Writers who don’t use modern technology
From Mashable
For most writers, a laptop is an essential tool, providing a space to create and save their masterpieces.
But over the years, a number of famous faces have admitted they don’t like using modern technology to pen their various novels, short stories and scripts.
Danielle Steel, who is currently the bestselling author alive, has written more than 100 books — all on her trusty 1946 Olympia manual typewriter. George R. R. Martin, writer of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire (adapted into the wildly popular HBO show Game of Thrones), types his stories on an old DOS machine. And Madman director Quentin Tarantino prefers to write all of his scripts by hand.
Some may call it romantic, others may call it inefficient, but one thing’s for sure — these [6] writers just don’t love using modern tech, and it doesn’t seem to have held them back.
- Quentin Tarantino
The famed director, who writes his own screenplays, pens his masterpieces with actual pens.
“My ritual is, I never use a typewriter or computer. I just write it all by hand. It’s a ceremony. I go to a stationery store and buy a notebook — and I don’t buy like 10. I just buy one and then fill it up. Then I buy a bunch of red felt pens and a bunch of black ones, and I’m like, ‘These are the pens I’m going to write Grindhouse with,'” he said in an interview with Reuters.
- George R. R. Martin
Game of Thrones fans might not know why it takes George R. R. Martin so long to write his books, but maybe this fact will help: He writes everything on an old word processor.
The famed sci-fi writer shared the tidbit in a 2011 post on his LiveJournal account.
“Yes, I have been using a computer for 20 years now, but while I cruise this interwebby thing with a PC and Windows, I still do all my writing on an old DOS machine running WordStar 4.0, the Duesenberg of word processing software (very old, but unsurpassed),” he writes.
- Joyce Carol Oates
The prolific author of books such as Blonde and them, Oates prefers to write everything by longhand, for up to eight hours a day.
In an interview with Salon, she said of her process: “Why is this so unusual? Every writer has written ‘by hand’ until relatively recent times. Writing is a consequence of thinking, planning, dreaming — this is the process that results in ‘writing,’ rather than the way in which the writing is recorded.”
- Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is a sci-fi jack of all trades. Though he writes screenplays on a computer, he prefers to write his novels by hand.
“For novels, I like the whole first and second draft feeling, and the act of making paper dirty,” he said in an interview with TimeOut.
- Amy Tan
Author Amy Tan prefers to write early drafts of her work longhand. She eventually types everything up on a computer, but loves the act of physical writing.
“Writing by hand helps me remain open to all those particular circumstances, all those little details that add up to the truth,” she said in an interview with The Atlantic.
- Danielle Steel
The illustrious romance novelist, currently the bestselling author alive, has one mainstay she uses to type up her more than 100 books.
An interview with the Roanoke Times revealed Steel writes all her books on a 1946 Olympia manual typewriter, during a 20-hour writing shift.
“There are people who show up nicely dressed, they work from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I can’t do that,” she says. “Sometimes I don’t leave my house for two or three weeks.”
PHOTO CREDITS:
IMAGE: FLICKR, NILS SAUTTER
IMAGE: FLICKR, GAGE SKIDMORE
IMAGE: FLICKR, SPOKANE FOCUS
MAGE: FLICKR, DTD72
IMAGE: FLICKR, DAVID SIFRY
IMAGE: BRIGITTE LACOMBE/PRNEWSFOTO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
For more on this story and to see the names of the other 4 writers are go to:
