mouse

For those of you who want a little green in your work environment, the Horchow bamboo-like keyboard and mouse offer an interesting eco-friendly approach to computer hardware.   It will  set you back a cool $78 but you’ll look good writing that next blockbuster.   PC compatible only.  BTW…check out Horchow for great writer gifts in general.  The holidays are fast approaching, ya know! 

 

Let me begin by describing the writer’s meme - and by all accounts it is a meme, particularly for fiction writers. 

You sit in front of a computer for blocks of hours, but you’re not really "present".  Your body is there in front of your computer, but your attention, your vision, your emotions - are carrying on in a world inside your head.  This world is the place where your characters reside.  There’s a time warp that’s almost indescribable.  You feel as though you’ve been writing for 30 minutes but the clock shows you’ve been at it for hours.  Quite often, the only thing that pulls you out of this world is a numbing in the wrist or a sharp pain in the back.   

Enter the benefits of ergonomics for writers.  ANYTHING that helps you stay in "that world" is a good thing.  That world is where you are at your best.  In that world you are not creating, you are an observer…a journalist.  Your character’s thoughts, feelings, actions and dialogue are coming through you, and the keyboard and onto your computer screen.  The longer you stay in that world, the better writer you become (remember my article on Outliers?). 

So often when purchasing computer equipment, ergonomics is considered an afterthought - and ergonomic mice – well they are like the "after” gadget.  Just like the backup hard drive "after" your system has already crashed.  Or the protective eyewear "after" you’ve scratched your cornea.  Or the brain bucket “after” you have spilled your brains on the asphalt.  I have been using the ergonomic mice described below for over a month, and I realize the mindset surrounding ergonomic mice should not be an “after”thought at all.  They should be more reflective of seatbelts. What I mean by this is, “Would you buy a new car that didn’t come with seatbelts as standard equipment?”  Heck no!  

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