Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Technology: your best friend and your worst enemy

Tip of the Day: for all of you social networking fans, there's a newer site called Riffle that Publisher's Weekly has called "the Pinterest of book discovery." Tara Lazar did a good summary post about it here.

This weekend my power was out for almost a full four days, thanks to the storms that passed through the area. Luckily, I already had an extended weekend trip planned, so I missed most of it and it didn't effect me much. But the one day I was home, it was a good reminder of how dependent I am on electricity.

So much so that's it's slightly frightening.Without my iPhone I might have gone crazy with no access to the Internet or email.

Every time we experience a blackout I can't help but think of the book Life As We Know It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, partially because while reading the post apocalyptic book we ironically suffered a blackout in my town and the last half was read using a flashlight in the pitch dark. Every time this happens my mind starts to wonder what life would be like if we were faced with these conditions or at the very least we had no power for an extended period of time.

If I had no power, I have no clue how I could continue writing my novels.

I don't think I could write long hand. I've heard many people speak of the wonders of writing this way, but it isn't for me. I despise writing anything of length with a pen or pencil. Mostly because after two sentences my hand feels like it will fall off. Though typing with the same hand does not effect me that way.

So I suppose if I was without power, I'd have to find an old typewriter. Or I guess maybe just resort to composing stories in my head and be content with sharing those instead of writing them down.

What about you? If you were without power for an extended time, do you think you'd still need to write in some capacity?

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

3 comments:

Kate Fall said...

OMG, I can't believe you were able to finish reading that book in a blackout. I had to read it in the summer, checking the contents of my fridge every few minutes.

I don't mind writing longhand. I've developed my own shorthand. That helps. It comes in handy when I'm stuck somewhere with the kids.

Jennifer R. Hubbard said...

I much prefer to type on a computer, but I have composed in longhand and could do it again if that were the only option. In fact, on my annual retreats, I often write in longhand all week.

Emily Marshall said...

Kate--it was actually a cool way to experience the book. The scenes completely came to life!

And I'm jealous both of you can write longhand. I just don't like it. Maybe shortening it up would help, but then I'd have to remember what I was trying to say.