Are you completely paperless?

[SimonDoom]

Not in all things, such as my day job, for example, but for writing fiction, yes. I take no hand notes and write on a desktop computer using MS Word. I can't recall ever having printed out one of my stories. But then, I would not want one of my stories to lie around and get inadvertently seen by someone.

 

[Bramblethorn]

For fiction, I've been paperless for decades, and my day jobs have gone that way too. When I started editing about fifteen years ago, the publishers used to courier me a box of proofs; these days it's all e-copy. I still have drawers full of the proofs as scrap paper but I'm using less and less of it.

 

[GinnyPPC]

My fiction is fully paperless.

In my professional life, I do have a stack of scratch paper ready for notes. Just old papers, often from my kids old school workpapers, that are no longer needed cut into quarters. I find jotting down notes with pencil and paper locks the concept or issue into my brain better than a digital note.

 

[PennameWombat]

In my professional life I use Excel (boo! hiss!) regularly. I keep a notepad handy to jot down reminders around datasets, especially new ones. Mainly this is because many of the datasets are large and complex and Excel can be painfully slow. (And, don't bother telling me there are better ways, I know R, I know SQL, I know Python, etc etc etc. I use what I have or more importantly what the people who receive my work expect.)

I also jot down notes during conference calls.

For fiction or long-form writing for work, my handwriting has always been abysmal. I've always printed. But the thought of doing a first draft by hand so revolts me that I would just... not write. I just cannot understand the mindset of any writer who swears by this. Sorry. You do you, but I'll never be able to come to terms with your thinking on it.

I will, now and then, jot notes or if a spectacular sentence pops into my head and I've no choice, I'll write it on paper. But usually I'll pull out my mobile phone and text it to myself. Even in high school, once I received my own typewriter as a christmas present, I even started doing many of my first drafts of essays on it. But now, I don't even print out to edit.

 

[gordo12]

But the thought of doing a first draft by hand so revolts me that I would just... not write. I just cannot understand the mindset of any writer who swears by this. Sorry. You do you, but I'll never be able to come to terms with your thinking on it.

One of the Meetup writing groups I belong to has (pre-covid) pics up. At one table of nine, 3 people are writing on paper. In another, also with nine, 4 are writing on paper. Interestingly, they're all younger like their 20's. It blows my mind. But then I find writing on a phone equally mindboggling.

 

[KeithD]

I was writing (and editing for publishers) full novels and nonfiction books before computers were readily available and in use in publishing, and I'd never, ever, want to go back to that.

 

[DarkWhispers2U]

No paper now. Write in Google Docs. Notes are 99 percent in my head.

I stopped taking notes on paper when I realized that I had completely derailed my outline/notes that took ages to write out and had no intention of going back. My brain moves faster and can find new possibilities more often than my handwritten efforts can keep up.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Notes are taken in an app on my phone - I have files saving notes and also drafts of internet posts. Writing and initial edits happen in docs on the same phone app.

Work and mainstream novels, I still like to print stuff if over 10 pages. The filth stays firmly digital, but gets a final edit on the PC where it's easier to move sections around and make comparisons between different parts of the document.

I try to reduce paper - only financial records on paper should be the monthly credit card bill and 6-monthly water bill, but still seem to have masses of the stuff turning up.

 

[ElectricBlue]

But then, I would not want one of my stories to lie around and get inadvertently seen by someone.

I dunno. Hucow Mamas at the Water Cooler has a certain ring to it. Pin it up on the noticeboard, you'll be fine.

 

[DCO_65]

Notes are taken in an app on my phone - I have files saving notes and also drafts of internet posts. Writing and initial edits happen in docs on the same phone app.

Work and mainstream novels, I still like to print stuff if over 10 pages. The filth stays firmly digital, but gets a final edit on the PC where it's easier to move sections around and make comparisons between different parts of the document.

I try to reduce paper - only financial records on paper should be the monthly credit card bill and 6-monthly water bill, but still seem to have masses of the stuff turning up.

