The unique appeal of the typewriter

What’s so special about a typewriter, anyway? After all, they are an outdated, rarely-used technology, usually only owned by hipsters and your grandparents.

Even so… there’s something magical about them. They seem more real and substantial than a laptop or smartphone. The actor Tom Hanks even wrote a love letter to typewriters in the New York Times. Sentimental? Maybe.

Not just nostalgia

Nonetheless, there are real, objective benefits to using a typewriter over a computer when creating content for your website or blog. Above all, a typewriter forces one to focus. A typewriter won’t send you notifications, it won’t run out of batteries, and it certainly won’t forward you the 14 Reasons Why Buzzfeed is Killing the Internet. (Sorry, Buzzfeed!)

And let’s be honest – at the end of the day, typewriters are just plain cool. So, the question is: how do we replicate the benefits of using a typewriter without giving up the benefits of a modern computer?

Step 1: Remove all Internet connectivity

Obviously, typewriters don’t have an Ethernet port or a Wi-Fi card. (Other than the Frankensteinian monster Freewrite – a typewriter with a screen) For writers and content-creators, though, this is actually a feature, not a bug. Why? Because it limits our ability to be distracted by the Internet.

Thus, the first step to typewriter-ifiying your computer is to turn the Internet off. This one is pretty easy – just deactivate the Wi-Fi on your computer. Or, go somewhere without Internet, like the park.

However, if you still need to access some “research material” online, you can selectively block specific websites. Try using SelfControl, Focus or Freedom.

Step 2: A (digital) blank sheet of paper

Now that we’ve blocked all online distractions, it’s time to block offline distractions, too. The human ability to be distracted is endless, after all – Internet or no Internet. We’re all guilty of re-organizing our iTunes library (for the 12th time) when we should be writing our next eBook. The typewriter has only one function – to write.

As I mentioned in a previous post on focus, I don’t recommend using a complex writing program like Microsoft Word. A typewriter doesn’t have any formatting options.

For my money, the best minimalist writing programs on the market are iA Writer (Mac OS X) and Q10 (Windows.)

Add some cool sounds

Finally, we need to make our digital typewriter sound like a real typewriter. There are a few software programs that make this possible:

Typewriter Keyboard (Mac OS X)
Typewriter Keyboard, made by AlphaOmega Software, is the best tool for adding cool typewriter sounds to your Mac. You can easily enable and disable the key sounds.

Noisy Typer (Mac OS X)
Noisy Typer is another “typewriter sound” software program for Macs. Check out a video here.

I had some difficulty getting it to work on my Macbook Air, but you may have better luck.

Ready to write? I’ll leave you with a quote from Ernest Hemingway (whom we talked about in our last post):

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

– Ernest Hemingway

Unlike many other novelists, Hemingway didn’t operate on inspiration alone; instead, he meticulously followed a set of strict rules and habits. In this post, we’ll explore how his advice can help you stay motivated while writing content for your blog posts and email newsletters.

Just write one sentence

Like most writers, Hemingway faced writer’s block. His solution? Worry about one thing and one thing only: write a single “true sentence.” Don’t aim to create elaborate, complex writing – just focus on that one sentence.

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there…If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.”

That’s all you have to do – write one sentence. Pretty easy, right?

Stop while you’re ahead

Hemingway was a master of tricking himself into being productive. One of his counter-intuitive tricks was to stop writing before he felt finished.

“I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.”

As we talked about in another post on John Steinbeck, being consistent is incredibly important. By deliberately stopping while you are ahead, you’ll find it much easier to resume writing tomorrow.

You’ve written before and you will write again

The single most difficult thing about writing is getting started. When you’re struggling to write that first sentence for a new blog post, it’s very easy to fall into a spiral of despair. Don’t. Just remember one thing: you’ve done this before and you will do it again.

“Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now.”

Don’t think about writing when you aren’t writing

Hemingway lived a very full life (read his biography on Wikipedia.) Outside of being a writer, he was an avid skier, hunter, and journalist. To him, these other activities weren’t simply distractions – they were critical to his success as a writer.

“It was necessary to get exercise, to be tired in the body, and it was very good to make love with whom you loved. That was better than anything. But afterwards, when you were empty, it was necessary to read in order not to think or worry about your work until you could do it again.”

When you’re writing content for your website or newsletter, aim to focus on it completely. After you’re finished, let it go. Don’t dwell on it. Work on other parts of your website (or simply don’t work at all.)

When you return to writing, you’ll be refreshed, inspired, and anxious to get started.

Feeling motivated? I hope so – it’s time to write!