Punch The Keys

“Punch the keys!” – Sir Sean Connery “Finding Forrester”.

It helps when you have an old heavy typewriter in which you really do need to PUNCH the keys. A friend gifted me an old Electra typewriter when I began to think about writing a children’s book. I played around with it, typing song lyrics, inspirational quotes and such until I started writing actual stories. As some of you might remember, there is no delete, backspace button or spell check on a typewriter, which meant I did ‘punch” the keys an awful lot. There was something about a good loud DING at the end of the line when I had to slide the roller to the other side. That typewriter has helped get the juices flowing when beginning a new story idea or when I just need to get little of the writing magic back. Between the piles of journals (a blog for another day), the typewriter and my computer I have plenty of places to jot down a word, an idea, a whole story. It’s about “just writing”. Just start. A word, story lists, character ideas, whatever. The important thing is that you write.

“You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think!” -Sir Sean Connery “Finding Forrester”