Writing hasn't felt fun for me lately.

I started writing for two main reasons:

1. To facilitate video making.
2. To go deeper with my thinking.

But there's something that bothers me about typing on a computer when it comes to thinking.

The constant presence of the delete key guarantees I don't follow lines of thought to their natural conclusion, whether they be sound or ridiculous.

It's a button that allows me to self-censor compulsively.

Even this sentence you read now was started with a different premise and without thinking I deleted it to rewrite this line that may or not be better.

I guess we'll never know.

Then there is the subtle guiding hand of AI tools that shape the way we write.

• Sentence autocomplete guides how the phrase should conclude.
• Grammarly suggests better ways to word a sentence.
• In the worst cases, chatGPT just does the writing for you.

None of these tools facilitate thought; they outsource it.

My writing becomes the filling to an already shaped mold.

All that is to say, I bought something some people might think is a little crazy–I wouldn't blame you for thinking so.

I bought a typewriter.

This orange beauty was built in 1977 in a Yugoslavian factory.

The owner was a German woman who worked in the US embassy in Frankfurt. She used it daily to send correspondences between nations.

She's passed now and her son, who sold it to me for $98, had it sitting in storage for many years.

Now, this 50 year-old machine will be used to think about what it means to be a writer in the age of AI.

No delete key.

No AI tools.

Just me, and the glorious clacking of metal slugs as I do the work of thinking on paper.

The plan is to use it for initial drafts, note-taking, a little journaling, and some art projects. I'll scan the drafts once complete, and use the computer to fix any spelling errors.

Who knows, I might hate it.

I might decide to crawl back to my 21st-century life of luxury where computers do most of the work for me.

But I need to know what it's like to write without all of this digital assistance subtely penetrating my process. I need to know what writing is like without the ever present option to distract myself on YouTube, Reddit, and wikipedia.

Aside from that, the typewriter makes writing feel real again.

It reminds me of my guitar. There's no assistance when I write music. There are no AI tools guiding my hand as I riff through my scales. If I make a mistake, I keep pushing forward without a thought of going back. When I pluck a string, it's me and my tool producing that sound, no digital tech needed. (And yes, for those gear nerds out there I use a tube amp and analog pedals, and it probably goes without saying, I don't like digital sound boards either. Surprised?)

The guitar is an instrument for producing unadulterated sound in the same way a typewriter is a tool for producing unadulterated thoughts.

But most importantly, writing with a typewriter is fun.

I'm enjoying the process of writing again without obsessing over the outcomes.

I'll call that a win.

Prompt:

How do you make your creative or professional process fun? If it's not fun, what are some ways you could change that?

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