How has technology changed the way you write?

Like many of our colleagues here, I began writing in my early teens on a manual typewriter. I was not--am not--a touch-typist (though long practice has made me a fast typist nonetheless), and white-out and onion-skin paper (I hated the latter and almost never used it) made it difficult to make corrections, let alone significant changes to long manuscripts. As a consequence, I soon learned to organize my thoughts and write so that my first draft could almost always be my last. There were never dozens of revisions to get a line just right for me--it simply was not an option as time, paper, white-out and expensive typewriter ribbons (when I upgraded to an electric typewriter) were scarce.

Although I have always composed at the typewriter (no outlining, hand-written drafts, etc.), I intended whatever I wrote to be largely a final draft in part because the revision process was so onerous. If I did not like the second paragraph in a twenty page short story, making changes or moving it to a different place on the manuscript required retyping numerous pages--not easy when I had on average eighteen papers per semester in my last three years of college. As a consequence, most of what I submitted to professors and publishers alike was--and still is--largely my original draft with only minor revisions and corrections. I was an early adopted of technology--always when my budget allowed it--and have had a computer and printer since the early 1980s. But I still largely compose at the computer and write finished drafts--for good or ill--with minor changes. I suspect I would be a different and perhaps better writer if I had started out with my trusty WordStar and a printer rather than a typewriter.

How has technology--or the lack thereof--influenced the way you write? If you began writing in the days before computers, has technology significantly changed the process of writing for you and, if so, did it do so for the better or worse?

12/30/2012

Victor..

I don't miss the manual or electic typewriters, you

bought back memories of horrors, typing, re-typing, white out

it was a horror ! I love writing on the computer , make a mistake

you just with one button clear the whole line..I usually write on a

legal pad but other times I'll go straight to the computer. I tell you

I have learned so much in seven years, it shocks me sometimes...

Cheers..Joe..

Joe,

I don't miss the typewriter either, but wonder if learning to write on one has locked me in to some habits that may have been avoided had I started on a computer instead. Just curious, as Alice might say.

I started writing textbook supplements (modules, technically, but they were very different from the concept known by most teachers who use such things) shortly after I started teaching. We had a couple of IBM Selectrics and an unlimited supply of paper. Our work had to pass inspection by our anally retentive AP before going to the district printing office (He was known to use a ruler to make certain the periods after the numbers in a list of assignments lined up perfectly. We once got into a verbal battle over whether or not "concision" was a word. He wanted me to change it to conciseness, which I insisted referred to a different operation - a result as opposed to a process. I ended up changing the whole bleeping sentence structure before he reluctantly approved the booklet for printing.) The booklets were required to have an original image on the cover, a page of behavioral objectives that would indicate whether or not the student had mastered the work, and had to be in complete, numbered page order before it was approved to be sent to the printer. Changes in curriculum requirements meant that the booklets had to be revised every year or so, and "revised," with that technology meant completely rewritten. I cannot even begin to relate what it meant to get our first desktop PC's, which meant that we could simply revise according to the new requirements.

As far as creative writing goes, It has only been since I got this little netbook, almost a year ago, now, that I have been able to let go and lt my fingers do the typing. I have been writing in journals, with a pencil (a nice, smooth, automatic pencil), and transcribing, until this last novel.

When I wrote BEARKILLER, I wrote the whole thing out long-hand on legal pads and sent it to my sister, who at the time was an editor of a major Florida newspaper, to type for me. As I proof read it, I entered it into my new computer and have used WORD ever since. I still outline my thoughts first but find writing in WORD allows me to write almost as fast as I get the thought, change on the fly and make corrections quickly.

Ann and Don,

Would the freedom provided by the computer be further enhanced for either of you (or anyone else reading this, for that matter) by using the dictation capability of Windows or a dedicated program like Dragon naturally Speaking to dictate your books for the computer to transcribe with something approaching 99% accuracy? I have not tried that technology yet but wonder how it might affect my writing.
Any thoughts? (Can I be guilty of hijacking my own thread?)

I've tried dictation software and it doesn't work for me. I'm too distracted checking to see if it's writing what I'm saying, plus getting distracted by my own talking. If I had the patience to learn a whole new way (like if I was twenty years younger) it would probably be the best way to go.

I would never have gotten a book written without a computer.

Getting my AA in Accounting was trying enough for me. I recall my final Accounting project and the total chaos it caused. I typed it on a Brother electric typewriter and ripped sheets of paper and flung them as mistakes occurred.

The kitchen floor was strewn with the rejects. What a nightmare!

The diction software would not work for me. My speech is slurred and softened by PD and brain surgery.

Hey - it's your thread; I would think you get to choose.

I've tried other voice methods and can't say I like them. Probably just the way my brain works.

I had a poster on my classroom wall that said, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say."

Writing has always been a means of clarifying my thoughts.

But that's just me.

I'm with you, Ann.

Alice,

A kitchen strewn with rejected papers simply proves your creativity, as my hopelessly cluttered desks/offices proves mine. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Victor,
Your desk reminds me of my first boss. She was hilarious. Only two years behind on her books and didn't know a debit from a credit. She spent her day bothering me.
She and her husband fought nonstop. She was the President of the company, he was the owner. He hated the office workers and she obstructed them. It was quite a situation. When she arrived in the morning wearing the same blouse as usual, she would sing out, "Hi, It is I!" My co- worker and I would cringe.
The whole place was a mess and I mean a mess. I just about lost it the day she approached me and asked me to please keep my papers square with my desk.

She and her husband would scream and yell at each other--quite a circus.

When I wrote my first book, it was on a typewriter. I can't recall the number of times I re-wrote the manuscript. I simply gave up. I was able to finish it when I learned to use the PC. The problem in trying to write text and at the same time doing it grammatically correct without typos, was frustrating.
Now when I write, I get my thoughts down on paper ignoring the typos or sentence structure. When I re-read what I wrote, I make corrections.
I have found that the uninhibited flow of thoughts is more important than getting things written correctly. I have read books that were gramatically perfect, but the story was dull.

I believe that each person has his/her own style. I believe that whatever works for you, do it. If something doesn't work, change it. In all things, keep it simple.

I had the very first computers and left the typewriters in the dust. I did write a lot of papers on an old Remington manual that I carried all over the U.S. during my early, traveling years. I called it Remy and it kept me financially afloat at the various colleges I attended doing other people's typing. I was sad when I finally let it go. In spite of being manual, it had a quick, light touch and I clocked quite high typing speeds with great accuracy (I hated to make corrections so I became very accurate).