I couldn’t imagine being a writer in the days of Dickens or Shakespeare, where every word was penned onto parchment. Talk about carpal tunnel! And if you made a mistake, there was no white out. You could only scratch out or rewrite the whole page.

Then there were the old manual typewriters where you pounded your words onto paper. If you weren’t careful, you could punch holes when you typed your a’s, o’s, and e’s. I liked the erasable bond paper, but some thought it wasn’t very professional. Of course, I personally felt all the obvious correction-paper marks on the thicker sheets looked tackier.

I’m very thankful for modern computers and their word processing software. It’s so easy to type, edit, and copy your manuscript. What will the future hold for us scribes? Will we just think and our words will appear onto holographic screens? Who knows, but no matter what the tools, the creative process will never change since the idea much first formulate in the brain before it can be translated onto the page.

I’m glad I live in a time where technology can help get my words out faster. Too bad the publishers didn’t work as fast.

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