tools

Posts Tagged ‘tools

Jan

Categories: Working Conditions
Tags: keyboard, tools

You’d think I’d learn. Maybe I will, eventually. But I keep cheaping out on the tools of my trade, and it always turns around and bites me.

Some of you may have seen pics of the Incredible Deteriorating Keyboard (TM) over on Twitter; that was the most recent result of cheaping out, because I didn’t want to have to spend $300 on a keyboard. Instead I paid $150 and got a piece of crap that in less than six months was almost unusable.

Now I’m on the Apple Magic Keyboard, and all I can say is “Wow.” From setup to usage, it’s delightfully quick, responsive and seems sturdy enough. It has now been plastered with Supernatural stickers, as most of my belongings are, but I think it’s going to take pride of place for quite some time.

If any of you out there are looking at tools you need for your creative endeavors, I strongly urge to you spend a little extra for the good stuff, because trust me, every time I go a little less expensive, I end up spending more in the end because I have to repair or replace them.

All that aside, the Apple Magic Keyboard is awesome, and I really recommend it for anyone with an iPad. It’s pure sorcery, I think.

Apr

Tools

By Kaine Andrews Leave a Comment

Categories: Working Conditions
Tags: tools, writing, writing methods

There is always a need for tools to get a job done. No matter the job, like Apple’s app store, “there’s a tool for that!”

But how much of the work is the tool responsible for? Specifically in a creative endeavor. Does it matter if you’re working with a scrap of paper and a Bic pen, or a Pixar-level Mac Pro or something in between, or can the same work be done with anything?

I’m inclined to believe the former. To some extent, the tools inform the work. The method by which something is done seems like the sort of thing that would bleed in, like a lot of external stimuli. Or maybe that’s just me. But I don’t think so.

George R. R. Martin insists in hacking away on a decrepit copy of WordStar – though I don’t know if he uses the truly relic-worthy Commodore 64 version – and Stephen King claims to have written Dreamcatcher on “one of the finest writing tools,” a Waterman fountain pen. George’s work – to me, at least – frequently feels reptilian, neolithic, a relic of an older era where the lizard brain and the id were in charge. Dreamcatcher was long, pretty and frequently, pretentious. But that’s just my opinion.

I can see it in my own work; if something was written longhand, it tends to be quick and terse. Probably because it hurts like hell to hold a pen for any length of time, and my handwriting is almost illegible after twenty minutes or so. If I take to the tablet, I’m liable to be fairly wordy, but stick to short words and avoid made up ones. Fighting with cursor positioning and Siri being overly insistent with the autocorrect just isn’t my idea of a good time. Move to the desktop? My full vocabulary might is unleashed… much to some folks’ dismay, I’m sure.

What about you folks out there? Do your tools change the final work, or do you think it’s all hogwash? Let us know down below!

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