Since I’ve been sharing some questions and answers from some interviews and writer talks, I invited you all to ask a question if you wanted to. Lee took me up on that invitation and asked, “Do your thoughts get ahead of your fingers when you’re typing out your stories?” She went on to say sometimes her thoughts get ahead of her fingers on the keyboard.
It’s interesting how we can train our fingers to be an extension of our thoughts on the keyboard. The same with piano notes for those who can play music or I suppose any instrument. I can sort of play easy hymns on the piano, but my connection with the piano keys is nothing like my connection with the keyboard.
Of course, I’ve been typing in some way on some sort of typewriter or keyboard for many, many years. I’ve never been a perfect typist. I’ve always hit some wrong keys. And I certainly do a lot of backspacing.
Probably in the long ago time of no word processors and typewriters that didn’t allow a backspace key to erase whatever mistake you’d made, you learned to be a little more careful about those keys you were hitting. Erasing and correcting errors was not an easy process. I had one of those pencils with an eraser point on one end and a brush on the other because you needed to brush off the eraser dust after you attempted to erase whatever miscue you’d made. I say attempted because sometimes you had to almost rub a hole in the paper to get the error to disappear.
But back to Lee’s question. I’m not sure my thoughts get ahead of my fingers that much. More my fingers sometimes have a mind of their own. I start out with a “m” to write make perhaps and instead my fingers are sure I’m writing more. Or from for of. It’s weird and often irritating if I don’t catch it until I’m editing.
I do change my mind on what I want to write at times and do some backspacing then. And often when I do spot an error, instead of moving my cursor to the error, I just backspace through the whole line and type it over from the error. I just don’t want to take my fingers off the keys to grab the mouse unless I’m on a new line.
Sometimes I get my fingers on the wrong keys if the keyboard is a little out of line. Then I can type a line of gobblydo junk. Is gobblydo a word?
As you can tell by the picture of my keyboard, I have to remember where the keys are without looking for them on the keyboard. LOL. The only letters I can see on the keyboard I’m using are Q, W, P, Z, X, and J. Not sure why J has escaped being worn off since it’s right in the middle of the keys. The little raised part that is supposed to let you know you have your fingers in the right place is about worn away, but not the letter.
A while back I got a new keyboard and didn’t like it. The letters seemed to hang and if you’re a typist you know that a letter that hangs destroys your typing rhythm and make you make more mistakes.
So I got my old keyboard back out. As long as I’m typing, I know where the letters are. But if I’m looking at the keyboard to find a letter, it’s a mystery. Can you name the letters in a row on your keyboard without typing them? I’m trying right now and I can’t. I know where a is and e and z and s. So on that middle row there is a – s. I give up on naming any of the others.
Maybe you are better at that than I am. When my kids were on the Academic Team in highschool, I remember being at a match where the question was to say where some of the letters were on the keyboard. I thought I could answer that but I couldn’t. I still can’t.
You’d think I could after typing a zillion or two words – so many words that this isn’t the first keyboard that I have erased all the letters by pounding on them so much.
So, to answer you, Lee, I use the backspace key a lot, but I’m not sure whether it’s because my thoughts are flying off too fast or my fingers are just being wonky. Without that backspace key, I would definitely have to learn to be a more careful typist and slow down my thinking and my fingers.
Can you name the letters on your keyboard without looking? Do you wear out the backspace key or delete key the way I do? (That backspace key must have had better paint on it since it’s not worn off yet!)
Significant Women Podcast
If you like podcasts, you can tune in to my interview on the Significant Women podcast. You can even see in on YouTube. I haven’t had the nerve to look at it yet. I love doing podcasts and talking about writing and my books, but I’m always a little worried about how my part in the final session will look or sound. I should watch it and see if I can see ways to do better on the next podcast I am invited to do.
Here are the links if you want to give it a watch or a listen. Then you can critique it for me and make suggestions on how I can improve. But be kind. Please. I just looked at a little of the podcast and see several ways I should try to improve. Sitting still would help. And being farther from the camera on my laptop. I suggest you just listen and not watch. LOL.
Comments 6
Typing tends to be a part of our life now since the electronics appeared several years ago. I have to backspace for errors but most of the time the fingers move from embedded memory. My typing classes of 1966-67 has been a long time ago. My Daddy bought me an old Underwood typewriter and I was thrilled. You had to hit the return arm & the bell rang to go to next line until the electric ones came out. Now people would be lost without typing abilities.
Love your books Ann. God bless you.
Author
And yet some people never learn how to type with all fingers on the keyboard letters, Linda. My son does the two finger approach but does it well. And I’m terrible trying to write anything on the phone while my granddaughter’s thumbs fly doing that without making the first mistake. I remember the bell. Hadn’t thought about that for a while. I sort of miss that bell ringing and how you reached up to slam the return arm to get back to the front of the page again. It made me feel I was getting something done. Things have definitely changed.
I used to type all the time, but now I only type when I answer emails or I’m editing my Etsy listings. I still prefer my computer for typing, rather than my phone. As for remembering where the keys are…nope. I just tried. The only ones I know are F, J and A. But my fingers apparently have good memory because I rarely make typos when I’m on a keyboard. (My phone is a different story though…lots and lots of typos on those tiny “keys”) I guess my 3 years of typing in high school, then working in a clerks office and library trained me well. I typed up deed forms and card catalog files at those jobs. It’s hard to correct mistakes on those paper forms! But those little eraser pencils came in handy.
Author
I used to be a better typist or more accurate typist at least than I am now, Lavon. I just rush ahead typing and don’t worry so much about mistakes since they are so easy to fix. I did try harder to hit the right keys when I was typing on a typewriter, especially if I was doing carbons. Talk about correcting mistakes being difficult. I’m not good with the phone either. I actually bought a little blue tooth keyboard that I can use with my phone if I want to type a longer message. It’s bright pink and sort of fun even if I don’t use it that much. But the gremlins in the phone still try to change what I want to type. They are so sure they know more than I do about what my message is supposed to be.
I can still hear my typing teacher say F D S A J K L ; for the home keys, and that was almost 2 decades before pc’s came into the workplace. Those are all I can remember! 😊 (I remember typing on mimeograph masters for teachers in HS and trying to fix typos on those, too, along with those little erasers with brushes). Spell check is helpful when some of those pesky keys move around.
Author
Spell check is great for misspelled words as long as it isn’t just a wrong word spelled correctly, Jeanie. It doesn’t help much if you’ve written too instead of to or two. Maybe a grammar program might help then, but heavens, that kind of program would tell me I had done a million things wrong in my manuscripts. They really don’t like fragmented sentences but a story needs those sometimes and a lot of times in dialogue. I’m glad I don’t have need for those typing erasers these days. My fingers have gotten lazy and would have a hard time pounding those old manual typewriters I started out writing on.