Hi, it’s me again with another entry. Let’s go!
This is probably going to be a very short one, yet very necessary since it comes from the personal experience. The best kind of experience. And after thinking of it for a while (ten seconds, approximately) I came to a conclusion that it was a good idea to write an entry about that topic. So, as the title says, clip your nails when you’re using a typewriter. I’m not kidding, actually, this is a good thing to do.
The story goes like that. I was on the vacation, and during vacation I gave myself an absolute freedom, and when you have an absolute freedom, you can get careless. Usually I clip my nails regularly since my classic guitar playing days are over, and I don’t need long nails anymore (and by long, I mean slightly longer than usual, nothing too crazy). But when I had a vacation, I decided not to care about anything and just relax.
However, even when I’m on vacation, if I need to write something, I write. This is what I call a discipline, and this is what makes novels happen. Call me a psycho, but I am a firm believer in discipline when it comes to writing. You have to write every day, progress your story, develop your characters, approach the finish line. Even 100 words per day are better than fifty thousand words in five years. Start making exceptions without valid purpose (let’s not go overboard here, we’re all human, we have our good and bad days, majority of us have daily jobs besides writing, and sometimes you’re sick, you’re exhausted, sometimes it wasn’t your day or even your week, and you have to have a day off to recuperate), and you’ll find yourself like one of those guys who’s writing 200 pages novel for thirteen years because he has writer’s block for a decade. That’s probably the topic for another entry, but I have a very strong opinion about it. There’s no writer’s block, only lack of discipline. There, I said it.
But back to the topic. When you’re using a typewriter, and not just as a toy for YouTube channel to show off to the world what a talented little artist you really are, but as a valid writing tool you’re using every day to get the job done, discipline is a must. I would even say you have to be even more disciplined about writing with a typewriter than on a PC or laptop. It is just a different tool and requires a different mindset. Very goal oriented. You have to change the way you see your typing speed, your vocabulary, your ideas, your approach to writing since it is very different from how one might do it on a PC. You have to accept a lot of compromises, mute your perfectionism, if you expect to finish the job in this decade. The typewriter, in particular the old mechanical one, changes everything, and nails are one of those little things that can ruin the whole experience for you.
When I forgot about clipping my nails and went typing as I usually do, I noticed a rather unpleasant thing happening. My slightly longer than usual nails became a major cause of typos and jams. And I’m not kidding, I’m recording everything on my iPhone, so I have footage of every day I worked (and still working) on my novel. And there it could be seen how the edge of my nail catches on the key above and pulls it together with the key I’m pressing, which in its turn either makes me type the wrong letter, or jam the typewriter. Besides, it causes enough discomfort to be noticeable, but not enough to be irritating enough to get your ass off the chair and do something about those nails. But it wastes time, and dealing with typewriter jams might be distracting.
Thankfully, typewriter’s jam is not a big deal, it is just when two or more typebars or slugs as they are called sometimes (the metal bullet-like things that hit the ink ribbon and leave the letter) are trying to go at it at the same time. Since mechanics is not a porn movie, and usually it is not possible to put two things into one hole without causing a problem, obviously you end up with a jammed typewriter. The fix is very simple. You just take one of the slugs with your fingers and pull it, ultimately releasing all stuck typebars in the process. Not a big deal, as I said. Only it can be very irritating when you have this thing over and over in a span of a couple of minutes. You stop typing, you have to apply force, you also get your fingers dirty, and to be honest, the ink on the tips of your fingers is not helping to write any better. Same as nails, it is a distraction, you can feel it, but it’s not bad enough for you to do something about it. It’s just there till the end of the session. And then you have also to wipe the keys from the ink because you left some.
You see, I can’t say for everyone, but when I’m typing on the typewriter, I get into a flow. It’s like an old engine. You just have to let it warm up before going full force. And since I’m not a very good typist, I type with my two index fingers (I think I’ve already mentioned it before), it takes me a while before I reach the state of mind where I just let it flow. And every jam that requires me to take hands off the keys, lose the concentration, and switch my attention to dealing with another problem is irritating because I have to build the momentum once again. Have it a little too often, and you’re not going to have a very good time typing. And that’s actually what it’s all about (besides making a point no one ever asked me to make), is to have a good time typing.
So, yeah, it’s just a long way to give some basic advice. Clip your nails when you’re using a typewriter. In particular, when you’re using Olympia SM2 (and also probably SM3 and SM4 as they appear to be pretty much the same typewriters with several differences), since I had no experience with other typewriters, and chances are I won’t. Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow. Bye!