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Yep, that’s right. Today’s blog post is about typing. Actually, it’s about typewriters. I’m of an age to remember how much the world of writing has changed. When I was a kid in the sixties there was no such thing as a word processor. Few had electric typewriters back then either. Most writers of the era of the sixties used manual typewriters with ribbons. These things were monsters. It took quite a bit to hammer your story out though no one thought so at the time. In fact, if you were going to be a writer than you had to be a typist. There was no such thing as Microsoft Word or self-correcting typing. Nopey. What you typed is what you got.

Did you know the Qwerty keyboard we all use was designed to slow down typists? In the early days of typing pools filled with young men and women a strange thing occurred. These young men and women got better. Got faster. Got so fast they could finish what they’d been given to type long before it was needed. So, the Qwerty keyboard was created to slow them down. What a hassle too. The entire method to learn to type is a hassle. And once you learn to touch type you never look back. Never look period. Imagine doing it on a machine that takes pressure to slam a key into the paper day in and day out. Where you had to set your margins by hand and slide the typewriter carriage from on end to the other to start the next line. To move the paper in the machine itself. How many in this generation don’t know the wonder of slamming the return carriage across to hear the zing when it hit home?

They have mechanical style keyboards they sell to emulate the early typewriters for those who love nostalgia. They plug into your tablet and let you write to your heart’s desire. I want one by the way. I want the steam punk version. I think it’s awesome. We made progress quickly in typing. We went from manual typewriters where if you typed fifty words a minute with no errors you were a God. I remember the time my mom got an IBM machine. The one with the ball instead of keys. That thing moved. And the keyboard was ultra-sensitive. My mom was used to hammering a keyboard so when she hit the key on the IBM it made a hundred r’s run across the page. She had to learn to brush the keys with her fingernails to keep it from filling pages with single letters.

Then of course word processors came out. Now one thing all these machines have in common was they operated on the principle of what you typed is what you got. Unlike my own writing these days. We have auto correct. We have online editors. We have grammar checkers. We have it all and if we don’t like it we can erase the thing and start over with a keystroke on the qwerty keyboard hooked up to our computer. I have no love lost over manual typewriters. I am lazy. I like being able to type something out and change the format or font or margins and not retype it. As an eBook Author and Editor, I love modern era word processing programs and printers. Love them. I also love being able to copy and paste. The whole ease of the process. What a marvel in itself.

If for some reason you get nostalgic and want the good ole days, find a manual typewriter and get to it. Believe me, your nostalgia will die quickly. Typing was work back then. Hard work. If you don’t believe me then give it a go, I dare you. 

I’m Ross, Editor at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.