fancy screen, or a special software program isn’t going to write your book – only you will. Not that these things won’t help, but at the end of the day, honestly…any old computer and basic office program like Word will do.

 

I wrote Model Under Cover: A Crime of Fashion (along with other things that shall remain stashed at the back of my desk drawer, never to see the light of day!) on my eight year old, heavy-as-a-packed-suitcase, black, noisy, slow laptop (friends would tease me that it was ready for a museum). I told myself that if one day I managed to get a contract for the book I was writing I’d buy myself a new laptop. So after signing my first contract for MUC, and the advance came in, that’s what I did: I treated myself to a new laptop.

 

Then I told myself – because by this point I was spending all day, everyday in front of my computer – that with the advance for my next book I’d buy myself a gorgeous desktop computer with a very LARGE screen. And that’s what I’ve done.

 

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that both of these new and amazing machines haven’t changed my writing life – they have. But notice I say my writing life - not my writing. My eyes don’t have to squint quite so hard, the improved power does indeed help with researching, working on videos for my Youtube channel, storing photos for my posts, etc., and when traveling my back is most grateful for the new laptop. But as much as I love them, and appreciate their capacity…they haven’t actually changed the process of writing for me.

 

A blank screen is a blank screen is a blank screen – no matter how powerful or state-of-the-art the computer. And for me, plot snags are still best solved by a walk with my dogs (no tech experience required!).

 

So if you want to write, save the money for some good brain food – a trip to Florence, for instance, or some new books, or plants for your garden. Write your book with whatever you have at hand, do your best, and later treat yourself to a new computer. The wonderful upside of this is that later on you’ll know that you can write a book with anything, on anything – no magic pen or special props needed – and that’s a fab feeling!

 

Carina x