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Started using a typewriter ... and it's working

L.C. Blackwell

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I feel like I should title this post, "Back to the Future," or some such thing. Mostly it's to pass along some observations and discoveries lately, in the context of going offline.

It's been a few months now since I'd begun to feel like writing was going exactly nowhere. I'd find myself spending two-thirds of my time endlessly, uselessly editing the same pages. This got so bad that I was lucky to write two paragraphs a night. But when I got to the point where I hadn't written a single sentence in two hours, I was ready to scream. The problem (which most of you probably could have told me) was that I was overthinking the thing to death, and second-guessing everything I tried to write. I also suspect some negative issues with blue-light exposure from the computer, but that's another story.

The end of it, about two weeks ago, was that I went retro and ordered a vintage typewriter online through Ebay. Note: this is something of a risk, unless you a) have an honest seller who knows how to ship typewriters, and b) know of and can afford a shop that does repair in case yours is damaged in shipping or needs more work.

However, my pretty "new" machine arrived safely, in excellent condition, and with a new ribbon in it, my office is now filled with the sound of rattatatatatatatatt-DING! through my working hours.

Disadvantages, or notable issues:

1) It's noisy. Which means I cannot type when someone else is sleeping. This is more than made up for by the fact that I'm writing again.
2) If you buy a manual typewriter, as I did, your first efforts will probably look like a two-year-old playing secretary, until you develop finger strength and control. Don't forget to stretch your hands, to avoid soreness.
3) White-out ribbons are not recommended, as they just get gunk in your typewriter. You can type back and over yourself, or scratch your goofs out with a pen and keep going. You will not have a neat manuscript, but you may have a draft.
4) Very old typewriters may not be up for hard use. I went with a 1960s Smith-Corona Super Sterling, which has the reputation of being a long-lived workhorse.
5) Old typewriters may not have a number 1 or an exclamation point. Apparently, it wasn't polite to do a lot of yelling, so if people needed the 1, they typed a lower-case "l" and if they needed an exclamation point, they typed "l" and then back-spaced to put a "." underneath it. My characters yell a lot, which was another reason for buying a slightly "newer" typewriter.
6) Some of the keys are in different places, and I keep hitting @ whenever I start a line of dialogue with what are supposed to be quotation marks.

Advantages:

1) I cannot go back and cycle endlessly through the same paragraph. It's too much work, and I don't have the patience to type anything more than once. (Yay, manual typewriter!) I also now find myself penning corrections between lines and in the margins--but only once or twice for anything, which is a much better system.
2) There is something very satisfying about hearing the DING and pushing the return lever. Basically, instead of a screen flipping off and going blank, I have four pages of accomplishment sitting on the desk with no printer necessary, and I know darn well I won't be going back to tear it up and rewrite it tomorrow because I had to work for those four pages.
3) With no other option, my brain has given up on editing and gone back to drafting mode.
4) So long as nothing happens to my house, I will never have a hard-drive crash.
5) I can't fool around playing games and pretend I'm writing. I do keep a pad of notepaper next to the typewriter for making hand-notes when I get stuck. So far, I haven't started doodling on it.
6) Ten freaking pages in two days!!!!!

So that's been my week, and yeah, it's early, but I'm seeing a lot of benefits. If anybody's interested, I'll add some of the cool links I found for typewriter geeks, and you can decide whether you're crazy enough to try it yourself. I'm ... definitely happy.

:snoopy:
 
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Bacchus

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Interesting!

I used to play with a manual typewriter that we had at home when I was a child, but haven't touched one since I actually learned to type

I can't comment on productivity but the clatter, clatter, clatter - ping - zzzzzpppppt would make me feel like a writer in a movie!
 

Taylor Harbin

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Welcome to the club! This put a big smile on my face, as our two stories are almost identical. I hope it keeps stimulating your mind.
 

yesandno

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I've wanted a typewriter for years now. I used to have a Smith-Corona handed down to me from my Mother. I wrote some really fun stuff on that typewriter. And yes, the noises it made were pure happiness.

Congratulations on your acquisition. I hope it continues to inspire you!
 

cmhbob

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I have my dad's two Royals, and every now and then I get the hankering to write something on one of them. Glad this is working out well for you.
 

