Writer with Multiple Sclerosis Finds Unexpected Gratitude

Post Reply New Topic

... As my M.S. progressed through the years, it began to take much longer to assemble my thoughts. The computer, for all its innovations, wasn’t helping. I could type over 60 words per minute on my laptop without once thinking about line breaks. With auto-correct I didn’t even have to worry about misspelled words or basic grammar. This might be a blessing for most writers, but it wasn’t the case for me. The ease of executing perfect sentences brought out my inner critic and stifled the serendipitous flow of ideas and connections. I prefer writing poems on paper for this very reason. To give my right brain permission for creativity on longer works such as essays and short stories, I desperately needed a tool that better matched the pace of my thinking. “You ought to use a typewriter,” J.P. had often said, but I was always too busy. Now, courtesy of the quarantine, I had all the time in the world. ...