Nostalgic Writing Tools
As i was organizing my notes for my new novel for Nanowrimo this November, I started thinking about all the different machines I used for writing over the years and which ones I liked the best. So I decided to take a trip down memory lane.
My first tools for writing when I was a wee little lad was those marble notebooks we all used in school and a couple of pencils or pens. I still use that format in the beginning stages of plotting a new story.
My second writing tool was a portable electrtic typewriter that my mother bought for me on one of my birthdays. I really felt like a writer with the sound of the typewriter and the carriage sliding back into position. The downside was there was no electronic means of saving your stories and getting all tangled up with ribbons and correction tapes.
The third writing tool was another birthday gift from dear old mom, a Brother Word Processor. It had a typewriter attached to a monitor and that was the first time I had to learn about drop down menus and editing on screen. It was great! No more correction tapes, but you still had to change the ribbon on the typewriter but you could use it as a printer when you were satisfied with the editing and you could now save your literary creations on floppy disk.
My fourth and current writing tool is my laptop. Wow, what a difference using word programs and saving your writing on hard drives or on thumb drives or burning them to a disc. Online dictionaries and thesauraes, cutting and pasting your revisions. Also sometimes I like using programs like YWriter to organise scenes and characters.
We’ve come a long way from pens and notebooks but I still miss that portable electric typewriter. Although I wouldn’t trade my laptop for any of those other machines especially during Nano month where every second counts as you have to use all available time to reach the goal of 50K in 30 days, so a laptop is great as it allows me to write my novel in cafes while I get my caffeine buzz with mt cafe mochas. What are your favorite writing tools or methods?
October 22, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I had to chuckle, as you have taken about the same equipment path I have! Ditto on the laptop, although I also have an Alphasmart that’s a little more indestructible that I carry in the car so if we stop at the park, at the beach or even have to wait at the Dr. Office, then I can get some writing done.
Good luck with NaNo this year–I’m looking forward to it!
October 24, 2008 at 3:40 am
I learned to type when I was 12 on an Apple IIe. I wrote volumes and volumes of spectacularly terrible science fiction juvenilia on that computer. Some hard copy may survive.
Thanks for tracking me down on Livejournal. I owe my editor a 25K novella that I’m about a third of the way through roughing out, and I can’t really drop it for a month to start something new for Nano. I do miss that Nano energy, though, so I think I’ll try to play along from the sidelines. It would be great to bring my novella project to write-ins, if there are any.
May 13, 2009 at 9:08 pm
I learned to type as a child, when my mom was taking me at her office. Had to spend days on a computer, playing with Paintbrush… Then, one day, one of her colleagues started showing me Word. It was back in the late 1980s, so it was quite different from now…
At home, in 1991 or 1992, my father-in-law got an amstrad 6128 computer, that he used mainly for games… You know, the game when you have to put tape recorders on a moving walkway? Well, we had that one. Anyway, when I could come close to the machine, I used it to write on it…
Now, I can’t live without my iBook. Started using mac at work, on a very old one. But now, I just couldn’t go back to PC, really…
That Nano thing intrigues me a lot, by the way… I had no idea you had such things in USA. Makes me want to participate, but maybe it’s only for people from your country, since it’s national thing? I’ll go check!
September 6, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Hi Beowulf,
Sorry I haven’t responded until now. Been off my blog site for a while. Been a crazy past few months. Just so you know – NANO is for everyone, no matter where you live. Go to NANOWRIMO.ORG and you can read more about it. The site goes live in October and then you can set up a profile page. The challenge is to write 50, 000 words in 30 days, it’s crazy fun. You can write anything you like and you can even post your daily word count to see your progress. There are alot of useful and fun forum sites to inspire and help you during the month. You can find my profile under WORDMAGE in the Central New Jersey Regional Lounge. Hope to hear from you soon and maybe you can join us in November!