technology in your writing

[sweetnpetite]

How do you use technology? For all intents and purposes, my stories might as well take place in the 80's because I don't generally use cell phones, ATM machines, the internet or the like. Usually I don't even think about many of these modern 'nessesities' since I don't use them that much myself (except obviously the net) but on the other hand, I really don't WANT to use them.

How do you feel about cell phones in your stories?

 

[3113]

Usually I don't even think about many of these modern 'nessesities' since I don't use them that much myself (except obviously the net) but on the other hand, I really don't WANT to use them.

I may not want them, but I put them in and sometimes make good use of them. In Full Disclosure the fact that my guy is carrying around his cell, waiting for a call, becomes key. On the other hand, in Exchange Value the cellphone is just used to tie up a lose end.

In an upcoming story, I mention digital cameras.

I made mention of computers/laptops/iPods in Bittersweet and Exchange Value because both stories involve students and it seems unrealistic that students wouldn't have laptops or computers or iPods. Even very poor students can buy cheap, used laptop/computer/iPod these days.

All in all, however, these devices aren't essential to the story. They exist in the world and people use them, so I mention them: ATM cards, or going on the internet to find information and print it out. If I didn't, I'd worry that readers might say, "Why didn't he just use his cellphone? Why didn't he take out money with his ATM card? Why has he got an old fashioned camera rather than a digital camera?" And I think it's valid for a reader to ask that--and for a writer to explain it. If the character writes on an old typewriter...is he eccentric, dirt poor or the new Unibomber? Because every writer *I* know uses a computer. But that doesn't mean that the computer/cellphone, etc. has to be there for anything other than versimilitude.

Human relationships are still human. If two people argue on a phone with a cord or on a cellphone--one of them from Starbucks New York, one from Starbuck's London, it's the argument, not the phone, that matters.

That said, I am reminded of the original "Dangerous Liasons" story which is an epistolary novel. A story told in letters. There's a wonderful chapter where the guy writes to the lady about how he's using a naked prostitute as his "writing desk." That really requires pen-and-ink letters. Typing an e-mail on a laptop balanced on the back of a prostitute just isn't as funny or sexy. In other words, the technology does and can inform the story. An argument requiring and exchange of pen-and-ink letters, the slowness of such letters in getting to their destination, the possiblity of them falling into the wrong hands or getting lost, etc. is going to be very different from one using cellphones or the speed of e-mail.

These, in turn, create their own plot devices. People use cellphones in public places...and they're not very good at keeping quiet. Strangers can overheard just about everything. And e-mail can be read by girlfriend, boyfriends, wives, husbands...they also allow a person to send off a an angry response without thinking about it or editing it (as they might if they had to do it pen-and-ink). Write it up, hit send...uh-oh! What have I done!

You might want to consider that next time you feel like shying from the technology. It might just contain the plot device or twist or misunderstanding you were looking for to make the story really work.

 

[Boota]

The book I'm writing right now takes place in 1988 and more than afew times I've had to run and do some quick research to help me remember what was around for use back then. I've got no problems using cellphones and the like, but I just don't want a guy in parachute pants and punk rock slits using one.

 

[Guest]

I have found myself constructing seduction scenes suggested by events in my single days, only to have to alter them because my characters today would carry cell phones now. It wouldn't be that hard to get in touch with one another or likey to have missed connections.

Lately, I've been thinking about how teleportation, if it could be created where it could be as safe and cheap as a telphone call, would change so much about our world. One aspect I'd have to delve into would have to be enounters of a sexual/romantic nature.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Actually, I think that I use quite a bit of technology in my stories, often consciously, but just as often not even thinking twice about it. Of course, in my more historical or sci-fi stuff, the tech is a bit different.

And it seems to me that you use the Internet now and then (for which I'm glad, if for nothing else than your avatar). Just picking on you, SNP.

 

[Weird Harold]

How do you use technology? ...
How do you feel about cell phones in your stories?

I don't worry too much about technology or the lack thereof in a story unless I'm writing a period piece where certain items of technology didn't exist.

As for cell phones, in my very first story, which is so bad it will never be published, I had one character who was a technophile and tinkerer who crossed a pager phone with a vibrating egg and got a remote contol vibrator he could control from anywhere in the world with just a phone call -- he made a fortune.

 

[oggbashan]

I try to avoid using technology because it dates so fast.

I had a collection of computer videos - films that used computers as a significant part of the plot such as 'War Games'. The technology looks laughable now.

Some of the cheaper productions used such advanced technology as IBM XTs or blinking lights on a large filing cabinet. VDUs were unknown in some of the films - punched cards or tape for input and printouts for output. It is difficult to see the computer as threatening when its threats are on paper...

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't worry too much about technology or the lack thereof in a story unless I'm writing a period piece where certain items of technology didn't exist.

As for cell phones, in my very first story, which is so bad it will never be published, I had one character who was a technophile and tinkerer who crossed a pager phone with a vibrating egg and got a remote contol vibrator he could control from anywhere in the world with just a phone call -- he made a fortune.

They have these, you know. The field is known as--honestly-- cyberdildonics

 

[Selena_Kitt]

They have these, you know. The field is known as--honestly-- cyberdildonics

I had NO idea...
learn something new every day at Lit

 

[gauchecritic]

They have these, you know. The field is known as--honestly-- cyberdildonics

Very Clarkian. You could have been a millionnaire Harold if you hadn't written about it first.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I have one character who uses online dating and I had another who worked as a computer programmer. Many of my stories start with a telephone call but it has always been from one home phone to another. I am not a big telephone user myself so neither are my characters.

George Boxlicker, my first person protag., is an author who writes on a word processor (and contributes to Lit.) but this is just because of the greater convenience.

Somebody might use a high-tech dildo but my characters are general more physical than tech.

 

[Weird Harold]

They have these, you know. The field is known as--honestly-- cyberdildonics

Nope, not quite the same thing:

What is teledonics or cyberdildonics?
Short Answer: Teledildonics, or cyberdildonics: using a computer and Web interface to control a vibrator remotely. The technology has existed for several years, but it is not commonly used or widely available.

I know those are available, but I don't know of any that use pager or cell-phone technology -- at least not more purposefully than carrying a cell set on vibrate down the front of your pants.

Very Clarkian. You could have been a millionnaire Harold if you hadn't written about it first.

Nah, I'm sure that there's probably a patent registered somewhere that relies on the pager coverage that preceded cell coverage and as the info Dr M linked shows, "cyberdildonics" isn't making anyone a millionaire -- yet.

Actually, since I don't really care about money all that much, I hereby release the idea for a pager-cell network controlled vibrator into the public domain. If you can make a million or two from it, be my guest.

The basic idea is a vibrator that can receive a number, like a pager displaying a call-back number with simple microprocessor that can interpret a three number group as "Delay" "Duration" and "Intensity" possibly with the * and # keys as delimiters: "0*120#75" would turn it on immediately for two minutes at 75% intensity.

 

[Liar]

I try to avoid using technology because it dates so fast.

I had a collection of computer videos - films that used computers as a significant part of the plot such as 'War Games'. The technology looks laughable now.

Some of the cheaper productions used such advanced technology as IBM XTs or blinking lights on a large filing cabinet. VDUs were unknown in some of the films - punched cards or tape for input and printouts for output. It is difficult to see the computer as threatening when its threats are on paper...

Og

Well, vintage Sicence Fiction can often be quite hilarous. But on the other hand if you use vintage technology to tell a period piece, they can be useful markers, since they bloom and fade so fast.