I recently had the pleasure of offering a writing workshop to teenage poets who are part of Simon Kiefer’s Teen Arts Mentorship sponsored by the Arts Fund . All county students aged 13-18 are eligible for the teen mentorship, and a wide variety of arts professionals are on hand to show youth the ropes of living an art-filled life. With the typewriter poetry mentorship in mind, I shared some writing exercises to help get the creative inspiration flowing. A popular question always seems to be “How do I get started?” I often find that it is easier to complete a poem, chapter, or writing assignment when I come to the computer with words or ideas that are first written on paper. In this case, students were working on typewriters.
There’s an added challenge when composing on a typewriter. Most of the students had never used one! Unlike a computer, a typewriter requires physical force and effort just to type one letter, let alone a few words or entire poem. Simon showed the teens how to load the paper into the typewriter and how to return the carriage and use the backspace button. He suggested typing with two index fingers — think of Snoopy, the beagle author. We had a good laugh wondering how a beagle uses a typewriter, Charles Schulz somehow made it happen.
I recall a very different method for typing. This is where I date myself. When I was in junior high school, I took a typing class and learned touch typing. I can still hear the teacher singing out the letters. You would hear, “J, J, J, J,” over the clatter of 30 students pounding on typewriters, drowning out the teacher’s soprano voice that was somehow off key. The repetitive pressing of each key several times helped our fingers memorize where the letters were on the typewriter’s keyboard. Speed and accuracy gave a student a better grade. Speed is no longer as important as it used to be, especially when composing poems.