This first appeared on The Writing of a Wisoker on the Loose in September 2011.
A strange thought occurred to me as I sat on the train home from work — anyone sitting there with a laptop could be writing the next great book, magazine article, or script. There, typing away as the train lurches on, they could be crafting our literary future.
There are writers everywhere.
Now, look at Tablets. I see more and more of them in use all the time — usually, but not always, iPads. In my limited experience, I find them harder to compose on, but there they are in use, and most assuredly some people are using them to write.
Writers all over, creating on slabs of silicon.
I realized a few things, as I thought about just how many people have devices that let them write anywhere:
1) The ability to write anywhere on anything is a massive competitive advantage. If you can write on a train or in a cafe, if you can write on a tablet as well as a laptop or PC, you can write more. If you can write more you can get more done. Even if you’re a bad writer, you’ll get more practice and improve faster.
2) More people can become writers because they have more and more technology to compose, edit, and even publish on. I wonder how many people, browsing the Kindle or iBookstore, have thought, “hey, I could write, and wait, I could write on THIS…”
3) Publishers are going to figure this out. Imagine the power you’d have if there were apps for Lulu, Smashwords, CreateSpace, etc. on Tablets. You know some e-publishers have thought about how they can speed up delivery of content…
Writers everywhere, fingers clicking away at all hours on all devices, are our future.
That also means you’re going to have to be part of it. Your competitors are out there writing everywhere, any time, on a variety of devices. You’re going to have to figure out how you’ll deal with those changes.
You’ll also have to figure how to take advantage of the ability to write everywhere and anywhere.
Steven Savage in his own words:
I’m Steven Savage, and I am Geek 2.0.
OK … that sounds either pretentious or obscure, and I try not to be either too much. So what do I mean by Geek 2.0?
Geek 2.0 is a lifestyle. It’s about taking the geeky values of technology, knowledge, creativity, and media as far as possible. It’s a way of life – and a way of contributing to society.
I believe in taking Geekiness farther – into the next iteration, into 2.0.
Steven Savage is the author of the Fan to Pro blog and books (Unlocking Career Insights With Your Hobbies; Convention Career Connection; Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers; Focused Fandom: Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers; Inhuman Resources; and Progeek Rising), has his own web site, and incidentally is the mind behind the popular Seventh Sanctum site. He also writes for Nerd Caliber and Comics Bulletin.