An obsession with typewriters is quite common. There are so many benefits with this sort of obsession:
- Owning an old typewriter means you will be regarded as cool and retro – a refreshing change from being seen as odd / weird / random.
- Owning an old typewriter screams ‘creative person’ it gives you that instant creative / arty / interesting person look.
- They are the ultimate accessory for a writer’s home and give you the opportunity at dinner parties to go on about how similar you are to Agatha Christie – both of you are writers and like to type out your novels. Obviously this could be where the similarities end so try not to get carried away on this.
- A typewriter forces you to think about your next sentence. Your forward planning writing skills will be put to the test.
- A typewriter offers you a distraction free method of writing. No internet access icons waving at you. You are simply typing and writing!
- A typewriter pin board on Pinterest makes you look creative. Click to admire my board.
- There is something romantic about typing at an old desk, next to an open window, with a beautiful view. Sigh!
- A typewriter gives you a sensory treat; the feel of hitting the keys, the click clack sound and then seeing the printed words appear on the page.
- The click clack sound of an old typewriter can be therapeutic.
- You can’t press a button and delete chunks of work. A typewriter forces you to rewrite.
- Retro typewriters make great visual images for blogs or online sites.
- They might not be practical for novel-writing but they work wonders for re-energizing writers who have lost their creative way.
Happy typing!
Am just off to sit by an open window, wave to passers-by and type something profound – loud sigh!
photo credit: mugfaker <a href=” internalised – take 2</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>(license)</a>
When I was younger my ‘being a writer’ dreams always involved a typewriter. For point number 2, I would look into getting one.
Thx Deb – happy Thursday to you 🙂
I learned to write on typewriters (plural). I still own two – the Adler Gabrielle 25 that I wrote all my university work on (and a lot of other stuff) and an IBM Selectric II which doesn’t work (a cable fell off a pulley…), but which had the all-time best keyboard I’ve ever typed on. Last year I took the Gabrielle 25 for a walk to the Wellington waterfront and photographed it as a backgrounder for my blog, whereupon I was pounced on by a journalist who wrote for Wellington’s metropolitan daily (a paper I’d also written for) who’d also owned one. Typewriter = writer. Even today. And, absolutely, typing on paper forces writers to THINK, and typewriters are wonderful anyway for writers, for all the reasons you list!
Yes – it’s given me a new lease of creative life 🙂 thx for reading and happy Thursday!
I have an old manual typewriter. Grandma gave it to me when I was in seventh grade. Before then, it belonged to her brother. It’s put away in my bedroom closet. Someday I plan to get it out again. It desperately needs a new ribbon. I hope I can find one!
Get it out 🙂 thx for dropping by and happy Thursday
I’ve always wanted a typewriter but never got my hands on one. Perhaps I will. Where did you get yours?
All i think about is that scene in love actually where all the papers fly away. Haha!
I want to recreate that scene 🙂
I learned to type on my mom’s typewriter. Surprisingly enough, my strongest memory of it is the ribbon’s distinctive smell. I can feel it in my nostrils as I type this.
Love that smell 🙂 happy Thurs
Typing was my home room class the year I started High School – I still remember the smell of the ink ribbons and the day Nina Beattie, our resident punk, brought in Siouxsie and the Banshees for us to type to (Nina was a cool girl and the song was Dear Prudence, actually a perfect beat). There’s still something about the clack of those keys – I miss it on my computer 🙂
Love the clack of keys and love typewriters 🙂 happy Thurs
Up to a point Lucy, I agree, but a good friend, when working in an old school typing pool, leant down to pick up something, accidentally touched the carriage return and concussed herself… they are dangerous pieces of machinery!
Oh no! Thx for alerting me to this 🙂 happy Thursday
Romantic, yes, but hard on the wrists.
Why is the suitcase smiling. It can’t type. 😀 😀
I love typewriters and I do miss them in a way. I remember learning to type on my mums manual typewriter and then the school’s electronic ones. I nice post Lucy… very nostalgic.
Thx Simon 🙂
Oh! What great timing. My mom actually just brought my grandmother’s old typewriter(totally spelled that typerwriter :p) over at Thanksgiving to give me. I remember I always used to plunk around on it when I was young and we’d visit grandma. I’d write letters to my friends and always complain about messing up. :p Backspace was just moving it and typing over the letter with another one. Hee hee! (I’m not allowed to type on a typewriter. It’ll have to just look awesome on my desk now.)
Plunk – what a fab word! Great comment
I can remember the hum of our old electric typewriter and how I was forced to retype essays for school as I a particularly prone to typos. For that reason, I don’t have the same fondness for them as other writers, but they do look pretty in photos.
Yes they do look nice in photos – thx for reading 🙂
The typo above was completely intentional and used to illustrate a point. I definitely did not hit send too soon.
Loved it!
Typewriters are beautiful!
Love typewriters. Had one as a teenager (not a cool retro one, but an electric one) and spent more time on there than my mother liked. I do believe she thought I might be a little obsessed… (I might have been). 😀
Sounds like fun 🙂
It was. 🙂
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
Thx – happy Friday 🙂
There really is something nostalgic and awesome about a typewriter. I loved how #3 ends: “Obviously this is where the similarities end so try not to get carried away.” Hilarious!
Thx for picking up on that little gem of mine – I knew someone would 🙂 happy Friday my awesome blogging / writing chum!
I’m off to a 2nd hand shop to buy or I could download an app to make my computer sound like one.
Yay!!! Fab idea for an app!
I have an old typewriter and it is SO cool! 😉 Really, it is. Love your “crazy” PInterest board. I have got to open an account on there.