On the rare occasion of a neat and cleaned-up desk, here’s a picture. Does this ever scream “science fiction writer at work”, or what?
The eagle-eyed among you will notice that all the gear is Alienware-branded, which means you can probably guess that I occasionally use it for pursuits other than the typing of sentences and paragraphs and so on. That beast of a laptop is a 17-inch AW17R4, which I bought three years ago with all the configurable specs maxed out as far as possible. It still tears through everything I throw at it, so I am guessing it’ll probably serve me a few more years before I’ll think about upgrading. It weighs over ten pounds because it’s built like a tank, so I don’t really use it as a laptop. Instead, it’s sort of a portable desktop with a backup screen and a built-in uninterruptible power supply.
The monitor is a recent addition. It’s a 34-inch ultrawide, which is the berries for editing and revising because it lets me have two full-sized application windows open side by side. It’s also the berries for gaming because a 21:9 display at this size is ludicrously immersive. Once you are used to one, going back to a 16:9 screen feels like wearing blinders.
Peripherals are hardwired because input lag kills, and they’re Alienware as well because I like it when everything matches.
Anyway, that is where the sausage gets made these days. I have a lightweight 2-in-1 Windows laptop for writing on the go, but there isn’t much of that going on at the moment, so I only use it whenever I want to chat with friends or browse the web from the recliner. My writing software is still Scrivener, which has been my main first draft tool ever since I started writing novels. Revisions and edits are done in Microsoft Word, which is the de facto industry standard, but I don’t like doing first drafts in Word for anything longer than a chapter or a short story because Word doesn’t let me organize and reshuffle chapters like Scrivener does. (I’ve been using the Scrivener 3 beta for Windows since the very early versions, and it hasn’t crashed on me once.)
Not in the picture are my corkboard, where I pin index cards with ideas and frequently used reference data, and my whiteboard, which holds my color-coded sticky notes for the individual chapters of the current draft. While those would make interesting visuals, one has a lot of personal information on it and the other would comprehensively spoil CITADEL, the third book in the Palladium Wars.
There you have my view on most days. It’s not a cool Manhattan loft office looking out over 31st Street or anything, but it’s quiet, the coffee is much cheaper, and I have everything I need right where I want it.
That Alienware gear is a bit on-the-nose for you, considering the content of your Frontlines series, sir!
Anynoodle, your setup is quite nice, and I can’t help but be envious of that monstrous panel on your desk. One day, I’ll take the initiative like you did so that I can fit my T-SQL, Google code search results, and my writing on the same panel.
Impressed with your set-up.
Any hint about when Citadel is coming out.
Just curious, do you play the game that your computer background is from? If you do, maybe I’ll run into you in the verse sometime.
I like that window view – at least what I can see of it. Nice setup. Definitely have a case of monitor envy now. Thanks for the look at the factory floor.
I’m impressed with your sausage factory; thanks for sharing. Of course, I’d expect nothing less in the way of organization from a guy of Germanic origin. (Same as mine is, only from about 275 years earlier.) And there’s certainly nothing shabby about your view out the window.
Out of curiosity, what is the framed print next to the corkboard?
It’s an original ink and colored pencil drawing of the Rathaus in Münster, where I grew up. My brother gifted it to me years ago.
Neat. Thanks. I guessed it was an original, which is why I asked.
The older I get, the more I realize that the true treasures in life are the things that connect us to family.