Writing on the train this morning, remembering that I wrote my first book mostly on Metronorth while I commuted to work in the city, and most of my second book, too. Both of the those books started in long hand in notebooks. I just heard from a friend who reminded me of something I said when I was new mom. I became a very efficient writer because I was paying a babysitter. Which reminded me of Isaac Asimov who said that he wrote fast because he had to put a dime in for every ten minutes on a rented typewriter. Well, I hate nostalgia, so I’ll stop here.
It’s 9:22 a.m. Do you know where your pages are?
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Betsy Lerner 
I do. They’re upstairs on my desktop, waiting for me to beat them into submission. I’m in the kitchen stuffing my face and procrastinating.😏
Longhand is definitely the way to go. And because I know you’d want to get this right, it was actually Ray Bradbury who used the rented typewriter:
“First I had to find a place to write. I had no money for an office, and while wandering around UCLA, I heard typing from the basement of Powell Library. I went to investigate and found a room with 12 typewriters that could be rented for 10 cents a half-hour. So, exhilarated, I got a bag of dimes and settled into the room, and in nine days, I spent $9.80 and wrote my story.”
The story was Fahrenheit 451.
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for the correction. Much appreciated.
“It’s 9:22 a.m. Do you know where your pages are?”
They are before me, calling to me in their quiet, insistent way.
9:09 p.m. – From this evening’s reading: “I had indeed imagined my own death, and realized, once again, that the book must be completed, whatever the cost.” – Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red (trans. Erdağ Göknar)
Carolynn with 2Ns
Got a new medical lease on life. Wondering if I should search and work or … just let it go.
Very happy to hear from you, Betsy. I am lucky to have a room of my own, paper, mechanical pencils, and a computer. It does cost, though, $3000 for a developmental editor who is terrific and no income to defray her cost or the cost of playwriting classes and, yet, I go merrily on revising, cutting, and pasting. There have been a few serendipities lately, so I’m telling myself I must be on the right path. I now have 345 pages of a historical novel…99000 words that I am told I must trim back to 90000. So, the fun continues.
Blessings to us all.
Gail ❤️