Back to the Present

Lately, I've been wondering what it would be like to go back in time, say 50 years, to an era when writers used a typewriter to create their works of fiction. Of course, there are certain drawbacks to being in that historical time frame.

It would mean that I wouldn't be able to type as fast as I do now or with such a carefree attitude. I wouldn't have a nifty "spell checker" or the ability to cut and paste certain lines or blocks of text or to quickly and cleanly delete errors and junk. I'd be using a lot of correction tape (that was before "White-Out") or black china marker to cross out boo-boos. And I'd have to retype a lot of stuff or else hire a typist. And I'd spend a lot of money mailing out manuscripts. That's the "down" side of going back 50 years in time and being a novelist who uses a typewriter.

The "up" side is that I wouldn't be competing with just about anyone with a computer and the desire to write what they call a book or a novel. As it is now, that includes a lot of teenagers who copy other people's stuff off the web and put their name on it and frustrated college students who just have to be a sci-fi novelist, despite the fact that they have no clue how to write and can't spell worth a damn. It also includes as competition every former housewife who has "a voice of her own now" and a mysterious dream or a spooky near-death experience or a nagging desire to share.

In other words, in the present day, I have at my disposal a lot of the latest tools for writing novels. But so do a million other so-called "writers".

Hmmm. Anybody have a time machine I can use?