For those who write

von phorkyas

About the device and why I bought it
The Supernote is an e-ink-tablet, which can automatically convert your handwritten notes into digital documents (just like this one). There are of course other features with e-mail ad calendar, but the main appeal to me was that it is really focused on the „off-line“ writing experience: even if you can sync your notes to the cloud there is no integrated web browser, no multimedia-web-distractions.
And that’s the reason I bought it, because I wanted to dive into writing again. My blog dried out years ago at also other writing attempts dwindled away.
Somehow writing for me always is a physical act, as if I had to wring every word out of my body, as if they were part of my mental skeleton and I had to fight to wrench them out to the daylight. And part of the frustration with that fight is also that the words pulled out seem to have so little in common with the inner words that were fell and dreamed up.
I don’t know if others feel alike, but for me it’s a highly physically act to put all these words together – often when I struggle, a fight that I pick up lesser and lesser, I can feel the exhaustion in my body. So it seemed like a perfect fit having a physical device to write. Maybe that little device could boost my writing spirit a bit.

However owning the device did not turn me into a writer overnight.. And how could it, if I haven’t formed a habit of writing? Just by purchasing that tool, you can’t replace years of work and practice. Well, I have been blogging for about a 15 years, but often so sporadically and very small pieces that it hardly counts. So where do I go from here? Give up altogether or try harder?
The main issue is really time. If I prioritize family, work, hobbies, YouTube, there’s hardly anything left. And all the doubts: Even if I sat down and practiced my craft, would it matter? Should it matter? Our screwed, modern lives have moved on to fast. There’s hardly any room for reading and reflection. The numerous, digital distractions have eaten up all this space: so how should we claw back against the all dominating multi-billion industry?
It’s gonna be tough. And what would be the point anyway? Write long pieces like this that nobody will ever read. The art and media have to evolve to live on. So why this form of art, that’s probably extinct in some couple of years?
What is so special about writing, why should we all knee down in awe before the written document.
A couple of things:

• our thinking itself, the flow of consciousness is a stream of words. Writing can provide structure
  and meaning to it.
• the construction of our world, our culture: in the beginning was the word. All the myths and religion
  started in verse and tongues.
  

Well, some would object, that we moved on to pictures and videos. Those quicker and faster media for our times. But, I would respond, that even they are not without dialogue or script. Every proper YouTube video starts with sketches in words…
But, well I’m, also not sure, maybe Instagram for example reached already a degree of optical
saturation that consumers will sway into a state of speechless oblivion.