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.
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.
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