When I was younger, I used to enjoy writing. My imagination ran rampant and I couldn't wait to get it written down. All we had at the time was an old typewriter. Never having been a fan of grabbing a pen and paper and going to town with a story, I used this old typewriter as my creative tool of choice. There was something about the feel of the keys under my fingers and the sound of the typebars punching the paper that would make the ideas flow forth.
Recently, my mother decided that I was a "grown up" and that I should keep a box of stuff she had lying around full of childhood mementos. Inside this treasure trove of goodies, I found several stories that I had written as a child. She dated a few, but most weren't. If I had to guess, I was between 10 and 13 at the time of writing these. These stories were childish, of course. But upon reading them again recently, they were compelling and attention grabbing. I was a surprisingly decent young writer at the time!
A few years passed and it became a requirement in not only schools, but also businesses, that papers must be typed. Because of this, and other reasons obviously, computers were becoming more and more prevalent in homes. Our household hadn't made that fateful leap into the future yet though. To make life easier, my parents decided to purchase a word processor. It wasn't a computer, but it was still awfully fun for me. Once again,the ideas would come and I would rush to put them down on paper. With the word processor, I still had the wonderful sound of those little metal fingers smacking the paper and the beautiful mono-spaced, serifed text. However, with the introduction of the word processor into my life, I had lost the pressure of the keys of our old typewriter.
To have the ability to correct mistakes, switch colors on the fly, etc, this was an acceptable loss. I wrote a few more stories and even attempted my first real novel. Things were still good. I could still write quite easily.
Then we bought a computer. I'd lost the feeling of the keys, the punch of the typebars, and with that I'd lost a great deal of creativity. With the introduction of the Internet also came the introduction of distraction. The creativity nearly ceased. Writer's Block sank in. Even if I were to look up something to try to get that creativity going, I would easily be distracted by something flashy and pretty on the World Wide Web.
Many years have passed and I am now 26. I've forgotten proper grammar, sentence structure, and other basic rules of writing. Despite all that, I'm going to fire up the old word processing software and do my best to spit 50,000 words onto paper in some form of coherency. I've got a few scattered thoughts and ideas for a story that I'm going to somehow turn into a novel over the course of a month.
For better or for worse, NaNoWriMo, here I come.
Recently, my mother decided that I was a "grown up" and that I should keep a box of stuff she had lying around full of childhood mementos. Inside this treasure trove of goodies, I found several stories that I had written as a child. She dated a few, but most weren't. If I had to guess, I was between 10 and 13 at the time of writing these. These stories were childish, of course. But upon reading them again recently, they were compelling and attention grabbing. I was a surprisingly decent young writer at the time!
A few years passed and it became a requirement in not only schools, but also businesses, that papers must be typed. Because of this, and other reasons obviously, computers were becoming more and more prevalent in homes. Our household hadn't made that fateful leap into the future yet though. To make life easier, my parents decided to purchase a word processor. It wasn't a computer, but it was still awfully fun for me. Once again,the ideas would come and I would rush to put them down on paper. With the word processor, I still had the wonderful sound of those little metal fingers smacking the paper and the beautiful mono-spaced, serifed text. However, with the introduction of the word processor into my life, I had lost the pressure of the keys of our old typewriter.
To have the ability to correct mistakes, switch colors on the fly, etc, this was an acceptable loss. I wrote a few more stories and even attempted my first real novel. Things were still good. I could still write quite easily.
Then we bought a computer. I'd lost the feeling of the keys, the punch of the typebars, and with that I'd lost a great deal of creativity. With the introduction of the Internet also came the introduction of distraction. The creativity nearly ceased. Writer's Block sank in. Even if I were to look up something to try to get that creativity going, I would easily be distracted by something flashy and pretty on the World Wide Web.
Many years have passed and I am now 26. I've forgotten proper grammar, sentence structure, and other basic rules of writing. Despite all that, I'm going to fire up the old word processing software and do my best to spit 50,000 words onto paper in some form of coherency. I've got a few scattered thoughts and ideas for a story that I'm going to somehow turn into a novel over the course of a month.
For better or for worse, NaNoWriMo, here I come.
