Have you looked around the area lately? Forget about the construction, traffic, political issues etc. Just look around and what do you see? Next door is neighbor Joe, cutting his lawn. Across the street the new folks are adding a coat of paint to the front of the house. Around the corner, the Smiths, or Jones are enjoying a cool beverage on the deck by the pool. Drive around and look at all the quiet neighborhoods with people simply going about their business and concentrating on the tasks at hand. Some still head off in the morning to work, or school but many have paid their time in the harness and now are simply enjoying the weather, sun and camaraderie of their fellows.
As I travel around the area addressing folk’s computer problems, I enjoy the opportunity to talk to the folks I meet. Somehow the conversations always get around to something they did or do and I am always amazed as the stories unfold, at the rich tapestry of life experiences we have here in Charlotte County. I talked with a former CIA agent, a couple that spent years living and traveling on a boat and even someone that actually panned for gold out west. The stories they told of their experiences would equal any commercial novel and in fact some of them have actually written the stories down. Several have even had them published.
In years past, if I decided to write the great American novel, I would have typed it on an old typewriter with lots of correction tape and a great big dictionary beside me on the desk. Should I make a mistake such as transposing a line or decide that a paragraph didn’t really fit like I thought it would, I would spend hours retyping at least a page if not the entire manuscript. Finally, I would send it off to some publishers and if accepted by one of them they would invariably demand it be retyped again with a multitude of changes. Just the physical construction of the manuscript was time consuming, not to mention the placing of idea to words.
Today our computer can offer numerous advantages to our budding literary endeavors. Probably one of the most common software programs used by writers is Microsoft Word. This program not only allows you to set the format of the page, fonts etc. to the publishers requirements, but also offers a built in dictionary, grammar and spelling checker and if the computer is connected to the Internet, a thesaurus and reference materials right at the click of a mouse. Add to that the ability to cut and paste, move entire paragraphs with out retyping and software that will autocorrect common spelling errors.
The only drawback to MS Word is its price. It can be expensive. There are other word processing programs out there with prices all over the board. One drawback to them is that some cannot open documents created in MS Word and some create documents that cannot be opened in MS Word. There is even a FREE version of a word processor program (it also has a spreadsheet, database and other office programs) call Open Office.org that can be downloaded from www.openoffice.org. It can be configured to create documents that will open in MS Word and it will open MS Word documents that you might receive.
With the proper tools in place, we can sit down and begin to tell our stories. Write your memoirs, tell us how you bit a mouse back after it bit you. Tell us about the years spent on a nuclear submarine or how the business you sold a few years back for lots of money started on the kitchen table with $200 borrowed from the high school shop teacher. From my perspective, I find these stories much more interesting than endless coverage of political prevarications.
Sounds like a good idea but you just don’t know how to start? Remember, here in Charlotte County we have the Peace River Centers for Writers. This is a group of several hundred folks interested in putting pen to paper. Some are already published, some are hoping to be and some are just writing down their memories for the grandkids. The Writers Center is located at Edison College in Punta Gorda. The membership dues are reasonable. They hold many workshops about different aspects of writing such as “Write Your Memories,” “The Art of Interviewing” and How to Sculpt a Story. Give them a call. Hundreds of writer guilds and groups exist in every corner of the country. Use the Internet to find the one near you. Here is a starting point for groups in Florida, www.floridawriters.net/Our_Writers_Groups.html
See you on Amazon.com!
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Grumbles From The Keyboard: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Computer (9781467985895): Courtland Nederveld: Books
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Epicuria: An Adventure That Really Cooks! (9781456561734): Court Nederveld: Books
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