Wednesday 27 August 2014

Technological disaster strikes

Excuses for not writing #5 (this time it's a really big one)

OK, that's it. My laptop is breathing its last. It stays on as long as I don't touch it, fails to charge the battery, has lost all wifi capability. Some of this may be fixable by a shop, but it would take a while and I have to consider the fact that the software is archaic, I've nearly worn holes through the keys and it's been over-heating badly enough to burn me. I was hoping it would last until Christmas when I would replace it between books (with help from my well-wishers) but it's not to be. Now I just need a solution of some kind before my big writing session in September. I think I may also need to cry for a bit, because that old laptop has been round the world with me. Losing it is like getting an amputation.

....

Okay, mourning session over. Now, what should I do? Should I spend the money I'd carefully saved for an editor... Or the money I set aside for research on the next book? The money I was hoping to use to go halves with my daughter in a nice big artist-ready desktop that actually meets her needs better than mine? Yeah, I know, decisions...

I don't really want to do any of those things so I need to look at solutions using technology I've got. Namely, the iPad Mini on which I've painstakingly typed this. Could it really work?

  • Dropbox? - check (free)
  • Storyist? - £6.99 GBP - I'm really sorry Scrivener, it's been great working with you but what can I do? Now I have Storyist and Dropbox talking to each other, but I need to export my Scrivener file as an rtf, before the laptop really truly dies. I have a feeling it's going to take me a while to get used to Storyist but I have no choice.
  • Keyboard for iPad mini - £69.95 (gulp) At least I like the way it works. Actually I like it a lot. It was a lot easier to finish this post anyway.

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