The impossibility of then and now!

Stephen W. Ayers, Author and CEO of STAY Ahead Hospitality

Sitting in my living room and looking at the Underwood typewriter that I turned into a lamp sitting alongside the first proof of my first book 'The Taba Convention', I could not help think how similar and yet how so far apart they really are.

While of course the Underwood goes back almost a century, I did witness the use of those incredible machines as I grew up. While at boarding school in England I received typewritten letters from my father half a world away. Even while making sure that the ink ribbon was always 'fresh' and in good working order, his letters were still hard to read in some parts. The pressure put on each letter was sometimes was different, with some letters more pronounced due to this. There was no 'white-out' then, so either you went back and put x's through your miss type, or you carefully placed a part of a 'white page' over the mistake and then typed that letter again, 'hiding' it and allowing you to continue. I remember the complicated problem of trying to thread the ink ribbon once when visiting my parents many years ago in Bath.

Entering the workforce I witnessed the rise (and fall) of the IBM 'golf ball' electric typewriter which made it a little easier on the users. Finally, along came the first computers and then the desktops and laptops.

All these thoughts wandered through my mind as I sat there looking at the beautiful machine and how 'cutting edge' it must have been when introduced, how proud someone was to own it and how beautiful it still is. Our own modern day 'typewriters' are thrown out when they become old or obsolete, while those of past days will still sit proudly on sideboards, tables, shelves in shops and as decorations in countless places.

You certainly would not put a desktop on your sideboard, although somehow maybe one day our grandchildren will proudly point out an old box and screen that was used by us today and comment "How on earth did they manage with those things!”

Yet I get that before these wonderful typing machines came bursting onto the scene, there was only one way to write, and that was TO WRITE. Mistakes are not forgiven when you actually put pen to paper, and that is why you see all those actors as writers scrunching up their papers and throwing them away only to start anew.

So I got to thinking about my writing and the two books of a trilogy of thrillers that I have completed and published. Could I have typewritten a book that has three hundred pages and around eighty thousand words? If I had too maybe, but considering that now? never!

And if you consider going further back?

Actually writing all those pages in ink? Never ever ever! Don't forget the part of trying to 'sell' it to publishers, actually posting the drafts. One push of the send button and your drafts are immediately where you sent them..........no wonder then that we are lazy!

I guess that is why there are so many aspiring writers out there today, and it's a good thing. The saying goes that 'everyone has a story in them, it is just getting it out is the difficult part'.

So I sat there and appreciated so much those writers that went before, those that had the courage to sit with pen (or perhaps feather) and ink and start their opus. Even those who had the typewriters and could do it faster I admire.

But I also discovered why I got those letters so infrequently from my father while at my boarding school. Just the thought of sitting down to tap out his missive must have seemed like a huge task, although I am sure that the many whiskies he downed help him get over the dread of such an evening’s work!

Ahhh, technology! Have we become lazy or lucky, or both?