I Bought a Typewriter Yesterday And It Changed How I Think About Writing

 

I’d had this idea in mind to buy a typewriter months ago, but I started looking around, and they were all so expensive - like hundreds of dollars.

I don’t like ordering something used that expensive without seeing it first in person, so I just let the dream of owning a typewriter drift to the back burner.

Then, yesterday I’m in my local Goodwill doing by regular browsing, and I saw it behind the glass of the front counter.

An old-school manual typewriter in good working condition for only $40.

While I need to get ink for the typewriter before I can use it, having it has already changed how I think and feel about my writing.

Thoughtfulness in writing.

I’ve done some thinking about what exactly I want to use the typewriter to write. I could write most anything with it, but with limited ink, I could use it for everything.

Just know it has its limitations has made me more thoughtful.

Maybe that’s part of our problem with digital writing.

There are no limitations. We can just keep writing about anything and everything. And yet, pretty much every time before ours did not have that kind of freedom.

Their tools and supplies limited why they could write. Perhaps this led them to be more thoughtful in what they wrote.

I’m excited for the changes and benefits owning and using a typewriter will bring to my writing!

Just An Old Fashioned Blog

I have plenty of the latest blogging tools and platforms available to me in 2026. You do too. 

And yet, for some inexplicable reason, I continue to find myself drawn to the simplicity of blogging platforms like Blogger. Maybe I'm tired of all the features and options thrown in my face by all the other platforms. Can't I just write? 

Not everything is a business decision. Sometimes, we just need to do something because it helps us live. 

Blogging should be simple. 

Just me and the blank page. And then, I slowly, methodically, put words onto that page. 

• Trying to make sense. 
• Trying to tell stories. 
• Trying to create something out of nothing. 

It's not complicated, and yet, it's the most impossible task in the world. Maybe that's why the latest and greatest writing platforms offer countless bells and whistles to "help" us write? It seems to me all their "help" tends to distract from actually putting words on paper. 

Or a screen. 

Blogging wasn't supposed to be about sales funnels. Or affiliate links. Or product launches. 

It's always been about words, ideas, and stories. 

Blogging doesn't feel simple anymore because - maybe - we've forgotten that. 

Return to simple. 

And so, in the name of simplicity and a return to sanity, I'm going back to old-fashioned simple blogging. 

I don't know how often I will publish here. The name of the game is not views. 

It's clarity. 

When I feel the need to write, then I will. 

I don't have an income engine to feed, or customers to funnel. I just want to use my words to tell stories and to say things that actually might make a difference. 

A return to simplicity feels like a return to the past, which can feel like a step in the wrong direction. But I believe, in this case, a step back into the past is actually the path we should have stayed on in the first place. It's the path we never should have left. 

Here's to simple blogging. 

I hope our paths cross.