Reading Jeremy's entry about his book-writing struggles made me think about my own problems with blocks.. be it writer's or programmer's (yes, we have those too).

Jeremy discovered he works well away from a keyboard.. I think that may be true of many people in general we just don't often give ourselves a chance to try it. After all, anything written by hand needs to be typed.. seems like more work, why bother? Then there is the convenience of a laptop computer.. when I didn't have one it was all I wanted.. a dream come true.. and it really is great. I can sit outside a coffee shop (well, once it gets warm again) and write, write, write.. data going straight onto my hard drive.. clickety-clack packaged complete with a spell check. It's great.. except.. I often find myself lacking in inspiration and what I miss then.. is the editing.

One thing I cannot do on a computer but can on a piece of paper is completely and utterly destroy what I've written with a stroke of a pen. There is just something great and inspriing in madly crossing out letters.. It has to be a pen.. pencils are wimpy and just don't make much of an impression.. but a pen.. swoosh goes a paragraph.. off with a word.. there goes a letter. This just can't be duplicated on a computer with clean and sanitized deletion. Little editing and before you know it your'e inspired again..