I’m currently writing this on my phone. I’m away for the weekend but I still need to write. So I put the MS Word app on my phone (which is pretty bad, but I’m still able to get words written on it) and I’ve been able get a little work done each day.
Even after this trip I’ll keep the app on my phone. Who knows when I might be able to make use of a few minutes. My break at work? The doctor’s waiting room? In the middle of a conversation with a really boring person?
One aspect of writing that I have always struggled with is the ability to stop and start. I like to write whole pieces. A whole blog, a whole chapter, a complete piece at a time. This is of course a luxury when you are not a full time writer, you need to write when you have the time and you don’t get to dictate when that will be.
I find it really hard to come back to something that’s half done, I find myself reading the whole thing – sometimes several chapters previous as well – in order to “find my groove.”
This is something that only practice and discipline can remedy. Until such time as I get to dictate to the world how things are going to be, I have to work inside the parameters given to me, and since my godlike powers were lost in the mail it could be sometime until I get to tell the world how it’s going to be.
Just like typing speed, grammar, vocabulary, and style are all things a writer needs in their toolbox, so is the ability to quickly start and stop projects. The writer who only writes when they can finish a full chapter is just as productive as the writer who waits for the muse to come and tap them on the shoulder – not productive at all.
While tapping this into my phone on a bumpy road is not even half as quick as I could type it out at my desk, it’s also time otherwise wasted that I’m making use of.