There are few things that can bring a true writer down. A writer can write even when he or she doesn’t feel like it. A writer writes even when more questions are written then answers. A writer writes because that’s what writers do. That being said, I think I’ve encountered an issue to bring my word count to a trickle.
My computer is dying.
Harvey, my name for my laptop, has been a trusty workhorse for more than six years. From coffee shops to conventions, Harvey has been a companion to which I’ve spent countless hours. I’ve stayed up late into the night to help him through a few viruses. Updated him in timely matters. Kept him safe inside a nicely padded bag. When his battery finally gave out, I stuck by him and a close by outlet. And when the cord started to expose the wiring, I diligently taped it up.
Alas, now I can hear the death rattle in his spinning hard disk, drastically undersized compared to today’s standards. There were days when I had to wake him three or four times before he started to function at just a shadow of his former glory. His stop-stutter response to each keystroke or lagging cursor desperately trying to keep up with my tracing finger are signs I can no longer ignore. I must close Harvey’s screen for a final time.
He will be missed for there is no way I can replace him. At least not currently. Of my three stations I work between, he took the brunt of my creative time. The home computer offers little in the way of a quiet enough setting and I exercise stealth when writing at work, but neither offered me the mobility of network capability as Harvey. So how will I carry on?
I will be forced to drag out the ancient relics of pen and paper.
That’s right. Do today’s kids even know how to use these or what they were for? Well, my plan for the time being will be to write things longhand, and when the opportunity strikes, I’ll manually transfer it to the more well-known digital format. Sure, it’ll slow things down, but let’s look for that silver lining.
I can still write. Being I’m a writer and that’s what writers do, that’s a good thing. Two, while I’m typing it up, I get a chance to edit it. Almost like a second first draft. At this point I’m not fully in edit made, but glaring errors are hard to miss.
So I will soldier on. Maybe one day there will be a laptop to fill the void Harvey has left. It won’t be soon. (Unless anyone knows of some really good deals. *ahem*) Until then, I will write when I can, and what matters most to me. And to Harvey I offer a three key solute.
[Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del]