Does anybody here still write using a typewriter?

Pencil and paper.

The only advantage a typewriter has is that its output is easier to read for others, but you could solve this by training yourself to write nicer. As such, a typewriter is and never was a writing tool. It was a document presentation tool. The writing happened before it was typed.

 

I don't think I've ever seen a single word of my writing on paper, not until it's actually bound in a finished book. When I started writing I had trouble working on the screen, but now I have trouble NOT on screen.

A typewriter would be a nightmare.

 

Yes, I have been using my mothers old tpypewriter, not for most of my writing, but it helps me get into the time period of one of my stories.

 

The Good Book has got you covered

 

You would quote from the Apocrypha.

 

From where I sit, it all looks the same.

 

It mostly is, I just like the word "apocrypha." It doesn't come up much in regular conversations so take my opportunities where I can.... Apocrypha.

 

When I used a typewriter I never wrote longhand first, ever (our family computer was in the livingroom, so I did all my writing on a manual typewriter 'til I was 15). I haven't written stories longhand since I was in 6th grade.

Reporters in the age of manual typewriters didn't write their stories longhand, either. There's no time for that sort of thing when you're on a tight deadline.

ETA: I think Robert Benchley wrote directly on typewriter as well. Pretty sure it was him...It was one of the writers who lived at the Garden of Allah when they worked in Hollywood. There was a passage in Sheilah Graham's book about how, if you heard his typewriter clacking away, you didn't knock on his door lest you disturb his train of thought. Another writer dragged his typewriter out by the Garden of Allah pool to write in the mornings.

 

I had completely forgotten about this!
My Junior High footfall coach had a rule that all his players took typing class. Yep, I took Typing I and II, plus Advance. All of that. Typing became one of the biggest blades in my utility knife of skills.
You write as you type. Then, you edit what you have typed.
Hmmm, upon reflection, that could make a good writing rule.

 

I write description in longhand because that's hardest for me and you're closer to the paper when you work by hand, but I use the typewriter for dialogue because people speak like a typewriter works.

- Ernest Hemingway

 

I used a typewriter in elementary school. I loved to write but my penmanship was horrible (my dad told me recently that I caught on to reading pretty quick but I lagged behind in writing and spelling). Every time I had a story or a poem, I'd dictate it to my parents and they,d type it up for me on the computer. However, they got tired of this, and I wasn't allowed on the computer on my own, so my dad got his old typewriter from my grandmas house and set me up on it. Unfortunately I was ALWAYS on it and they got annoyed with the sound of my pecking away at the keys!

 

I got my 9 year old daughter a typewriter recently. Couldn't find any new ones available, so had to get a reconditioned one. Brought back memories...not all good ones: holes punched in the ribbon...cartridge slipping...misaligned rows etc. Lots of Tippex required!

 

Reconditioned typewriters from 1955-1969 are better machines than anything produced after 1970. The pinnacle of typewriter technology was around 1960-65, before the steep decline in quality when typewriter manufacturers tried to compete with the personal computer. And lost. So your daughter is better off with her reconditioned machine than with a new one.

And don't use Tippex. Just x over it.

 

Just got my old Brother Electric working again. It needs a few adjustments, but other than some misaligned capitals, it's working just fine.

Spoiler: example

 

My family used to have a typewriter before people knew what a computer was, but it feels like a waste of paper when I throw away at least 90% of what I write. Writing by hand would be terrible for my sore median nerves.