Typewriters

A severe case of writer's block had me remembering typewriters today.

My first full blown case of creative breakdown occurred when I started taking writing classes back in the 1970's. I had a manual typewriter then. The only way the words made it to the page was if I hit the letter keys hard enough to transfer the ribbon ink to the paper.

So of course I wrote everything longhand first. The delete key hadn't been invented and trying to white out an entire sentence or paragraph of typewritten material made for a pretty sloppy final product.

I thought I'd stepped into Tomorrow Land when I purchased my first electric typewriter. Automatic paper feed, letter keys that required only a tap, and correction tape built into the ribbon - surely I owned the ultimate writing tool.

But the thing of it was, whether done manually or automatically, the act of feeding a blank piece of paper into a typewriter could send award winning plot lines spinning into the nether world - never to be recaptured.