It’s Friday and what is up at Lange? Before we say thank you for this week and welcome the weekend, here is a word from the Publishing Manager Lilith.
When I was a child my dream was to become an author, actress, psychologist or truck driver. Little did I know that I would work with all things above in some form and even run my own publishing house and help others release their dreams.
I was born in the 70s and grew up in the 80s and early 90s
In those days there was no Internet, no social media, no computer. My scripts were written by hand or on my typewriter. Often first by hand and then I wrote everything again on the typewriter.
My father bought a computer for his office very early after the home computer was available. It was so expensive, he used his entire savings. We, the children, were not allowed to use it. We didn’t mind, because what fun can a computer possibly be?
Later when I was over 20 years old he allowed me to write on it and I could even print out my text on a slow and very loud printer, with blue ink. The sheets were almost 60 centimetres wide and when you wrote you needed to manually press enter to write on the next line.
Often I missed that. I was in a flow of writing and didn’t remember to push enter, so the line of words disappeared into the abyss.
All you could do was to get back and re-write what you just wrote. It was much more fun anyway to write on a computer than the typewriter where your fingers hurt.
I got access to a computer in the middle of the 90s that was my own at least half of the time. Now the Internet had arrived. You used the phone line and called up the modem and could play games and other fun things. People who want to call you got a busy tone and were not able to get through the line. That could be very frustrating sometimes. Especially when you forgot to log out when you left the computer.
Nothing of that got my attention. I used it to write my stories. Now the programs in the computers could make the lines change automatically, so I just had to focus on writing.
And saving what I did. I sometimes wrote and wrote, and sometimes the power went out or the computer crashed. And if I hadn’t saved or made a copy of the text the words were gone.
I remember that one of my books that was almost completed got lost somehow one time. I was devastated. But after a time of sorrow, I just had to start over again. Luckily I had at least half part in hand writing so it was easy enough.
Today in 2023 it’s much more easy to create manuscripts and even publish your books. The technology is amazing and it has opened so many doors for people like us. For writers and creators. There are so many things that you don’t have to think about anymore.
But now there are more things distracting us instead. The Internet and all that is a bit too fun and it’s easy to jump down a rabbit hole when you are supposed to create.
But I still think this is better than when you didn’t even have an easy way to write and it was also hard to get your voice heard.
If you love writing, you’ll find a way to give writing time. You always make time for what you love. So even if you jump down a rabbit hole one day instead of writing, it’s okay. The writing is waiting for you. Don’t let pressure or stress destroy your pure joy in writing.
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Lilith is an Author and Publishing Manager at Lange Publisher