This is a note from 04.06.2024, as I post it the novel is already finished, and I have to find some courage to retype it into digital format. No one said it’s going to be easy.
Hi, it’s me again with an update regarding the latest novel I write. Let’s go!
Someone might say I’m running out of topics, and he’ll probably be right because it took me several minutes to come up with one. After going through all the stuff I did in recent days, I realized I didn’t do anything particularly interesting, and that’s the reason I’m writing this entry. The show must go on, and I promised I would do my best to avoid outright shitposting. That’s why I’m writing today about writing, and hopefully it won’t be a separate novel (I’m going for a short form).
But first, a quick recall for those who didn’t know or forgot or just because this is the only notable thing that happened with me in a while and I have to remind everyone alive about it regularly: I bought a typewriting machine Olympia SM2 made in 1953 (or 1952, I don’t remember already), and being a stubborn idiot who loves challenging himself without being asked, I decided to write an entire novel using only the typewriter. I started, and I’m still doing it, so there’s a chance that the world will see this novel (not that it has to). And now you’re up to speed.
So, I’ve been working on this novel for a while now. Typing at least two pages a day (sometimes even more… more often than not more because I might have a problem), I feel like I’m actually making decent progress. At least the benefit of writing using a typewriter is that you can see the results of your labor. What once was a stack of blank pages turns into a manuscript and with every day of work, you have an exclusive pleasure of seeing the literal growth of your novel. That’s cool and dopamine in my head makes all sorts of satisfied sounds.
This was the positive side. Now to the negative. The main negative side for me is limitations. You should try to write a novel using exclusively a typewriter from the times when my grandparents were still teenagers. You’ll quickly realize how hard it is. You have to fight the resistance of the keys, and yes, I know I can change the resistance, and in fact, I have it somewhere in the middle since I found it gives the best of two worlds, yet still despite all that it is far from typing on any of the modern keyboards I experienced. My typing speed suffers, and my precision suffers, too. To make things worse, everything you took for granted, like line break, or autocorrect, or even the ability to erase the word or entire sentence to cover up my growing dyslexia on the go, isn’t there anymore.
The typewriter just takes all your weaknesses in every aspect and puts them on a pedestal where you can see them at once. Be it weak vocabulary, punctuation, or even formatting. Everything is there to be shown and visible. It is a very humbling experience, to be honest, since it just puts things in perspective, and as I probably mentioned at least a billion times, makes you really appreciate the technical progress we made as humanity.
To make things worse, I also recording everything I do on camera for future purposes. And since I’m recording everything I do, I decided to avoid using the internet, vocabularies, and other helping stuff. I’m going all in, where I just sit and type the novel with no help or major corrections. It’s a raw and primal approach to writing the novel I have ever tried.
And let me tell you something, in the begging it was a camera on my forehead (GoPro Hero 8, the hottest camera I ever had; it tries to burn a damn hole in my skull, and I have nothing to counter it with), and while the POV shot looked cool and immersive, it was damn uncomfortable to do so.
After just ten minutes, the camera got really hot and the rubber band that keeps it attached to my forehead got too tight, and by the time I finished, my head was about to explode. That’s why I ransacked my storage and found a tripod I once bought. After quick adjustment, it became my primary recording set up since I don’t have to soldier through discomfort, yet it gives me a shot of much better quality.
Now, even I as an author feel that the novel I’m writing at the moment won’t be anything good. Perhaps, it even might be the worst novel I ever wrote. If that’s the case you can rest assured that I won’t miss an opportunity to make it public. Somehow, I find it really interesting, and as I already said it previously, humbling experience that puts things into perspective. I am just trying to be honest with myself, since when you’re honest about your boundaries and limitations, there’s always a chance for self-development and actually getting better.
The thing is, with camera either on my forehead or right above my shoulder, and deliberate avoidance of using the internet, and any sort of cheat-sheets for the first draft, I really see all my shortcomings. I forget the words a lot; I forget some basic punctuation and grammar rules. I make dumb mistakes I probably wouldn’t do if I were writing it on my PC in absolute privacy where there’s no judgement from potential viewers. The fact of recording everything on camera probably also adds more pressure than I give it credit for. It’s a precious experience from that perspective.
We always compliment our ability to work under the pressure in CVs, but more often than not, it is nothing more but a blatant lie. And now this is a chance to understand yourself, see your limits and boundaries. Understand where you’re shining, and what is your weakest sides are. It’s like an express writing course one spends months to pass, only in this situation you’re learning it in the field. Never before I wrote and recorded the process behind it. This is the first time I’m actually doing it, and so far it seems interesting enough to keep going. I am still not sure when I’m going to post the videos on my YouTube channel, but as soon as I’ll find out, the uploading factory is going to start.
And so far, this is it. I think I’ve mentioned everything I wanted to mention, and even a bit more than I expected in the beginning. Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow. Bye!