A student at an author event asked me a question I’d never been asked before, and I thought I’d share my answer with you today, because it was fun to reflect on!
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Now, I don’t do my every day writing on a typewriter – I’m old fashioned, but not quite that old fashioned! But I have actually used a typewriter at different points in my life!
When I was a child, my uncle had a mechanical typewriter that I loved to fiddle around with, pretending to be a famous author or imagining myself as a successful journalist. It was such a thrill to sit in front of those keys and dream of the day when I would be a real grown-up writer. I was always drawn to vintage clothes, old books and classic films, and I imagined myself as a glamorous lady sitting in my corner office crafting an award-winning work of staggering genius. There wasn’t any tape in the typewriter, so I couldn’t actually type anything on paper, but the feel of the keys under my fingers and the tap tap tap sound of the mechanical keys simply couldn’t be matched by a modern keyboard.
Years later, I actually used an electronic typewriter in one of my first post-college jobs. I worked in a legal office, and the senior lawyer took a bit of an old fashioned approach to his work. I regularly sent faxes and used a typewriter to fill in government forms. While I thrilled to the feel of mechanical keys under my fingers as a child, working with an electronic typewriter as an adult was far less exciting. Firstly, typos are a real headache when writing on a typewriter! You can strike out typos using correction tape, but it never looks quite right, and I found myself painfully typing each letter individually in a desperate attempt to avoid mistakes. And if you change your mind entirely and want to rewrite an entire section in your document? You’re out of luck, my friend – you’ll be typing that entire document out from scratch once again! Saving your work is another major headache – if you have to stop half-way through a job and need to remove your document from the typewriter, setting it back up again and trying to seamlessly line up your text can be a really pain in the neck! Not to mention the fact that you only have a single copy of your document!
Suffice it to say, typewriters look, feel and sound wonderful. There’s nothing quite as inspiring as sitting down at a typewriter with a pencil behind your ear – you’re on your way to writing the Great American Novel!
But…in all honesty, I’ll stick to my Chromebook for my everyday writing, thanks all the same. 🙂
Have you ever written on a typewriter?