Learn to write ... love your keyboard!

Learn to write ... learn to love your keyboard!


When you make to commitment to learn to write, and write well, you're actually looking at several layers of skills, from the most mundane to the most artistic and poetic. We live in an electronic world. TV and DVD, music, the Web, communication, publishing, reading, driving, flying ... there's not one darned thing you can do these days that doesn't involve digitizing something.

If you're an artist, you'll either scan your artwork when you're finished, or (and more commonly now) you'll create the whole piece of work inside the computer. Most artwork, in 2008. has never known a sheet of paper or canvas panel, nor felt the caress of a pencil. If you're a writer, your work has to end up inside the computer sooner or later.

The term 'learn to write' can also be understood as the process by which a young child figures out how to hold a crayon and draw the alphabet ... but in our world, the first words a child makes are more likely to be keyed into a computer.

If you write your book by hand, it'll be typed up by someone, somewhere, and the typing process will happen before a publisher takes a look. Sorry, guys. You might be horribly allergic to typing, but, like goldenrod and cottonwood, it's not going to go away! You'll have to grab the Kleenex and soldier on. Learn to write = learn to type. You don't have to like it, but you will have to do it.

Having said that, there are many ways to make the process easier!

Turn page to Learn to write ... but learn to type ... a bit!