An odd side effect of a garage sale find...

[Orrex]

A few weeks ago I picked up a Smith Corona "Swingline" portable manual typewriter at a garage sale for the hefty price of $1.00. Actually, the hefty part is that I had to walk 3/4 mile home with it while pushing my 20-month-old in his stroller. People back in the manual typewriter-days had different ideas of portability, I suspect.

Well, it's in fine working order, and the ribbon still has enough life in it to serve adequately. It's loud as all get-out, though, compared to the klik-klik-klik of a modern keyboard.

Still, I've enjoyed hammering away at it in the past few days. Mostly I use it on our front porch, when the aforementioned toddler is napping and his older brother is playing in the yard. And I've noticed something really strange:

I write better on this typewriter than I do on my PC.

For the record, my first Typing class back in junior high was on a manual machine, so it's not entirely unfamiliar to me, even if the differences are surprising after having been spoiled on computers for 20+ years! But I find that my writing process--heck, even my mindset--is much more streamlined when I'm using the ol' Swingline. All I can figure is that I'm forced to move forward, no matter what kind of crap I put on the page, typos included. When I write in MS Word or some equivalent, I'm endlessly tempted to go back and rework this paragraph or that sentence, and I think that I waste a lot of time going over mistakes, too.

Have any of you noticed this? My wife (House of Kewpie) thinks that I'm crazy, for this and a number of other reasons, and I admit that the phenomenon surprises me, too. Does anyone else find better success on an old fashioned machine, rather than on the latest whiz-bang word processing software?

Of course, this improved process doesn't necessarily translate to success in publishing, but I really like the results in the meantime!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. You're forced to go slower

You are thinking more about what you're writing, whether you're aware of it or not. I have several writer friends - most notably, screenwriters - who would die rather than not write on their little Swiss collectors' items. I have the same feeling about legal pads and my favorite fountain pen.

There's a huge difference between what I write at a keyboard of any kind, and what I write in longhand. The longhand might not be as voluminous, but it's more thoughtful, measured, polished, even before the ink hits the page.

Enjoy your new accessory.

[Orrex]

5. The "slower" aspect might be it

Every keystroke is noticeably longer, of course, so you really do have more time to think about each letter and word. It seems to put me in a more effective "zone," though, so that the text flows onto the page more smoothly and easily. Again, that's not to say that the words that hit the page are poetry the first time out, but it's nice to be able to put down something that I can go through and pick apart after the fact.

[OneGrassRoot]

2. Very interesting...

This makes so much sense. As Tangerine said, it forces you to go slower and be more thoughtful, intentional.

I find that, lately, I so easily leave out little words as I type on the computer -- not only in trivial emails or casual posts, but in actual manuscripts. I'm stunned to go back and find so many little words are not there; they didn't convey from my brain to the screen. Oy.

Perhaps a much-needed break will fix that problem. Then again, perhaps I need to get back to basics...at least for a while. :)

Hey, Orrex...I knew there was something familiar about you. I just checked the website and, as soon as I saw the word "babushka," I knew you had to be from PA. I noticed a few other locale tidbits in your writing that sounded familiar as well.

I'm from Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!

[Orrex]

6. I'm an import to the Pittsburgh area, in fact

I hail from eastern PA originally, near Allentown. I only got to Pittsburgh in 99, and I've successfully resisted the corruption of the Yinzer accent so far...


The typos that I lately find myself making most often involve clipping the letter from one word and sticking it on the next, because for some reason I'm hitting the space bar one keystroke too soon or too late. Ther esult look ssomething lik ethis.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Another Keystone Stater

I grew up in Schuylkill County. Sound familiar?

You're making the typos because your hands - and your brain - are used to the buttery ease of computer keyboards. It's a completely different rhythm, timing, so you're naturally going to hit some off notes. That'll go away with practice.

I think it's great that you're having such a primal (ha!) experience. Care to try pen and paper, just to see what happens?

[Orrex]

8. Familiar indeed!

I used to hear all about your fine Expressway on the evening news, back in the day.

The typewriter is also nice because I've been meaning to bulk up my fingers, and the extra weight required for the keystrokes is just what I need!

