For those wondering about writing books on the iPad

[jkhonea]

I can now say it works VERY well for this. There are only a couple very minor things that have to be worked around, but nothing terrible at all. Primarily, the tab key tales two steps at the top of Pages, but I'm going to look at styles and see if I can't set something up that tabs over automatically when I hit return at the beginning of a paragraph.
Also takes a little getting used to on editing with the way you have to tap the screen, but gets better.
As far as typing, getting used to the virtual keyboard very fast and almost up to full speed like I am on the MacBook Pro. Feels a little strange at first, but get used to it quickly. My wife loves the fact that she no longer has to hear clicking keys when we are in bed at night while I work.
The ability to just turn on and off and have immediate access to the work is outstanding! One of my biggest issues before was that if I didn't have the computer on, I would lose the urge to write periodically while I waited for the laptop to boot up. Not an issue now, needless to say. And being able to just go into and out of the book so quickly is making a huge difference on how much I am getting done.
Don't know if my book will actually get picked up for publication, going to try hard but it's and incredibly hard market to beak into. But at least the shift to the iPad is working exactly how I wanted and is giving me the tools that I needed to try accomplishing my dream.

 

[Matth3w]

Grats to you! I love the Apple wireless keyboard to be honest. It's just the right size and a good replacement for the on screen keyboard IMO.

 

[epb]

IMy wife loves the fact that she no longer has to hear clicking keys when we are in bed at night while I work.

When I was in my 20s I wrote 3 novels, all unpublished. I lived in a very gritty place (SRO in Chicago, no kitchen or bath, $10 a night) and went old school - I bought an tired old manual typewriter and was of course writing at all hours, so there was that old-fashioned "tap-tap-tap-tap-DING" and subsequent carriage return noise after every line. My neighbors, not the most civilized and gentle of nature's creatures, regularly debated breaking into my room and smashing the thing to bits and me along with it.

The iPad is nirvana compared to those days, though I find the lack of apostrophe annoying still.

 

[jkhonea]

IMy wife loves the fact that she no longer has to hear clicking keys when we are in bed at night while I work.

When I was in my 20s I wrote 3 novels, all unpublished. I lived in a very gritty place (SRO in Chicago, no kitchen or bath, $10 a night) and went old school - I bought an tired old manual typewriter and was of course writing at all hours, so there was that old-fashioned "tap-tap-tap-tap-DING" and subsequent carriage return noise after every line. My neighbors, not the most civilized and gentle of nature's creatures, regularly debated breaking into my room and smashing the thing to bits and me along with it.

The iPad is nirvana compared to those days, though I find the lack of apostrophe annoying still.

Funny thing, the apostrophe thing is working out great with the autocorrect. I would say a good 99% of the time, it's catching them correctly and actually making the typing go faster.

I actually have been a writer since middle school forward and has always been a passion. Did one novel about my first year at colege but never intended in selling that one seriously. More like practice. Anyway, if i tried marketing it, too many would assume it was trying to follow behind Pat Conroy with the story. So now I'm seriously working on a fiction drama novel in hopes of getting someones attention. Going to try to find college connections and work every angle I can find. Intending on a full series of books if I get this to go through. No way to get all of the story in one novel.

So at this point, I am halfway through writing the first and hoping to wrap it up within a month and start sending out letters of interest while I'm editing.

Can't say that I would whine if by some fluke I could get picked up. We'll see what happens.

 

[jkhonea]

Grats to you! I love the Apple wireless keyboard to be honest. It's just the right size and a good replacement for the on screen keyboard IMO.

I still think I'm going to pick one of these up for a periodic break. Helps to have different sizes and styles to avoid carpal tunnel anyway. I did see what you meant about Bluetooth today. Tried the Bluetooth headphones for the first time and that really started eating into the battery quickly. When the Bluetooth is off, this thing has a stupid good battery life.

 

[ipadsufferer]

I find it is impossible to send any work off when using the Ipad typewriter - it is such a pain to use - if there is a mistake and words merge together I have to delete or use that glass thing. Does a keyboard would help - does it have the same abilities as a Windows or similar keybpard - ie you can type, use a cursoer etc?

I was advised to type in pages - then correct later but is their a final spell check do you know.

 

[PreVoiD]

Make sure you update this thread along your journey to finish the book. I've never heard about an author using an iPad all out to complete his or her masterpiece. The technolegy and it's possibilities these days - stunning. Simply stunning!

@OP: I wish you the best of luck to you and your work. I hope you'll release a sneak-preview of what you´re working on, sooner or later!

 

[thewitt]

Take a look at the app Storiest for writing on the iPad. It has a Mac version as well and they can keep in sync thru Dropbox.

Very nice writing tools.

 

[thewitt]

I have abandoned Pages for Storyist and am very happy I did.