Technically speaking... by Annmarie Miles

As I prepare this post, I'm at my fortnightly writers' group meeting. As usual, before we went into our 30/45 mins of quiet writing time, we had a great discussion about various aspects of the writing life and our own experiences. The subject of technology came up and how one of our members would love to be able to just think stuff and it would appear on the page. His thinking moves much faster than his writing or typing hand, and he would love if all the ideas in his head could simply be poured out, ready to edit. We laughed about how if that happened, other words might appear on the pages too; a reminder that we need to get milk, or the thing we’d really like to say to someone but can’t. Another of our members has just broken her wrist, so at the moment she’d love to have that technology. We’re not too far from it though are we? With voice memos on our phones and dictation apps on laptops, we could easily choose to forfeit pen or keyboard if we really wanted to.

None of us really want to. As a group we have different processes, but the idea of never actually ‘writing’ again did not appeal to any of us – even the one who suggested it in the first place. Our friend with the broken wrist, said the concept reminded her of a knitting machine she used to have. The end result was perfect, but there was no comparison to the experience of actually using her hands to produce a knitted creation.

I’ve mentioned before about my own writer’s angst, the crushing self doubt etc etc and I have tried to give up writing on more than one occasion. But I can’t. I might have loved it a little more before I published anything. There was no feedback, no fear of criticism, no worrying about starred reviews. I cannot stop though, I love writing too much.

I wouldn’t, however, want my thoughts to just appear on a page. (Although as another of our group members said, it would be handy in the middle of the night, when those great ideas wake us up.) I don’t want my words to bypass my hands. Whether typing or writing pen to paper, the work of writing is part of what I love about it. Pouring out my heart in a blog post or under the guise of a short story is a balm. There is something restorative about the flow of words running through my veins and out my finger tips.

I’m a big fan of technology, but I’m a bigger fan of writing. Some of the things we hear about technology are a bit scary. They say my phone’s microphone may be listening me. But it can’t hear my heart. Only God hears that, unless I choose to release what’s in there to the world.

Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland.
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'