Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Varieties of imperfection





7 comments:

  1. I think I'm mostly going to be doing NaNoWriMo by hand this year (looking back over the past four years, I realize I've alternated handwriting and typing, one after the other), but if I do any of it on a typewriter, it will be my Olympia SG-1. For one, it's out, set up on a desk and ready. For another, it is *fast*, and it's easy to type clearly and accurately on it. And I get a kick out of the paper auto-load lever. And it's pretty. And I like the way it smells. And there's just no replacing the feel of that enormous carriage return. Ah, the power!

    Ahem. I don't think that gal is using the correct hand and wrist posture. Granted, under the circumstances...

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  2. Last year, I used my SM9 and ended up with a couple pages on my AlphaSmart 3000.

    This year, the plan is to use my Lettera 32, but I'll have the SM9 in my workshop and my SG1 is always at the ready on my main desk at home. And I'm sure the AlphaSmart 3000 will be ready, if needed.

    I also gave The Imperfectionists a go off of Adowa's recommendation, but I ended up returning it to the library before finishing. I got through the first two chapters, but nothing really hooked me to keep reading.

    Unfortunately, I have a large stack of books I haven't finished for that same reason. I used to push myself to finish, but anymore, I feel that its better just to find another book to start that will keep my interest than waging war on one I'm not really into just to finish.

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  3. I think The Imperfectionists has some good pay-off moments if you keep at it. There is quite a bit of humor in the middle section, which made the whole book worth it for me. Right, Richard? Didn't you like Winston? :-)

    The "large stack of unread books" phenom makes me appreciate the Kindle... I have a bunch of stuff I haven't gotten around to, but at least I don't have to see it and have it weigh on my conscience. If only my unused typewriters could be so easily hidden...

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  4. The SG1 is indeed an impressive writing engine.

    And the Winston chapter is indeed funny, if a little overdone in my opinion!

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  5. Re: which machine will be used during NaNo...
    I'm going to be using a different machine each day this year.
    I'm doing this not as some sort of masochistic challenge, but because I'm using NaNoWriMo basically as an excuse to play with typewriters.
    I have several machines on which (I'm certain) I have typed nothing other than "the quick brown fox..." and these machines deserve a better workout. I don't have any delusions that I'll be creating any print-worthy prose, so I might as well have fun doing it.
    I likely don't have 30 NaNo-ready machines (that is, machines on which I can comfortably put out the seven-plus pages-per-day NaNo requires) but I figure I'll take a few days off. I think I have at least 20 such machines ready to share the load.

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  6. ahh there's Duffy Moon. He tends to come out around this time of year haha. Good to see you around again man.

    Richard, is the guy in the Typewriter Convention Youtube video, sitting to your left who your talking about?? I think he was using an old Underwood if I remember correctly..

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