For me, though, longhand as in pen-and-paper is still a more direct expression of my mind. . . Later in the process, it's hugely valuable to have the words on screen looking separate and pristine and like someone else's, but not at the beginning.

I feel the same way. That's a good point, about the words on screen looking 'separate and pristine and like someone else's' -- whenever I type something on the computer I feel the text looks so finished and polished that it puts great pressure on me to write something that's already finished and polished. It kills the imagination.

The only unpleasant thing about living in a sea of notebooks and notepapers is, well, living in a sea of notebooks and notepapers. I get a sneezing fit whenever I try to fish out a particular passage. At least computers aren't messy!

At least computers aren't messy!

until you fall over one of the fifteen cables and kick the off switch and when you turn it on again it says rude things about not having shut down properly at you. And don't get me started on that awful sticky black glaze that breeds on every nearby surface.

Emma

And don't get me started on that awful sticky black glaze that breeds on every nearby surface.

That's a new one on me.

It's mostly round the ioniser. If it wasn't there, I guess it would be floating around in the air to breathe in

I've a pretty good idea what's inside a PC, having built my own server a year or so ago, and I can't begin to imagine what that might be from. I suppose it could be something evaporating off the CPU (which gets hot even with the fan), or off something else hot. Or maybe your coffee is too strong

If it's around the ioniser, that suggests it's electrically charged (swapping my IT hat for my physicist's one). I suppose it could be dust kicked out by one of the fans inside the PC. They are made from plastic, so would tend to build up a static charge.


Alex

I does look like a concentration of what's in the air anyway (diesel particulates?). You'd probably get some even if it was nowhere near the computer. Things like the CRT screens used to build up quite a lot of static, plus the air movement from the fans maybe moves dust around more than usual.
Emma

That sounds quite feasible, Emma. The ioniser itself could be responsible for creating the electrical charge that does it. Do you have an ioniser anywhere other than where your PC is? If so, does it have a similar black glaze around it?


Alex

I haven't, but I've know offices that did. I once worked in Covent Garden, in a nice old building that looked out onto the portico of St Paul's, and it was the grubbiest place you can imagine. The wall behind the ioniser was absolutely black even though there wasn't a computer in the place - those were the days!

Emma

That suggests it is the ioniser, rather than the PC. I think you're probably also right about it being diesel particulates. A major component of those will be carbon (soot). The ioniser is probably ionising soot particles, which then attach themselves to the nearest surface that is either non-ionised or charged in the opposite way.

If we've correctly diagnosed this particular mystery, you are probably also correct about this being stuff you would otherwise breathe in. I would be interested if any other WWers who don't live in a big city have noticed this kind of dirty deposit near an ioniser.


Alex

Yes, I think it is, though everything else round the PC is pretty grubby too, I imagine for the same hot-air-rising reason as you can get a shadow of grime on the wall upwards from a radiator, unless it has a shelf.

Emma

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_misssnark_archive.html#113638317323925530

Thought you might be interested in an agent's perspective on The Sunday Times 'experiment'.

Myrtle

A very interesting line in that blog:

They sent this to ten agents. I'm going to guess, cause I don't know who they sent it to, that they chose well known ones. Yup, the very folks LEAST likely to take on "aspiring writers"...

Hell, if we'd known that a year ago then collectively, we could have saved enough to buy a small elephant.

Colin M

could have saved enough to buy a small elephant

I didn't know they could be bribed, much less that they were an alternative to an agent

Alex

I love elephants - much more fun than an agent. I believe they're exempt from the congestion charge, too, so that would be handy.

But I'm not sure the established=not interested-in-new-writers equation is always as simple as that, so there's no need to despair. My agent is very established, and I'm one of three 'debut' writers she has coming out in 2006, and she had three last year as well.

Emma

I think I've watched too many Looney Tunes cartoons. I've now got an image in my head of "my" elephant with its trunk wrapped firmly around an editor's chest, and the editor saying, "Okay, okay, I'll read your client's manuscript!"

Alex