there’s really nothing like paper

I’ve been working, on screen, on the story I’m calling “Providence” (which is definitely not going to be the title), and finally, after some technical difficulties (described below) I printed out what I had so far.

And immediately saw all sorts of things to fix and change. Things I never saw in all the time I looked at it on screen.

The technical difficulties

I considered the question of computers before I went on my recent trip. My laptop is really too heavy to carry comfortably (no car = a lot of walking). I considered, as I have several time before, buying a lightweight Chromebook, but I didn’t. Instead I bought a very portable (it rolls up) keyboard for my tablet.

And then, when I got settled in at the bed & breakfast, I found I had the tablet and the keyboard, but not the extremely necessary and fairly obscure connector that, well, connects them.

I couldn’t easily locate a replacement where I was, so I broke down and bought a (cheap, light) Chromebook. On which I’m writing this, as a matter of fact. Quite a successful purchase.

So far, I have only one complaint, which is that it doesn’t — in any way that I’m used to — print. It has a USB port, and I can plug in a printer, and it even seems to recognize what the new peripheral is, but it won’t print to it.

Some research revealed that this is, in fact, how Chromebooks “work.” To print with one, you have to have a wireless-enabled printer (maybe that’s not the correct term — in any case it’s something I don’t have) and then you “print” to some sort of cloud thing and then the print job makes it to the appropriately-connected printer.

Which seems like a silly way to print to a printer that’s about a foot away from the computer.

Conclusion

Which is why it took a while to get around to printing the story, but the clarity it led to was worth the effort and the wait.

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