Many thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh and all of the awesome people who make the IWSG website, facebook, twitter, and hop run smoothly each month!
The co-hosts today are Joylene Novell Butler, Jen Chandler, Mary Aalgaard, Lisa Buie Collard, Tamara Narayan, and Christine Rains!
November's Question: What is your favourite aspect of being a writer?
My Answer:
Traveling to distant lands of imaginary landscapes with new characters in new situations is my favorite part, especially when it feels like it's all flowing onto the page right!
Traveling to distant lands of imaginary landscapes with new characters in new situations is my favorite part, especially when it feels like it's all flowing onto the page right!
Now, the next day when I look back at it and it looks like gobbledygook, that's no fun.
But traveling to distant lands of imagination is awesome!
Now, please welcome, Jeff Chapman, an amazing novelist and short story writer, who has 5 Reasons to Write on his iPad.
5 Reasons to Write is an ongoing series, separate from IWSG
Now, please welcome, Jeff Chapman, an amazing novelist and short story writer, who has 5 Reasons to Write on his iPad.
5 Reasons to Write is an ongoing series, separate from IWSG
Jeff Chapman's
5 reasons to write on your iPad
I used to write all of my first drafts by hand with pen in a notebook. I'd cross out words and phrases and then I'd scrawl replacements in the margins with arrows or circled numbers to keep track of what went where. Later, I would attempt to decipher the gobbledygook. Typing the manuscript took a very, very long time. I couldn't always read what I had written. I needed to do something to increase productivity, but composing a first draft at the keyboard doesn't work for me. I like to write curled up on the couch with a cat purring on my lap. Enter the iPad and the Hanx Writer app.
1) The iPad is portable. I can carry it with me everywhere, which means I can write whenever I have the time.
2) I am not tied to a desk or table. I can write lying flat on my back in bed or sitting on the couch or sitting on the beach.
3) I love the typewriter sounds. I use Hanx Writer as my text editor. There is a free version, but an upgrade is necessary to get multiple documents. The keyboard look and sound effects mimic a manual typewriter. I love the clickety, clickety, clack, and there's a clunk when you touch the shift key. Maybe the noise gives me the sense of working hard. Writing is for the most part a silent endeavor.
4) I can read what I've written. Putting the first draft into a story editor is now just a matter of copy and paste from a pdf. I email the current draft to myself as a pdf at least once a day. This also gives me a backup copy on an email server.
5) Just like a typewriter, I have complete control over the text and layout. There's no auto correct or capitalization going on. It's a first draft, who needs fancy formatting?
Jeff Chapman writes software by day and speculative fiction when he should be sleeping. Fueled by dark hot chocolate, his imagination churns out dark, creepy, comic fiction ranging from fairy tales to fantasy to horror and ghost stories. His latest tale "The Flaming Emerald" appears in Ghosts of Fire. Check out Jeff's website at www.jeffchapmanbooks.com/.
Writers - do you write with an iPad or portable screen like Jeff?
What's your favorite aspect of writing?
(And, do you spell favorite the American way or the British way?)
BTW - all of my Trick-or-Treat reads are still free until this coming weekend.
