A Musing on Mediums

by Taylor Schott

When considering what it is that you wish to write about, it is helpful, if not ultimately necessary, to consider how. What I mean by this is really quite simple: how will you be writing what you wish to convey, divulge, express? Will you use a typewriter—that is, if you have one —because you are sure of yourself? So sure that you won’t be wasting valuable ribbons of ink, that you won’t be hammering down on the keys for nothing? Or, will you be typing away a little less loud, but loud enough still, on a computer? Or, finally, have you returned to a most dependable, intimate sort of writing, with pen and paper — which will it be? I believe that these implements must be used in accordance with crucially different intentions.

The typewriter is reserved for those with great confidence, or for the later stages of drafting. Collect notes and musings first, before you begin an act so costly. My 1950’s Royal Deluxe typewriter was only $40, but I did have to bargain for it, which took time and effort, so you could say that it actually cost more. Ink often runs $20 per spool — are your stories worth it? Mistakes are difficult to mask, and it is a loud practice — loud enough for your family to come barging in, inquiring about what it is that you’re going on about, cracking jokes about how it “sounds like a newsroom in here”. You cannot use a typewriter without drawing some level of attention to yourself, unless you are in total solitude, or you happen to have a noiseless machine, a Remington model. Though, there are almost no distractions while typewriting — no tabs or windows to sort through, no notifications to bother with. If I was left alone with only my typewriting materials, I believe I would get a great deal of work done. That clacking, the hit of the ink-loaded lever onto the page, sounds and looks and feels productive, even if you are just typing Hello my name is Taylor, which I have done before, just to feel it.

The computer is a required implement for many college students these days, unfortunately so. I am a college student myself, but I leave the most important matters to the tangible (see next paragraph). The Google document is fine for a project proposal, or for those with terrible handwriting, but is not conducive to revelations of a more intimate nature. Not with that propped up, harshly lit screen, no. Though, one advantageous aspect of writing on a computer is that it can make for a quick thought; have you ever been able to physically write as fast as your thoughts arrive? Only on a computer’s keyboard can you come close.

Writing with pen and paper is most desirable for those who seek avenues of a more journalistic nature, possibly because their therapist or close friend has recommended it. Writing down various thoughts, feelings, happenings — ideally in solitude — can be therapeutic in itself. Perhaps you have been jilted, or you have done the jilting, and now you feel bad about it and need to articulate that guilt. Guilt, jilt. Or, you are working out a math problem for which you must show hard and clear evidence. Or — as I often find myself — just wishing to exercise your writing hand, your writing arm. Children learn cursive on paper, those dreadful dotted lines. Friends send handwritten letters or invitations, though not so much anymore. Notebook margins fill with mindless scrawls. It’s often private, and has the impression of productivity, writing by hand — even if you draft just a sentence or two.

There are certainly many other advantages and disadvantages of certain implements and ways of writing — I just don’t wish to relay and analyze them now — I’d rather end the mulling here, at three. Plus, a drawback of pen and paper that I forgot to mention: my forearm is cramping.