Comments on: Literary Space – Damon Young

By: LiteraryMinded

LiteraryMinded — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:15:18 +0000

Michael, yes I stole this idea from The Guardian as I thought we needed an Aussie version

But I will probably still feature overseas authors.

By: Damon

Damon — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:35:35 +0000

Oh, and Krissy: it is neat and tidy, thank you!

But that’s honestly how I work. (Or try to: you can’t be fussy with kids around.)

By: Damon

Damon — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:21:21 +0000

Thanks, Angela and everyone.

Lisa, I do find the laptop occasionally uncomfortable, but on the whole it’s been very good. The new built-in keyboards made a huge difference. I just try to keep my back straight and head up. (When I stuffed my neck, I had months to practice this.)

Yes, Michael, I do find the computer faster. It what I use for opinion pieces and the like. But when I want to muddle, explore, meander, I use the pen. Perhaps when I’m a little more experienced, I’ll do the adventuring in my mind.

By: michael

michael — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:55:15 +0000

yes, it’s endlessly fascinating — the Guardian has been running a weekly series of “writers’ rooms” for a couple of years or so in the Review section, and it’s the one piece I always read.

yours, like the ones in the Guardian generally have 5 times as much space as I have and only 1/5 of the amount of paper to fill it. I’ll try to make a picture of my “office” but it will be tricky.

And I think in the Guardian too there was a surprising number of people still using pens. I did hand-written drafts in about 1993, but after a year or so I ditched them as I can type a lot faster than I write by hand, and I hate wasting time by retyping something I have written down already. Essentially, I do a lot of the writing in my head, so it’s not so much a question of composing but of getting it out of the head in an efficient way. (although I also had a fountain pen phase, once upon a time)

By: LiteraryMinded

LiteraryMinded — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:32:15 +0000

You could show us yours sometime Krissy, if you like

I love seeing it too, it fascinates me to see the different ways writers work.

By: Krissy Kneen

Krissy Kneen — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:30:13 +0000

I just love hearing about how writers work, having a picture painted for me like this. This one seems very neat and tidy. I love that he, too writes in longhand. Very interesting peice.

By: lisadempster

lisadempster — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:28:03 +0000

Don’t you find typing on a laptop terribly uncomfortable? I don’t mind doing it for an hour or so, but when I settle down to do a day’s writing I *need* a keyboard!