Anne_B

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Other disadvantages: having to change the ribbon, getting ink on your fingers, [if you have one of those nifty red/black ribbons] obsessing about throwing away the ribbon when the red part of the ribbon's perfectly fine, paying *shudders* $7 to $10 for a single ribbon... #YesI'mOld
 

O-shin

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When I was little my mother used to take me to her classes. There used to be a typewriter in the back (probably broken) and she'd let me sit in front of it and go nuts. Finger strength is definitely something I realized I needed quite early on, along with a firm grasp on accurately spelling and outlining what you want to say.. also ink, either lack of it or too much of it all over the place... sheesh. Too much for my tiny brain. I'm glad you're having fun though!
My boyfriend got a mechanical keyboard that he can plug to his PC so he can partake of the beautiful clunky noises when typing.. he has one of those old PC keyboards too. He hides them both away like a treasure. Am very jealous.
 

L.C. Blackwell

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Other disadvantages: having to change the ribbon, getting ink on your fingers, [if you have one of those nifty red/black ribbons] obsessing about throwing away the ribbon when the red part of the ribbon's perfectly fine, paying *shudders* $7 to $10 for a single ribbon... #YesI'mOld

Changing the ribbon ... meh, it washed off.

Bought straight black ribbons. This is handy, because with the ribbon selector, I can move between black (top), white (middle) and red (bottom), and still be typing black all the way. Basically, I *should* get three times the use off the same ribbon. $8 a-piece, true, but if I actually can reuse them for three runs, it'll work out to about $2.67 each. Not bad, especially given the horrible price of toner cartridges I have to order direct from the manufacturer. :)
 

L.C. Blackwell

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My boyfriend got a mechanical keyboard that he can plug to his PC so he can partake of the beautiful clunky noises when typing.. he has one of those old PC keyboards too. He hides them both away like a treasure. Am very jealous.

I love those old PC keyboards. Still have mine, though I've never bought the adapter that would let it plug into a USB port. But I am not throwing away my precious.
 

insolentlad

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My boyfriend got a mechanical keyboard that he can plug to his PC so he can partake of the beautiful clunky noises when typing.

I use one of those. The sound is less important to me than the feel under my fingers. Having said that, I'm old enough to have written professionally on a typewriter for quite some time before computers (or even word processors) came along and I would really hate to go back! Even in those days, I preferred to 'first draft' it with pen and paper so I could edit myself a bit as I went.
 

thethinker42

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Sooo tempting. The main thing that puts me off is my tendonitis. I can't even write by hand for too long, and I think a type writer might be too much on my fingers. It sounds awesome though. I'm glad it's working well for you.

I'm in the same boat. I'd love to give a typewriter a try, but I have tendinitis in my hands, so I'm thinking it would be best to skip this one in the name of preserving them.
 

L.C. Blackwell

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I'm in the same boat. I'd love to give a typewriter a try, but I have tendinitis in my hands, so I'm thinking it would be best to skip this one in the name of preserving them.

Yeah, if you can't play the piano, and that sort of thing, a manual typewriter probably isn't the trick for you, as it puts some hard work on the hands. I'm having to be careful about stretching mine, so they don't get too sore.

I'm trying to think, though, and it seems to me like some of the electric versions weren't so hard to type on, and acted more like a normal keyboard, without the issues of a monitor. So maybe, if you get a chance to try a "newer," like 1980s or 1990s electric, see how it feels? The main thing with these machines is repair: so few people do it anymore that unless you get all the manuals and figure it out yourself, it can be pretty pricey.
 

thethinker42

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Yeah, if you can't play the piano, and that sort of thing, a manual typewriter probably isn't the trick for you, as it puts some hard work on the hands. I'm having to be careful about stretching mine, so they don't get too sore.

I'm trying to think, though, and it seems to me like some of the electric versions weren't so hard to type on, and acted more like a normal keyboard, without the issues of a monitor. So maybe, if you get a chance to try a "newer," like 1980s or 1990s electric, see how it feels? The main thing with these machines is repair: so few people do it anymore that unless you get all the manuals and figure it out yourself, it can be pretty pricey.

These days a laptop keyboard seems to be about all I can handle. Ironically, laptop keyboards can't handle me. I *destroy* them within about two years.
 

thethinker42

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:roll: New measure of progress ... number of keyboards worn to oblivion. Hey, there's more than one way to rock this.

