I used a typewriter for the first time yesterday

[lac0olant]

Thirteen years ago, I remember sitting in my elementary class with a comically thick pencil (as all the cool kids had 'em at the time) writing the alphabet and tiny, grade-schooler quality sentences by hand. A year or so later, it was entire essays. A year or so later, we were learning to type on computers and being rewarded with Kid Pix time. It used to be that I'd write pages upon pages by hand until my hands started cramping up each time, getting fast at typing to make up for lost time.


Now I'll be sitting in college, often accompanied by a laptop and using Microsoft Word, Google Doc or, heaven forbid, the dreaded adobe products. Now it's like working through the writing process is nonexistent in educational settings, it's just not as enjoyable anymore and don't even get me started on the researching process. I've never used AI for looking for answers as it's never thorough or thought provoking enough (and, most of the time dumb or misinformed about a lot of things) but when the majority around you is cutting corners for an easy grade and all the recent articles start to look the same, everything feels pointless and tasteless. No one's trying anymore and there's nothing to compete with because everyone is averaging their own writing now to a point that doing the bare minimum yourself looks like an achievement now!

 

As writing and collaborative tools, Microsoft Word and Google Docs have worked for a very long time, albeit a shadow of what it once was. There's some useful features that are made in buttons now instead of CSS, very user friendly compared to older software I remember using on older pcs. I just don't like that it has to be connected with everything all of the time so I often use Ellipsus or Open Office. Despite this, I just can't seem to get in the right workflow just staring at a screen with no physical papers in front of me. At least, not when writing from scratch.

 

Originally I was thinking about switching back to pen and paper so I'm not just staring at a screen all day but my handwriting is god-awful. So I tell my mom that I'm looking into typewriters and, turns out, she still has hers from when she was younger! Her typewriter is a small, light blue, manual Sears typewriter with a case around it and a handle. It's a little dirty on the outside but the inside is still intact. All the mechanisms inside are still nearly brand new, only problem was the ribbon on the inside dried out. Luckily, this model takes universal so we were able to order one online. The box came with two spools, one half of the ribbon red while the other half is black. My dad told me to just watch a video or something to put it in properly but the majority I found didn't really explain how the threading worked on a manual typewriter. I give up and ask my dad how it's done again and even he gets stumped for a bit. Turns out, we both threaded it wrong and had it backwards. Until we reload the ribbon, the red setting on the typewriter writes in black and the black setting types in red. As for the white? Never seen a ribbon with a white strip in the middle. Spent maybe three hours yesterday writing two pages, getting used to the pressure needed on a manual. I still instinctively keep trying to use it like I use a keyboard but that's a given having used them for the majority of my life. I'm currently using lined paper to write an outline for a book idea!