Recently, only a few days ago in fact, a long term friend of mine called me ‘a f–k–g Luddite’ on Facebook. I wish I could’ve repudiated this accusation. Unfortunately, it’s all too true.
I knew I was one; I just didn’t realise that I was actually a bona fide 100% one. Klutz I might be, I thought, but only partly. When I received the first file for proofs from the print book designer and found that I couldn’t upload them to CreateSpace, no matter what I did, I discovered that I really could appropriate one of those lovely 100% stickers with a clear conscience.
Turned out that, for the past ten years, I’d been saving anything I wanted to save that came to me as an attachment via email, through View and Save, instead of through Download. I’d tried Download a couple of times, but the things I downloaded always disappeared, never to be seen again, so I gave that up as a bad job. During that 10 years, I often wondered why I could never print out anything I’d saved in this way, or Forward it successfully to somebody else. But then I’d get involved with my fiction writing and forget all about it. Besides, the horse needed shoeing.
Consequently, when I finally discovered what was wrong and actually had a proof in my hands, it was the first time I had seen the novel on paper in its final form. Ah, the horror, the horror ….
I had been scrupulous about printing out my last three drafts and editing them on paper, rather than onscreen, BUT: manuscripts in final book form look vastly different from the way they look when you’re viewing them on A4. I had to reedit the entire novel (I got a 2% cut; that was something) and rewrite four chapters completely, using different characters from the ones I’d originally intended. It was all what you might call, interesting …
Having crawled out of that desert, I’m hoping the next set of proofs will prove to be just a matter of checking punctuation. Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic, but anyway, here’s hoping.
Danielle de Valera 
Oh my goodness, (yep, keeping it profanity free). Is a book ever finished? This morning I received an email from my editor saying, she thought I did a great job, but she’d like to see the random POV from secondary characters streamlined into three main characters, The hero, heroine and the Russians.
The exciting bit of news is, she’s suggesting a spin off novel with the heroine’s sister. Whoo-bloody-hoo!!!! 🙂 I’m on the changes now, but peering through a pair of swollen eyes thanks to an allergic reaction to a tick bite.
I’ll be think of you as you wade through your novel. Please think of me as I rub my face, open my eyes with fingers and thumbs to peer at the monitor. 🙂
Thanks for the kind thoughts, Louise. I definitely will think of you and the changes with the swollen eyes. The spin off novel idea is great, that’s good news. The tick bite, well, that’s something else entirely. Hope you recover soon.
It looks like a rather large desert island… and you left him there!??
Ah yes, well, we won’t go into that.
Ouch! That must have hurt! But you do put it in a wonderfully cheerful way 🙂 Forearmed is forewarned and now you are both. Look forward to our next bus encounter 😉 x
I think the designer’s in a worse state than I am, and I don’t blame her. The e book designer I had lined up pulled out, has decided not to work with me. (I think they know one another.) Alas, I can’t blame her, either – though I figure there would’ve been not very much I could’ve got wrong in that department, having expended all my klutzy genius on the print version..
You did tell me that you’re helpless in the face of computer technology, but I had no idea it was *that* bad. Ten years! But better late than never.
Yeah, I know – and it’s not just computer technology. I was the same with tractors when I did Ag Science at university, ripped the doors off the tractor shed at Gatton College with a dozer blade one day. There are times when being a woman is helpful: The farm manager came running, breathing fire and smoke at the sound of rending metal. When he saw it was me, he just turned on his heel and walked away. I tell you I’m famous for this sort of thing, no wonder the e book designer cancelled, tho it is kind of mortifying. My mobile’s an ancient, arcane Nokia 1660, I don’t know what I’ll do when they stop making batteries for it :).
I think you aren’t a luddite at all. You’re technologically impaired. Some people just need to be kept away from machines, real and virtual. But there’s good reason to long for the days when life was simpler, even if you’re not technologically impaired. I can deal with what is absolutely necessary, but I’ve fined that down to a level that most people would probably consider primitive. No cell phone (no phone at all, in fact, for the last year or so), have given up TV, no tablets or ereaders, hang on to computer apps as long as they continue to work, etc.
[…] Being the digital klutz that I am (oh yes, I am — see my previous post on this subject at: https://danielledevalera.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/for-all-you-luddites-out-there/, formatting that story took me a long time and I’m so chuffed that I managed to do it. I was […]
[…] Being the digital klutz that I am (oh yes, I am — see my previous post on this subject at: https://danielledevalera.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/for-all-you-luddites-out-there/, formatting that story took me a long time and I’m so chuffed that I managed to do it. I was […]