Like many Americans, I picked up the national pastime of accumulating possessions to the point where they’re causing me undue stress. To compound the problem, I made the decision years ago to rent a storage unit. The original idea was to remove certain possessions from my sight, hoping that the distance would weaken my attachment to them and make them easier to part with.
Then the unit fulfilled its purpose and became an actual storage unit.
I make occasional trips to collect a few things, look through them, and decide whether to give them away or return them to the unit. Sometimes I return them only to repeat the process months later. It’s a remarkably inefficient system.
If I were to make a pie chart illustrating what takes up most of my material life, the two largest slices would be books and notes. Folders and notebooks stuffed with story ideas, class notes, abandoned projects, and other writings that have become increasingly less important to the new Ellie.
Recently, I came across a small journal containing a desperate attempt to justify the existence of nearly every fictional character I’d created up until 2009. I mashed them all into an incoherent speculative fiction novella showcasing elements of science fiction, low fantasy, slice of life, comedy. It was the kind of work that would make the editors at Baen say, “What kind of crock is this?”
I’ve never encountered a creation of mine more deserving of a bonfire, preferably accompanied by rituals to cleanse the surrounding area of whatever demons I unintentionally conjured during the original brainstorming process.
But there are some items I keep in the storage unit to spare them from the trash or donation pile.
The AlphaSmart. A portable word processor. The very idea was a dream come true for the old Ellie who was obsessed with writing everywhere and anywhere.
I remember seeing these advertised on the back of a writing magazine in the early 2000s and desperately wishing I could afford one. Several years later, when they fell out of vogue, they started popping up on eBay, which is where I finally got my hands on a Dana model.
I think I have another AlphaSmart somewhere with a backlit screen. The Dana has no such luxury, but if I were feeling braver, I’d attempt to mod it. If I had the money, I’d probably just buy one that somebody else had already modded.
But this beauty still works. It runs Palm OS, and its LCD screen is difficult to see in low lighting. I’ll need a lamp if I want to write on this thing after dark. I’ll also need to find some batteries, because right now I have to use the power adapter to turn it on. Unplug it, and I need to set the time zone and clock all over again.
Oh, but it’s so much fun. The keys feel nicer than those on any computer keyboard I currently own. I could see myself typing for hours on this thing, curled up against some pillows, letting the words flow while the chunky little machine remains pleasantly cool. That’s one of the reasons I never quite took to writing on a laptop, in addition to having the machine “think” about all the background programs it feels necessary to open all at once when booting up.
Instead of saving to the device, I used an SD card. And the files are still there after all this time. I wrote quite a few things. This one is the least embarrassing sample I’m willing to show. I barely remember what universe this took place in, but I’m guessing this was when I relocated this character to my Eximirene series.
(Yes, it’s blurry. The lighting in this room is natural to the point of washing out colors, and the three rear cameras on my Google Pixel seem to believe they must always be in “selfie mode,” no matter how many settings I fiddle with.)
I’ve already started writing the script for my game in progress on this thing. Rather than booting up my laptop and writing directly in VS Code, I can pull this thing out and get a few lines in whenever I please.
Devices like these make me want to channel Clint from LGR and collect every precious vintage machine I can get my hands on. I still want an iMac G3 and dream of turning it into a dedicated writing station. But that’s a project for a future where I have more space to store and work on these things.
In the meantime, I have my old story ideas to mulch and new ones to bring out.