Oh, Do Keep Up!

[JackLuis]

"Oh, Do Keep Up!" my muse is always saying to me as I stumble across the keyboard. By the time I have one line of dialog down, my muse has me four responses ahead! I have to stop and get it all down, and by then it starts to sound stale.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[slyc_willie]

I write ten lines of dialogue in my head before I even get to the keyboard. Thankfully, I have a pretty good short-term, and long-term, memory, so I usually get it all. Sometimes, though, I feel like I've missed something crucial and particularly poignant.

 

[johneb87]

I usually have to speak the conversation out loud before I write it, just to make sure it sounds right.

 

[sr71plt]

"Oh, Do Keep Up!" my muse is always saying to me as I stumble across the keyboard. By the time I have one line of dialog down, my muse has me four responses ahead! I have to stop and get it all down, and by then it starts to sound stale.

Anyone else have this problem?

I think the most valuable class I took before I got to college was touch typing. The typewriter couldn't keep up with me. Thank god the computer can.

 

[slyc_willie]

I think the most valuable class I took before I got to college was touch typing. The typewriter couldn't keep up with me. Thank god the computer can.

I keep wanting to download the program that allows you to convert a normal keyboard into a Dvorak. But then, I remind myself that I type 50 wpm with just two fingers. I don't think Dvorak would help.

 

[Tx Tall Tales]

I think the most valuable class I took before I got to college was touch typing. The typewriter couldn't keep up with me. Thank god the computer can.

Ditto. 9th grade typing has paid off in spades. My fingers are always a few words behind my thoughts and results in way too many homonyms. Other than that no regrets.

 

[TxRad]

I keep wanting to download the program that allows you to convert a normal keyboard into a Dvorak. But then, I remind myself that I type 50 wpm with just two fingers. I don't think Dvorak would help.

Yeah, about 50 words a minute with three fingers. Actually, two fingers and one thumb.

My mind is always two lines ahead of my fingers now. It used to be far worse until I learned to slow things down. The story line is there and flowing but now my mind only feeds what my fingers can keep up with.

 

[lovecraft68]

wow some of you guys make me sound impressive, I can type using two fingers on each hand! and my thumb for the space bar.

I can usually keep up, if not I keep up mentally and I never lose the conversation. I also generally talk them out a bit on the way home in my car before I get to writing it, so I have part of it pretty much memorized.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Ditto. 9th grade typing has paid off in spades. My fingers are always a few words behind my thoughts and results in way too many homonyms. Other than that no regrets.

Do schools even teach typing any more? If so, what do they use? I learned in eighth grade on an old IBM Selectric.

 

[lovecraft68]

Do schools even teach typing any more? If so, what do they use? I learned in eighth grade on an old IBM Selectric.

I was just thinking this and I doubt it. Kids are banging away on mommy's I-pad by the time they're 3 I think they can type before they can fully speak.

I wonder how long before cursive is no longer taught, never mind typing.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have no awareness of typing, it just seems to get on the screen somehow.

 

[sr71plt]

I have no awareness of typing, it just seems to get on the screen somehow.

That's pretty much how it's going to be if you took a good touch typing (probably now called "keying") course.

 

[lovecraft68]

Actually I probably owe my fairly quick typing to e-bay. Over a decade of listing auction after auction on turbo lister helped prep me for writing.

 

[jomar]

I think the most valuable class I took before I got to college was touch typing. The typewriter couldn't keep up with me. Thank god the computer can.

Yep. Took typing in high school as part of a here's some useful skills for the real world course.

 

[annanova]

"Keep up?" Lately, my muse is reading over my shoulder, tsking and saying, "No, I changed my mind. That's completely wrong. Start over." I'm getting ready to bitch-slap her.

Ditto. 9th grade typing has paid off in spades. My fingers are always a few words behind my thoughts and results in way too many homonyms. Other than that no regrets.

Normally, yes, tenth grade typing has my fingers flying. Years of transcribing engineering manuals for engineers I was working with have me pretty accurate, too.

I was just thinking this and I doubt it. Kids are banging away on mommy's I-pad by the time they're 3 I think they can type before they can fully speak.

I wonder how long before cursive is no longer taught, never mind typing.

According to a friend and my sister, some districts are already abandoning cursive.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think the most valuable class I took before I got to college was touch typing. The typewriter couldn't keep up with me. Thank god the computer can.

I've found that some web forms can't accept text at more than about 60 WPM (I suspect it's related to a badly-implemented word-count feature). I normally type at about 80, whch meas they kep droping lettes andit really isses me off.