Re: Writing and research with computers

["Sherry" sherry@xxxxxxxx]

ok.. I"ll give it a try..

  I'm a journalist and author. I have used xywrite (or signature) to
craft the book i'm writing in various ways. First, i took it on a
laptop with me to conduct interviews.. I needed a clean wordprocessor
that would let me have workable notes when I was writing. I can
look you in the eye when i'm typing, but not when i'm hand
scrawling.. Also the search functions make it really easy to find
the specific information i need when the writing process starts.

 next, i write in layers. first i get the basic story line down,
then i sculpt a chapter massaging it for content, form, pacing. I'm
usually thinking about all parts of the story at once, and i need to
be able to search, scroll write over and through all that is there.

again xywrite is the cleanest interface i've found. And unlike other
wp's it doesn't interrupt me with needless menu's. I want to do as
much with my fingers as possible. the minute i have to start talkin
to the computer program and not to the page, I've lost my thread.

does that help?

Date:     Mon, 28 Oct 96 19:46:51 UT
From:     "Thomas A. Robertson" 
To:      "XyWrite interest group" 
Subject:    Writing and research with computers
Reply-to:   xywrite@xxxxxxxx

Dear Folks:

For a project I am embarking on, I have been searching the countryside for
what people have to say about using computers for writing and research.

Other than comments from a few friends, I am not finding very much.

Does anyone have any sources or comments on the subject. I mean for example,
that one of the reasons XyWrite has not become known for what it can do is
because those in organizations who rate the relative merit of word processors
are more interested in how to write the first letter than in the larger
process of writing (and research) itself.

I see virtually nothing about how computers and communications, set up and
used properly, constitute an extraordinary intellectual prosthesis that
continues to expand in many, often unexpected and not always beneficial ways.

Thanks for what ever you have to say about the subject.

TR...

Sherry@xxxxxxxx
``If I knew the way, I would take you home.''