The Struggles of Writing Without Technology

DISCLAIMER: I’m not using spellcheck, grammar check, or anything else to get that flavor across. Just saying!

Picture it.

1974.

I’m sitting at my father’s old secretary desk. I’m slightly older than the typewriter I’m using.

***

A yong man (TYPOS INTENDED), pounds aawy at an old rOyal typewriter with the intention of writing the Graet american Novel. Influenced by the like of Arthur C. Clarke, Robert HEinlein, and etc, he thinks he can write a series of Novels better than any of those bums could write.

He pounds away at teh Keys. Page after page is produced. Every ow and then, he pulls out an ERaser and erasess a mistake! Sometimes, the erased text ghosts through and you can see that word. Or he uses whiteout and has to wait for the paint to dry.

Then he has to CHec a fact. He opens an Encylopedia that was up to date five years before. Or, he GOEs to the Lirbary and consults one that is a litle Newer.

***

Hurts the eyes a little, doesn’t it! I don’t know how many short stories I submitted that I wrote on that old Royal. What I do know is getting them letter perfect was almost impossible. I did the best I could, submitted the story, and a few weeks later, I’d get a rejection slip.

I had a file cabinet full of them. Rejection slips from Galaxy, Amazing Stories, and Omni.

I’m pretty sure I was responsible for keeping the postal service afloat.

Paper mills showed record profits from my writing and a fair number of trees were felled because of me.

The computer/word processing program has made my life a lot easier. While I still have a dictionary thicker than most Bibles, it’s rare I have to reach for it.

Need a fact check. Google is good. Google wise. Ask and find out.

So, here’s the math of life without a computer:

Old Typerwriter + Eyestrain because of typos + Frequent trips to library + expense for postage + impact on forests for paper = I THINK I’D RATHER WATCH TV THEN WRITE!