Here's another thought. Woody Allen froze in time
his system that worked fifty years ago, and it is still working for him now. So
why couldn't any writer do the same. Like figure out a system that works to
keep track of everything using a laptop, and in fifty years, when everyone else
is writing stories and transmitting them from the embedded computer chip in
their head to others' embedded computer chips, I could still be tapping away on
my fifty year old Mac.
That's flawed. I'm pretty sure in fifty more years
Woody Allen will still be able to put his hands on paper, pen, and staplers,
I'm not so sure about being able to use the same laptop for fifty years. Laptops die, software becomes unavailable, does not work with newer laptops, etc. Of course
it would take exponential advances in medical science for either one of us to
be doing anything at all in fifty years, but you get the point. And one can always hope.
For Woody, there's the typewriter ribbons, and
unless he makes photocopies of every revision, there is no record of what went
before. For me as a writer now, there's the fact that technology is evolving at
an exponential rate and what I'm doing now may not be an option in ten years,
let alone fifty. Anything can become an anachronism given enough time, I guess.
Were tiny staplers invented when Mark Twain was writing. How far back do paper
and pens go? Would it be most wise to go back to scrawling with charcoal on
slate tablets? One must use what one has at one's disposal and remain open to
change if necessary. For Woody it has not been necessary, for me it might be.
There, that's decided, stick with the laptop...for now.
More later.
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