I have a love/hate relationship with just about all technology in my life. My first typewriter in particular. I had a helluva time putting new ribbon on it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm kind of a Luddite myself. I've got a bunch of typewriters at home. I'm a big fan of old technology.
If I had my choice, I would be writing by typewriter. I worked on newspapers for 10 years. I typed with the touch system, and unfortunately, you can't keep typewriters going today. You have to take the ribbons back to be re-inked. You have to - it's a horrible search to try to find missing parts. So I went to the computer.
It took me 20 years to buy an electric typewriter, because I was afraid it would be too sensitive. I like to bang the keys. I'm doing action stories, so that's the way I like to do it.
I have two vintage typewriters. One just about works and the other hasn't a hope in hell, bless it. But they're both beautiful, and they'll stay with me just as long as there's a roof over my head.
I still use a typewriter from time to time, but because I can't type as well as I used to, I really don't use one very much.
I am still a lover of paper books. One of my first jobs was in a bookstore, and I still like to be able to write in a margin and feel the paper. Once inside of a digital device, I end up losing things.
The biggest obstacle to professional writing is the necessity for changing a typewriter ribbon.
I understand the self-loathing and the resentment, and the discipline that it takes to sit down in front of a typewriter or computer every single day, whether it's going well or not going well.
I just sit at a typewriter and curse a bit.
The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.