The Romance of the Pen, the Benevolence of the Digital Realm

My process of writing books is mostly sustainable in the digital space, because it seems extremely challenging to write a book in physical form.

When I think about how they managed to do it in the past, I find it quite unbelievable. I don't know if it sounds ridiculous, but I'll explain it better and even show you what I mean.

Although the use of typewriters eventually became widespread and made life a little easier for writers, not everyone could afford one. They could either hire typewriters or go to places where they could use them, use them and leave. I think the second option was a much harder advantage.

Have you ever finished a pen? If you have, you are a little closer to understanding what I am talking about. I used to collect pens in a box. Or I used to put my pencils, which I could no longer hold, in the same box before I finished them and made them my companions. They reminded me of the journeys I had made and how many letters I might have written. Over time, I saw that this had become normal and I threw the jar away.

Another reason, of course, is the wonderful convenience of digital space. In fact, I am sure we do not appreciate it enough. Think about it! If you were writing with a pen, you would either use an eraser to erase your mistake, or, like me, rub it with the moist tip of your finger and try to partially erase it, or finally scribble over it and write it again somewhere else.

A typewriter is similar. After a while, even if your hand gets used to it, just like holding a pen, you realise that it is unavoidable because it is human to make mistakes. I don't have a typewriter, of course, but keyboards show us the similarity.

Now we don't need erasers, we don't run out of ink, our pens don't shrink, we don't have illegible handwriting, and we don't have coloured pens to use when we need them. We have them all at once. It is a convenience whose benefits are undeniable.

Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash

But I think writers are somewhat emotional people.

Although the writers' minds are always one step ahead, they write slowly, continuing until their fingers ache. They carry more than one pen, just in case. Clean pages are plentiful, and even when they are not, the authors know how to use them sparingly.

My dream is that when I finish this book, I will have a book written entirely with a pen. To be honest, although I had to go through dozens of pens, the digital effect was probably dozens of times greater than the physical one. But as I said, I want that feeling, that pleasant working atmosphere, to be visible somehow.

It would be nice to write another book of mine on a typewriter. It would feel great to be involved in a process that requires me to be more careful, but not afraid of making mistakes. Even as I wrote this article, I erased so many letters, moved words and watched my thoughts change one by one. If I had captured my writing moment on video, I would have laughed at myself.

The good thing is that this doesn't happen because I'm an amateur. These habits of correcting, scribbling and crossing out apply to everyone. Every writer you can think of has experienced it. So much so that they might have produced more poetic sentences, more established character names or more plausible narratives. All because of unintentional errors.

I recently came across an interesting video that surprised me because I had never seen anything like it before.

Someone picks up Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" and presents it as the most unique piece on his bookshelf. At first I couldn't make much sense of it, I could only guess that it was probably a first edition, but it was more than that. How could it be more? Well, if it's the manuscript itself, it could be.

When I saw the video, the first thing I did, of course, was to find out about this completely manuscript draft. I think there is a French organisation called Les Saints Pères who find drafts and manuscripts of old books (or pages if the author typed them) and turn them into books. I am not sure how they got hold of them, but they are originals.

They reproduce them faithfully and print a certain number of copies. From what I have read, they do not think it makes sense to print 20-30 copies, but they still think it would be more reasonable to keep a limited number without reaching an exaggerated number. They say they print different books with a maximum of 1000 or 2000 copies. It is up to you to think that this is done to increase the sales of the book and to increase the price by advertising it in this way, because it is limited. I am neutral. In fact, I thought it was nice to hear about such a company, because what they do sounds wonderful.

When I visited the website, I saw that there were many other classics. For each book you have the opportunity to see some preview photos, which I strongly recommend you take a look at.

It is a very strange feeling to accompany the authors of the time as they created masterpieces with the means and tools at their disposal. Apart from the pleasure of reading the books from the original manuscripts, this was the first thought that came to my mind: It was as if the authors were sharing their books with me after they had finished them. It is an event that makes you feel valuable and at the same time leaves you open-mouthed. It is mysterious, sincere and surprising, like finding and reading the secret diary of your elders in the old chest.

Yes, this week I witnessed these aspects of writers that make them immortal even after their death, just as words fly and writing remains. This time it was different, as if the body fades and the ink dries, but the creations and their effects remain.