The old ways still have value.
Writers tend to romance the objects they use to craft their work.
They become fetish objects.
A picture of a manuscript written in WordStar.© Robert J. Sawyer screenshot.
The pen, the pad, the IBM Selectric.
Even the Remington SL3 is an object of affection for various writers.
Just look at the legendaryWordStar.
© Wtshymanski/Wikipedia
The beloved software helped writers as diverse as Ralph Ellison, Anne Rice, and George RR Martin.
They all sang its praises.
WordStar was beautiful, sublime, Anne Rice said of the software in a 2015 Facebook comment.
Sawyers WordStar release is a complete archive of the final version of WordStar along with all its manuals.
I spent weeks putting all this together.
He even included MS-DOS emulators in the archive to help get WordStar up and running.
Sawyer explained it beautifully in another post on his website.
WordStar captures the long-hand writing experience.
As a creative writer, I am convinced that the long-hand page is the better metaphor, he said.
According to Sawyer, using Microsoft Word is a laborious top-down experience.
Its software meant for taking dictation.
WordStar offers a more productive approach at its most fundamental design level than does its competition, Sawyer said.
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