Tuesday, May 14, 2024

"Treatment" Update: Disaster Strikes

Loyal readers of my blog (read: the single loyal reader) (read: me) will know that I have been working for the past few weeks on a sci-fi novelette entitled "Treatment." Aside from inevitable wrangling with First Draft Syndrome, it's been a fairly smooth operation. Things have been going as planned, the story and characters are finding their way to where they need to be, and everything has generally been just peachy.

That is, until today.

Loyal readers (again, meaning myself) will know that I prefer to write on a typewriter to a computer. I have major issues writing on computers. Distraction, eye fatigue, and a general lack of metallic clickety-clacks bedevil my progress every time I try. As such, I have been writing the first draft of "Treatment" on my Webster XL-800. The novel as it stands is messy and borderline unreadable, and I love it. The typewriter has been a major contributor to my considerable momentum working on this project, and I credit it with keeping me moving forward.

Today, the typewriter broke.

It was out of nowhere. I was returning the carriage to begin a new line (as I have done thousands of times on this machine) and I heard something snap within the machine. Since then, the carriage does not seem to be functioning at top capacity. It has no resistance whatsoever and just slides along at the slightest touch, it's rather floaty and seems to keep moving after I've stopped typing, and the repeat spacer button seems to produce muted, labored chuck-chuck-chuck-chucks instead of its usual machine gun-like rattle. All in all, things do not seem to be going well for my machine. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful typewriter repair shop fairly close, but I was just in this past week to pick up a case for my Webster and to drop off a Goodwill Selectric III for repair.

I also worry about time. I'm on a time crunch to get it repaired for various personal reasons, but I also just worry about the effect that a nonfunctional typewriter will have on my momentum. I really don't know, just knowing myself and my flaws, if I can finish this story while writing on a computer. I really don't know.

So we appear to have hit our first major snag. I've been trying to make the best of it. I've started transcribing the typewritten pages into Google Docs (keeping all awkward phrasing and continuity errors intact) in the event that I need to continue writing it on my laptop. I'm still several pages away from getting up to where I left off, so I don't have much to do in that time.

So yeah, things are not looking good for my little novelette right now. If anyone is reading this, my typewriter and I could very much use your prayers right now.

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