… of the play that is.
Have had two fabulous writing days. Sitting on the deck with my laptop, stopping to take the kids to a pool for a swim and then getting back into it again a few hours later. I’ve broken the back of this draft of Rosie Little – in fact more than breaking the back, I’ve actually reached the end but the end isn’t right yet. There’s such a huge sense of relief.
Went to Avid Reader, my favourite bookstore, to pick up a Moleskin diary for 2009. Had been dreaming of an iPhone but Santa didn’t bring me one, so am settling for the best in the paper and pen line of things. Will now write in the dates the next drafts are due, without feeling so nervous about meeting them. Also bought a new book (very naughty when there’s such a pile of unread books by my bed) on Krissy’s recommendation – Someday this pain will be useful to you. Will let you know what it’s like once I get started on it.
Am thinking of taking a day off tomorrow (maybe half a day) to go out with my sister and my mother and do some dress shopping and coffee and cakes. It’s the sort of thing Rosie Little would do, so I can call it research!
Thunder’s rumbling overhead and the storm is finally breaking. Things are moving here and it feels good.
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There’s nothing like a new writing journal. The blank pages, the weight of it…. I love my laptop but I’ll never be able to create with it. I need good old pen and paper.
Hi Katherine
I’ve been enjoying using the Moleskine notebooks as journals for some years – love the feel of the paper and also like to take a break from computer screen time.
As far as precious memories go: the journal with hand-written entries is much more likely to be easily readable and accessible, without need for regular expensive upgrades of memory sticks etc in, say, 20 years time. Assuming you’ll keep both journal and computer in your home for most of the time, there’s also less chance of a stranger ‘hacking’ the contents of what you have written about your uncle before you’re ready to release them in your own format.
It could be worth having a record of how your own handwriting compares to that of your uncle -a bit of family history that is rarely made, and you now have that chance.
cheers
Tim
Thanks for these replies. You’re quite right about the permanence of paper. I already have ‘lost’ files because they were saved on floppy discs. Not that they matter – there was nothing terribly important on them – but I’m very aware that technology changes so quickly and what seems a secure backup today might by unreadable in a decade.
The only thing with writing by hand is that my handwriting borders on illegible and it takes me much longer to write a sentence on paper than to type it. I might print out what I do and keep a record that way. Perhaps with handwritten notes scrawled in the margins to give a record of my spidery scrawl.
Thanks again for the food for thought.
Katherine