Also, my penmanship is so bad that it's punishable by a fine in 17 states. I've done the pen and paper route with moderate success, but it's not my preferred medium, even for drafts. After all, it's hard to chart your forward progress when you can't read the passage that you wrote yesterday!

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. I transcribe religiously every night

this also means it is edited while at it

And slowly things are coming up...

I had to go that route... the passive voice came back with a vengeance, and slowing down was a way to slay it

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I'll go one better.... I am writing my first drafts these days using a ... fountain pen

and moleskin

Noticed that as well

[Orrex]

4. What kind of freak are you?!?

I suspect that your next manuscript will be inked in unicorn blood on the leathered skins of bunyips.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Ah.. taking my own blood after pricking myself... now talk about putting

myself into MY work

:evilgrin:

[Orrex]

10. If you want to write about pricking yourself, that's your business

But I had no idea that you were into that kind of writing...

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Hey in real life I have to do it every so often, diabetes and all

but I don't write vampire stories

:-)

Hey, I generally speaking don't like them.

Still, if I were to do that...

Now that said, my background is starting to take form.

[petgoat]

13. I've written (unpublished) novels on typewriters and computers

The ease of editing on computers makes me loathe to go back. Seems like
three drafts was the typewriter standard. I've done 30 drafts using
computers, even on novels.

But I definitely recognize some advantages to typewriting. Computers
are like living together; typing is like marriage. In computing I tend
to gloss over the difficult issues and tell myself I'll work it out in
the next draft, but for now I'll just print out a corrected copy (that's
sort of like burying your relationship problems in bed, and hoping they'll
stay buried.) In typing a novel draft, when I ran into a problem or the
sense that I was maybe going in an unhelpful loop, I would stop right
there and solve the problem before I went on.

[Orrex]

14. That's a fine analogy

And very much like my experience. My own flawed method of writing, in fact, seems to make me extra susceptible to bogging myself down in endless cycles of "I'll just tweak that paragraph a little before moving on," and as a result I never get anywhere, of course.

So far, I'm seeing the typewriter as the tool for making the rough cuts, and after I transcribe the output onto my computer, then I can go through and do the polishing.

[OneGrassRoot]

15. Brilliant analogy...

You guys are making me consider going to craigslist and ebay to find a typewriter. :)

As for the transcribing process, to get it onto the computer in electronic format, I wonder if dictating the draft -- then transcribing from a verbal recording -- would be helpful.

It seems it could be very helpful, especially when writing dialogue.

Interesting...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

16. Be careful

It seem logical, doesn't it, that dictating dialogue would produce great written dialogue.

It won't. It's a whole different part of the brain, and it just won't work that way.

You might be seduced, but, in fact, writing dialogue forces you to stay within the boundaries of your character's development that you've already laid down and, in talking - that's all it is - you could lose some of that discipline.

Try it. Maybe it'll work for you, but I have playwright friends who do whole scenes without reading any of it aloud until they've got a complete scene nailed, and novelist friends who've tried what you're contemplating who say it ruined their rhythm. Me, I just work with a fountain pen and a legal pad - a la Richard Nixon writing a speech - or a computer keyboard, and I've learned that that's what works best for me.

That's why it's called "writing" and not "speaking".

[OneGrassRoot]

17. Point taken. Thanks. :) Here is an odd question:

Has anyone ever heard of an agent requiring a fiction manuscript adhere to Chicago's Manual of Style before submission?

Certainly one should aim for consistency, but a publisher will use their own house style guide, right? I follow CMOS for nonfiction, but this request threw me a bit.

Things have changed so very, very much since my days with MacMillan -- yikes -- nearly 18 years ago.

Geesh, that's the first time I've seen that in black and white. Now I feel really, really, really feel old. :eyes:

Edited because, as usual, I leave out a word. :)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. I have no idea

You write with the best spelling and punctuation you've got. My agent, gee, I don't know, never said a thing to me about adhering to anyone's guidelines, and my publisher - HarperCollins - leaves that to the people who do the proofing, those wonderful, invisible souls to whom I owe so much.

Clean, well-written, a good story, good characters, the soaring narrative arc deftly bent to a brilliant conclusion. That's all my agent wants.

All.

Ha.