It Works

[akirlu]

Words I never thought I would write: I kinda wish my commute was longer. But I kinda do.

When we bought it, I justified getting the Asus eee with the idea that I could work on fiction writing on my commute to work. Why yes, I can. The eee PC drops nicely into the middle section of my purse, the Open Office wordprocessor handles my MS Word files just fine, I was already keeping copies of all my stories on my key fob, and most of the time, I can snag one of the train seats that faces a laptop table to work on. I have adjusted to the bittiness of the eee keyboard, and if the train rocks too hard, I switch to hunt-and-peck typing and progress more slowly. It works. I have written actual new words on the Akseli story, the Beanstalk story, and my fertility-god porn detective novel. Plus notes toward a fantasy story about a cursed wedding trousseau. I am writing fiction again.

What I am not doing is making much progress on any given day. My total butt-in-seat time on the train is only 30 minutes or less; the rest of my commute is on an oversubscribed bus between King Street Station and The U where no writing is possible. So I have my half hour on the train. Some of that must be devoted pulling out the eee, doing pitched battle for table space with the inevitable Guy With His Giant Horking Behemoth Workbook, booting my machine, fiddling with my USB key, and opening a file. (I have long since given up trying to check mail or surf the web on the train -- something about the Sounder wifi combined with the eee's wireless card/software makes connectivity feel about as fast as one of the Comcast turtles tapping out individual bits on a telegraph key.)

By the time I've opened my file and I'm up to speed with the story I'm in, I write a few sentences, jigger a paragraph or so, and then it's time to pack up, surge off the train, and be swept along with the heaving mass of humanity stampeding to the train tunnel. The ideal would be to have at least another 30 minutes on the train. And yet, I guess I'll have to think of some other way to get more writing time in. Because I am not moving to Tacoma for my art.

Comments

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Okay, "fertility-god porn detective novel" made me prick up my ... ears, ho ho. Corn porn aborning? Well, anyway, best wishes on the writing front.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought to include any Celtic-style fertility gods. Possibly I should. Although "corn" makes me think of maize and that just sounds uncomfortable...

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Hey, does the eee have a "standby" option so you don't have to completely shutdown/boot up? When I was taking the train (stopped last month...which really pisses me off, but things happened that now I drive to work...seven years on the commuter train, loving it and now driving....er, anyway) I used standby so I didn't have to shutdown and boot up my machine. Got a lot more work that way and could wait until the point where the train was coming to a stop, put it on standby and then get off the train.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It's a good point. The eee does have standby -- if I just close the lid without any preamble it goes straight to standby. I just have to remember to shut it down properly later, otherwise it will suck a surprisingly large percentage of its battery charge over the course of a day. Admittedly, now that I have a spare power brick for it at work, this is less of an issue anyway -- I turn it off all the way when I put it on the charger.