The digital world is incredibly interdependent, and where I live infrastructure is not redundant. When those with the nominal task of providing things fail to do so it all goes dark. For us it did so five seasons ago, starting with intermittent power outages and rolling blackouts due to a lack of staff at the beginning of the pandemic.

Our company had to step up and provide services to our local community that heretofore had been provided by those elected or appointed to do so. But operating as we had previously-- dependent on technology-- was simply not a viable economic option.

When the macro-power-grid shuts down all these modern devices go dark. Our corporate operations center today is four walls of multiple four foot tall and eight foot wide whiteboards and tape. Everything, crew assignments, inbound and outbound movements, equipment status, fuel, payroll, security issues, is grease pencil on plastic sheets. "Welcome to the twenty-first."

 

[HectorBidon]

Paper and pencil are still pretty much essential for doing mathematics. Equations can be typeset, but it's a painstaking process best reserved for the finished product. Particular calculations can be specified using a mathematical language like Fortran or Matlab. But for brainstorming, fiddling around, doing algebra and calculus, trying to understand what's going on, I still use paper and pencil.

Of course, not that much calculus usually ends up in my stories. A little bit, but not that much,

 

[DCO_65]

Of course, not that much calculus usually ends up in my stories. A little bit, but not that much,

An idea:

(Diane*Frank/Diane*Tony)=Lydia*(Frank((Tina*Harry)-Fiona(Tina))/Hank)

Solve for xXx... Sounds like fun!

 

[MillieDynamite]

my father has paper backups of almost everything he has ever published. Plus, of course, the printed books. I have neither. I keep my work in two online sources available from almost anywhere in the world, Box & DropBox, and on the hard drive my desktop.

Pop always prints out his end product, puts in a three ring binder, and files in cabinets. His garage is filled with filling cabinets. He was lucky when he first moved out of the place I grew up, in that he moved the filling cabinets to my place. Our old place was broken into, and much of contents were stolen prior to him turning into rental property and then selling it.

Recently, after buying a new place, he moved them to his new home in the garage.

 

[DCO_65]

Recently, after buying a new place, he moved them to his new home in the garage.

Why does your father live in the garage?




(My dad said, "better a smart ass than a dumb ass.")

 

[jaF0]

While wandering around Lowes today, I was thinking how much easier it would be to have my list on a scrap of paper I could shove in any pocket, than to keep track of a cell phone.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Why does your father live in the garage?




(My dad said, "better a smart ass than a dumb ass.")

Because my mum lives in the rest of the house! Also being a smarty.

 

[yowser]

The flip side of the 'paperless' scene is going to come when historians and biographers have to sift through terabytes of digital native data - correspondence, writings, diaries - when it comes time to do the work necessary to chronicle a life, era or event.

I say 'is going to come' when it is already here. The good news is that no one will need to try to read your handwriting, the bad news is that they will know exactly what you said (or at least typed.)

And of course, for all of you (not saying it might ever happen) the business of getting past passwords and encryption on your thumb drives and the hard disks hidden under your mattress holding your 'best stuff' is going to be a bit of a hurdle.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The flip side of the 'paperless' scene is going to come when historians and biographers have to sift through terabytes of digital native data - correspondence, writings, diaries - when it comes time to do the work necessary to chronicle a life, era or event.

I say 'is going to come' when it is already here. The good news is that no one will need to try to read your handwriting, the bad news is that they will know exactly what you said (or at least typed.)

And of course, for all of you (not saying it might ever happen) the business of getting past passwords and encryption on your thumb drives and the hard disks hidden under your mattress holding your 'best stuff' is going to be a bit of a hurdle.

It's already here, and a nightmare for future historians because there are so many obsolete formats already, and broken down hardware. Movie and sound recording has been the front end of the problem for decades and there are vast archives of Apollo era content that's unreadable. Just a few examples.

And if the lights ever go out, the digital era becomes a massive gap in humanity's timeline, like the burning of historical libraries.

The good news, however, is that you'll still be able to play vinyl records; cue Voyagers One and Two, with a golden record on the side and a good cartridge to play it with, in a box bolted on .