How Did You Get Started Writing?
I started writing on a typewriter, similar to the one shown, when I was a ‘nipper’ — that’s a local word for youngster. I can’t remember how old I was.
To be honest, I can’t even remember if I started on an electric or manual typewriter — but one like that in the image above certainly featured in my writing journey at some time.
My Mum was an excellent (proper) typist and I used to watch her fingers fly across the keys and perfect copy flowed out from the top. All I wanted to do at first was just press single keys and see a black mark on the paper. I still don’t touch-type properly — my fingers just dart all over the place, fairly fast - but the back-space key is my best friend.
Mum showed me the basics and gave up her efforts training me to type ‘properly’ but I progressed to taking over a couple of monthly bills that she used to type up for my Granddad. She was probably as thrilled to be relieved of the job as I was to take it over.
From then I progressed to ‘writing stories’.
I won an essay prize at school (a stack of chocolate bars almost as tall as me) and the whole family marked me down as the next Agatha Christie with dollar signs in their eyes. My proud Dad told a friend (Peter)…
