How the world of writing has changed! Writers today are very blessed with the technology available to them.
In the Past
I’ve just finished reading “Humboldt’s Cosmos” about Alexander Humboldt, a leading scientist around 1800 (review on Goodreads). All he had for taking notes was paper and pencil or, maybe a goose quill or fountain pen.
Over the five years Humboldt was exploring in South America, Mexico and Cuba, he wrote thousands of pages of observations and measurements. He was one of the last generalists, doing work that laid the foundations for vulcanology, meteorology, archeology, ecology and more. Plus he discovered and catalogued thousands of new plants. Animals were in his field of study as well.
His notes were precious as there was only one copy. Preparing them for publication was done in pencil or fountain pen giving only one copy.
All those famous writers of the past faced the same conditions. No wonder the typewriter was a big hit.
Typewriters
The old typewriters were no fun to type on. It took lots of practice and strong fingers. An advantage was being able to make a carbon copy.
Don’t think there was this special paper. There was carbon paper. It had powdered carbon on one side. A sheet was placed between two pieces of plain paper and fed into the typewriter. When a typewriter key hit the top paper, it pressed a carbon letter onto that second sheet.
Correcting mistakes was very difficult. Accuracy was highly valued in a typist.
Typewriters improved. Paper improved. Electric models appeared. The scripts could be changed. But the writing was still one row of words, the same size, the same intensity – forget bold.
Today’s World of Writing
Typewriters gave way to word processers. Then came the personal computers. This opened up so many options for the writer.
Make a mistake? Back up and retype, no correction fluid or eraser required. Want to move a sentence or paragraph? Highlight it, click on it and drag it to a new location. Prefer a different font? Pick one. Bold it. Italicize it.
Illustrations? Import a picture already cropped, resized and enhanced right into the text. Add a caption, if you want.
I love the new world of writing, most of the time. When the electricity goes out, when the computer crashes, then typewriters have an appeal.