Last week a slew of reports claimed the typewriter had finally slipped away from us and that the last machine had been manufactured. Luckily, it turned out this was not the case, there are factory lines still producing and individuals still pounding the keys.
Still, the thought of it gave me – and word-lovers everywhere – a bit of a moment.
There are plenty of things to love about typewriters, the ponderous feeling of weighted keys, the satisfying clunk, clunk of your words appearing in the real world, but I have to admit that mine is an ornament rather than a piece of my office equipment.
I can’t give up the speed of my pen across the page or my fingers on the flat little keyboard of my computer. I’m sorry typewriters, I don’t want you to go – but I know I’ll do little to halt your demise. Instead, I drew you a picture.
A picture of my typewriter by way of an apology
Lynsey May 
Nice picture – though I think many writers do like using typewriters because it removes the temptation to fiddle with the text after you have written it.
This includes people who have grown up sleeping and breathing the latest tech – it is definitely choice, not habit, to use a typewriter if you are a teenager now.
Reducing edit temptation can be a good thing – maybe I should get one myself. I used to use my dads (grandad’s?) old 1904 typewriter which was mega cool but made semi-invisible T’s. Sadly he got rid of it eventually.
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1904? Wow, that does sound cool!
That’s a good point, although I think I’d still find it hard to stop fiddling. That, plus typos, would probably see me in an endless loop of typing things up that were never actually finished.
I suppose it’s similar to one of the reasons I like to write by hand in the first instance – so you can see what your original thought was, even if you do end up changing it at a later date.
Maybe you should see if you can find another typewriter as cool as your dad’s/grandad’s?
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I was a little suspicious of that report seeing as Staples appeared to be selling typewriters via different manufacturers. Phew!
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hehe, it did seem as though rather too many newspapers jumped on that story without checking the facts… Although I suppose it did give typewriters a moment in the spotlight!
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I remember writing on a typewriter when I was a kid. It was so much fun! Where did all that go, huh?
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Do you mean where did the fun of writing on a typewriter go? Or when did writing stop being fun and start being hard work? 😉
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A little bit of both I guess! I remember I had lots of fun times writing on the typewriter. Both because it was a typewriter and because I was a child writing silly stories on it I think 🙂
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Both of those things are good things 🙂
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There was a similar story in the press last year claiming that Technics were going to stop making SL1200/1210 record players (the ubiquitous DJing turntable) due to increased demand for CD/MP3 products. Again it turned out to be misinformation. People all ways want to tell us that we’re living in the future but we’re not, not yet anyway.
BTW: I could never write without a computer! I’ve written one script without proper formatting software, never again! Even writing prose I write much faster on a computer than I do by hand. I’ll always save my first draft as a PDF though so that I actually rewrite rather than edit/tinker….
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If you’re only writing on a computer, maybe you ARE living in the future! Scripts are a little different I guess, so much annoying formatting, but the PDF idea is such a good one.
I used to write so much faster by hand, but now I’d say it’s 50/50. However, I seem to write better on paper – maybe because there are no online distractions (and I don’t always have so much will power on the go)
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I bought a typewriter from a charity shop a month ago!
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Good show – keep those keys clacking!
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Perhaps of interest:
http://maximumfiction.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/craft-note-kickin-it-old-school/
My return to the typewriter as writing machine.
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