Typewriters vs. Computers

I imagine you're all busy sticking to your resolutions, Dear Readers, so I'll keep this post short and with a sugar substitute.

I've managed to plow through the first draft of my apocalypse novel, and though there's some good stuff there, most of it won't make the second draft. Better stated: My first draft is Crap. That's okay though. It's how I write. Some writers can put down a first draft that is almost complete. Look at Kurt Vonnegut. Guy would only write a page or two a day, but when the manuscript was finished, the book was finished. And while Vonnegut is an exception, I sometimes wonder if his discipline, at least in part, comes from a typewritten mindset. My first two drafts, sometimes even the third, are complete rewrites. By about the third cut I got something I can work with. I can't say for sure why that is, but I suspect it has to do with the ease in which manuscripts can be edited on a computer versus a typewriter. Maybe the seduction of the keystrokes, like some writers suggest. Or perhaps a computer is like a thruway, and a typewriter is like a horse & buggy. You can drive the same thruway a hundred times before you realize you pass an airport. On horse and buggy you know the color of every stone you pass.

So what do you think, Dear Reader?

Posted in: apocalypse,computers,typewriters