From the wheel to modern technology,
inventors have made our life easier.
Way easier!
Enjoy this walk through time from someone who has been there.
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| Photo Courtesy |
Typing use to be a class offered in the junior year of high school (ish). Those heading for a secretary career learned the home row key. jkj jkj fgf fgf. Over and over.
The first office clerk job arrived in time for the electric typewriter. The noise sounded nano seconds after the key was pressed, startling the typist until she grew use it.
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| Photo Courtesy |
The next promotion came in time to meet the computer. Secretaries had to adapt to not using the "carriage return." Adapting quickly, Word Perfect became a good friend.
Let's freeze time for a moment. Writers had to submit all of their work on "clean" pages (no errors). Sheets of text were sealed in an envelope along with an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope). Without the SASE, publishers would not respond. Frequently, writers included postcards with text preprinted: ____ I have received (person's name) (manuscript title). The receiving person at the publishing house would hopefully put a checkmark in the blank and slip the pre stamped postcard back in the mail.
THERE WAS NO EMAIL!!
The next promotion, office manager, started with the arrival of Windows. A miracle! No longer did secretaries have to completely close out of Word Perfect to open Excel or other needed programs. More than one program could be open at one time! Could life get any better?
Not long after, the computer techs installed email. I leaped on this one, learning every component. My boss asked me to teach classes. It took months to sell the idea to everyone in my building. "You could leave messages for the person even when they're in a meeting. You can have conversations and not have to worry about coming up with an instant response. It gives you time to think!" I tried everything. Sheesh!
Since then we've had Internet, Google, IPads, iPods, Skype, FaceTime, Pinterest, Instagram, and so much more! The list could fill pages.
Writers can key their manuscript in many formats (my favorite is Scrivener). We edit what auto correct has messed up, and a few of our own mistakes. Attach the manuscript to an email, and voilà the agent or editor has the materials.
BUT this is old news!
Today writers can self publish their books in easy formats. Within days the book can be listed on Amazon. Marketing with social media. The advances are amazing.
Are we spoiled...or what?
I say this now.
But be prepared to laugh at these minuscule advances ten years down the road. Someone like you will ask..."How did you survive?" ROTFL
God has blessed us by gifting inventors with ideas and the means to see the thought through to product.
What current writing tool do you appreciate the most and why?
Climb on board. Let's praise God for His blessings.
I can't wait to read your comment(s)
Photo courtesy for caveman: pixaby
If you found any typos in today's post...sorry about that.
Mary writes young adult mystery/suspense Christian fiction, is honing marketing and writing skills, and loves to pen missionary and Bible adventure stories on her ministry blog, God Loves Kids. She has finaled in several writing contests.
Visit Mary at her website, blog, and her ministry blog to families: God Loves Kids. Or chat on Facebook or Twitter
All subscribers to Mary's newsletter will receive a Christmas gift - her new short story 14 Mornings ’Till Christmas, an intriguing Christmas suspense/mystery. Based on real events in Denmark, Brice recognizes he has a memory issue and has to work around this problem while solving the mystery: who broke into his home and stole Christmas. Sign up at Mary's website. Come enjoy a good story.
All subscribers to Mary's newsletter will receive a Christmas gift - her new short story 14 Mornings ’Till Christmas, an intriguing Christmas suspense/mystery. Based on real events in Denmark, Brice recognizes he has a memory issue and has to work around this problem while solving the mystery: who broke into his home and stole Christmas. Sign up at Mary's website. Come enjoy a good story.
7 comments:
I so thankful for things like Dictionary.com. It is there when you are stuck in the middle of a piece and just, for the life of it, cannot remember what it means or even spells. Just a shrink page and a word type and it is there even if you spell it wrong it comes up with the right stuff.
Also, Dictionary.com helps me see when auto correct changes a word incorrectly. The most recent one: courier.
OOOO oooo that makes me think of Thesaurus.com. An equal life saver when I've used the same word to many times.
Great idea Nancy! Thanks!
What a fun walk down memory lane, Mary. :) I learned to type on an electric typewriter, but at home we had their predecessors. I remember using white-out strips to clean up my mistakes. Oy, was that challenging. :)
I most appreciate my laptop, which I can take anywhere with me. It saves volumes of documents, graphics, music and so much more, to make writing easier and more fun. :)
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, my friend, and all you Alley Cat ladies!
i remember WordPerfect—and strongly resisted switching to MS Word!! same with Lotus to Excel! ha! how far we've come. now, i'm playing old school and holding on to my Word, resisting tools like Scrivener. of course i use the reasoning (excuse) that i know Word and work much faster without having to learn a new beast!
Jeanne,
And while you're thinking about it, remember having to line the paper up perfectly to fix those mistakes? Of course they had to be caught AFTER the paper was taken out of the machine. Good grief. It became a game. Not only did I have to fix my own mistakes, but also my boss's change of mind. For writing I have to deal with my own changing of mine. Ooooo I am so thankful for my laptop.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Robin,
Friend.
Switch to Scrivener! Switch to Scrivener. This is your conscience speaking.
One of the best features to Scrivener is I can flip from chapter to chapter in a heartbeat instead of scrolling all the way up or down. I can put chapters side by side to insure I have the matching information. Wowsers...they should pay me for advertising their product. It is amazing.
Happy thanksgiving.
I was 11 years old when I started typing my first novel on this thing called a word processor. I remember I could only see about 6 words at a time in the little screen and couldn't wait to hit print and have a whole page print out at once. It must have taken me six or more attempts at retyping before I got a draft I considered "error free". As far as my current methods and tools I'm obviously using Scrivener incorrectly because it feels like a step backward from my usual combo of Word and OneNote. I think I need to take the workshop at Mt. Hermon this spring and see what all the fuss is about! ;)
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