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On November 2 (in the endless year of our lord 2020) I launched a writing sprint group on Zoom.
It was a bit of a marketing thing, a tie-in with NaNoWriMo and a goodwill builder for Pages & Platforms (where we offer content to help writers write a better story and build a marketing platform).
It went well so we kept going.
And now it's just an ongoing thing that I do every day at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time: get up, deploy my green screen, brush my pandemic-length hair, open the Zoom meeting, and write quietly with about 15-20 other writers from as far afield as New Zealand and Ireland.
In the process I've made great strides on the current novel (working title The Footman) and have taken a technological step backward to the AlphaSmart.
It's a mechanical keyboard with a 4-line LCD screen and a tiny memory. No wifi, no internet, no apps, no backlight, no color. No distractions. No temptation to scroll around and edit yourself. It's too much trouble.
It runs on three AA batteries. When you want to save what you've typed, there's an old-fashioned USB cable that connects to a real computer.
The beauty of this $50-on-eBay, refurbished typing device from the early Aughts is that that is all you can do with it. So that's what you do.
Plus it's built like a tank. I can throw it in my bike basket and take it to the café (when those days come again), and I don't need a power outlet or wifi or anything. The memory is persistent, and big enough for text.
Also, hello everyone. And if you'd like to join the sprint group, you can sign up here.
It was a bit of a marketing thing, a tie-in with NaNoWriMo and a goodwill builder for Pages & Platforms (where we offer content to help writers write a better story and build a marketing platform).
It went well so we kept going.
And now it's just an ongoing thing that I do every day at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time: get up, deploy my green screen, brush my pandemic-length hair, open the Zoom meeting, and write quietly with about 15-20 other writers from as far afield as New Zealand and Ireland.
In the process I've made great strides on the current novel (working title The Footman) and have taken a technological step backward to the AlphaSmart.
It's a mechanical keyboard with a 4-line LCD screen and a tiny memory. No wifi, no internet, no apps, no backlight, no color. No distractions. No temptation to scroll around and edit yourself. It's too much trouble.
It runs on three AA batteries. When you want to save what you've typed, there's an old-fashioned USB cable that connects to a real computer.
The beauty of this $50-on-eBay, refurbished typing device from the early Aughts is that that is all you can do with it. So that's what you do.
Plus it's built like a tank. I can throw it in my bike basket and take it to the café (when those days come again), and I don't need a power outlet or wifi or anything. The memory is persistent, and big enough for text.
Also, hello everyone. And if you'd like to join the sprint group, you can sign up here.
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