LOL, right? Actually, a few months ago, I took my Surface Book back to the Microsoft store because the keyboard was trashed and I'd bought the extended warranty. The first guy stared at it and was like, "The....some of the keys are SPLIT IN HALF. How? HOW???" Then another came up, smirked, and said, "You're a writer, aren't you?" lol (And yay warranty -- brand new laptop for a $60 deductible!)
 

L.C. Blackwell

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LOL, right? Actually, a few months ago, I took my Surface Book back to the Microsoft store because the keyboard was trashed and I'd bought the extended warranty. The first guy stared at it and was like, "The....some of the keys are SPLIT IN HALF. How? HOW???" Then another came up, smirked, and said, "You're a writer, aren't you?" lol (And yay warranty -- brand new laptop for a $60 deductible!)


Serve them right for using cheap plastic. I mean, come on, people. :tongue We have work
to do here.:e2writer: :greenie
 
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JustWriteMike

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I’m happy but amazed to hear typewriters work better for some people. Everything that I put down needs to be reworked and sometimes extensively. I don’t think I could deal with the extra work. Way back in the early 90s when I was young I used typewriters. I would write corrections in the margins and sometimes so many the whole thing became unreadable. I still have 100s of pages sitting in boxes somewhere. No wonder I gave up writing for 20+ years.
 

L.C. Blackwell

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I’m happy but amazed to hear typewriters work better for some people. Everything that I put down needs to be reworked and sometimes extensively. I don’t think I could deal with the extra work. Way back in the early 90s when I was young I used typewriters. I would write corrections in the margins and sometimes so many the whole thing became unreadable. I still have 100s of pages sitting in boxes somewhere. No wonder I gave up writing for 20+ years.

Oh, it needs to be reworked extensively. :greenie It's just that instead of tripping myself up by trying to rework it heavily before I've finished the draft, I have to make some notes--sometimes on a separate sheet of paper stapled to the draft page--and move on. Maybe retype a page or chapter if necessary. But the point, for me, is to get a viable draft that I can put onto the computer for revision. And that's where this is really working.

That said, I've been trying to get this draft straightened out for quite some time, and I have a much-too-hefty stack of failed starts, notes, etc., that were produced before I went to using a typewriter. I'll be interested to see how the next manuscript gets going when I have to do it cold-turkey, as it were. :idea:
 

Norman Mjadwesch

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I’ve always been a two-finger typist, and back when typewriters were the professional’s tool of choice they were absolute murder on my hands. I was pretty slow then, too. Rather than tap-tap-tap-tap-ding, mine went something like clunk… clunk… clunk… big pause… clunk… bigger pause… “Fuck!”… clunk… ding. The electric typewriters (late 80s?) weren’t as hard on the fingers, though, but I still preferred to write by hand because it was quicker than finding the buttons. No such problem these days, it’s incredible how millions of keystrokes add to speed.

I would never want to use my typewriter again, but learning on a machine that doesn’t fix your spelling or allow you to reorder your thoughts was an invaluable learning process for me. Because I was writing before PCs were a thing, these days my drafts are a lot more organised than I think they would have been if I had learned to write with a more stream-of-consciousness mindset, as is possible with a word processor.

On the downside, I have something like enough material to fill four anthologies, which I’m working on, but it’s a huge weight on my mind. It took ages to write all of that stuff, and now I need to transcribe it all before I can even begin to edit. Finding the motivation to undergo the marathon is very depressing, but if I don’t do it, then why did I write any of it in the first place? So depending on where I am on any given day, I either work on new stuff, or chip away at decades old material, or look at the wall and wonder why I have chosen the underappreciated Way of the Scribe. Ah, but when you have another new book in hand, the glow is like nothing on earth, and the smell of my first book is something that I still love (yes, I have some new copies in storage that I like to sniff – don’t laugh!).

I’m relating to the stories of destroyed keyboards. Mine don’t last long either, and quite a few of the keys are devoid of lettering due to too many fingerprints being applied to them. I get quite fond of those keyboards, partly because I don’t need to be able to see the buttons to know what they are, but mostly because they have done their job as a faithful friend, to the extent that there are calls to replace them as though they are undies with holes in them (which are also sacred to me!). When one of the householders (whose name has been omitted in order to protect the innocent) complained about the lack of marked keys, I painted letters on with nail polish. Needless to say, I was the only one who was amused. The only one who doesn’t have an opinion about any of this is the dog.
 

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I love my Remington quiet-riter (which is anything but quiet!)
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