In Praise of Keys, Screens and Autosave

Writers, Sit Your Ass Down and Work

I write on the internet. I text, I message and I email. I jot down ideas and things to remember in apps. My words are organized, clear and readily searchable for use at any time.

I don’t even make my grocery shopping list on paper. You know why? I always have my phone nearby and can quickly update my note, never worry about losing or leaving it when the time comes to shop. AND my wife can also update it because we share the note (from SPACE! by way of technology). She can actually let me know — down to the moment before I check out — whatever it is she needs and never have to worry if I will remember her yogurt and coffees (it’s always yogurt and coffees). Progress!

I once professed my feelings to a girl in high school by handwriting her a love letter. I folded the pages with care, slid them into an envelope, sealed it, wrote her name in calligraphy on the front and slipped it into her locker. She found it months later and the feelings were not mutual.

Because notes, scribbles and journals are meant to be written then tossed, lost, water or fire damaged, or just collect dust for eternity in an attic. Never to be seen by most people. The good stuff will always make it “to print.”

My first plays were written on an iMac. I can tell you with certainty they would never have reached the stage without the ease of the keyboard. I owe my continued life as a writer to never having had to scratch out words in a fever pitch when the inspiration struck. Then pray I could make sense of my hieroglyphics later.

I think (or hear the muse) much faster than I could ever keep up with if it were not for the glorious flow of typing. The keyboard allows for my creative sparks to catch flame and be etched in digital scorch marks. Then reworked and edited with the ease of Select, Copy, Paste and/or Delete.

“Digital” refers to “data expressed by the digits 0 and 1,” but also “relating to finger(s).”

Let’s get real: the greatest novel written out by hand will look more like manifesto than manuscript. Writers are already characterized as having our heads in the clouds. Now we can just as easily have our words in the cloud. Hallelujah, thee almighty, Autosave.

Maybe you are the pillar of confidence and a bastion of cool. Good for you, Hemingway. For the rest of us, we probably don’t need any added time to let the crippling self-doubt fester or any longer to second-guess ourselves.

Yes, there’s absolutely something to be said for the romanticized ideal of things you can touch, feel and manipulate as you create.

I could just as easily wax flowery prose about the tactile feel I get as I let the words pulse through my fingertips and stroke the keys in rhythm. Along with the added comfort in knowing I am mere steps away from sharing my thoughts with the world at large when fully realized.

Never have I stared at a screen and thought — “What the fuck did I type here?” or “Is that an A, looks like a Q?” or “I had to scribble in the rest superscript at the bottom because I ran out of room.”

Then, when the dystopian apocalypse comes and aliens wipe out power and internet with electromagnetic pulses and descend like warriors, I guess grab any paper and whatever pen you can. After all, it is mightier than the sword.

More about writing:

A Meditation for Writers | Hey From Your Writer Friend | A life in timeline.