SOGOTP
It’s almost Christmas 2009. I’m in Chester (England) and the snow which has brought most of the country to a pathetic standstill has finally arrived here. It’s falling with conviction; thick and straight down, big, heavy flakes. Since August I’ve been writing with conviction; in January I decided that I would either make a serious attempt to finish Get Well Soon or abandon it entirely. The expression Shit or get off the pot seemed appropriate, and I decided to shit.
Announcing my intentions to friends and family guaranteed humiliation if I didn’t produce something. It also brought me a lot of support, mostly along the lines of “Get on with it, I want to read it.”
Some canny investments followed. A five year old 12” PowerBook that I could cart around easily, but which has a full-size keyboard almost identical to that of the 17” I use at home. The 17’s far too big and heavy to transport easily, while the 12 is just right and has three hours’ battery life. It was mint when I bought it…after two days in my care it had a big dent in the lid. I could spout about the narrative of objects but really - I put a big dent in the lid.
Just add Scrivener. It’s a phenomenal piece of writing software, especially suited to long form work; a book, dissertation, screenplay etc. Structuring, re-arranging, editing, and finding that one particular little bit that’s been nagging at you are incredibly easy using a straightforward menu system. As I have massively reduced manual function, I can’t shuffle hard copy or Post-It notes around, deal with a stack of reference material or map out who was where when; Scrivener lets me perform similar actions within one package. Its full screen mode is also great for single-page pieces - it’s just the text and a slider, no distractions. I use it to write film reviews for Screenjabber and stand-alone work for The Nervous Breakdown.
It’s Christmas day 2009 now and most of the snow’s melted. I’ve just finished a complete re-write of one of the first bits of Get Well Soon I produced, back in 2004; with a little background it works as a short story. Ladies and gentlemen, for your entertainment: October 15th 2003, the worst night of my life.
