Writing Advice

Writing Lessons from a Boneless Phone

And why not to follow Finngelo’s advice.

Photo by BRUNO CERVERA on Unsplash

I named my first smartphone “Webster.” It brought the entirety of the World Wide Web to my pocket, along with the contents of Webster’s Dictionary. Eventually, I bought a new phone. I wondered what it’s name would be, and asked for suggestions from friends on Facebook. At some point during that conversation, my phone named itself “Finngelo.” I have no idea where it came up with that, or why it tried to change whatever I was typing, at the time, into “Finngelo,” but the name has stuck.

My current phone is a descendant of the original Finngelo. It is Finngelo IV. Finngelo III and I once co-wrote an entire blog post:

Finngelo III, Silly Interview with a Smartphone

Finngelo IV does not imagine itself to be a writer, but it has a wicked sense of humor. I have a deal with close friends: If my Facebook statuses are ever rife with weird word choices, typos, or grammatical errors, they’re to ask me, first, if I’m composing them on my phone. If I don’t answer in a reasonable length of time, they’re to assume…