A spot-on analysis of how attitude toward paper can free up or stifle creative flow. If you're comfortable, no one watching, no cares about wasting paper, ink, time, no concern for mistakes, you might coax that elusive genius through dancing fingers onto a page. Then stare in wonder.
Big fan of drafting on legal pad paper ... about a dollar per pad, 50 sheets x 2 = 100 pages = a penny a page. Pretty liberating for dumping words. Thx for the discussion, Joe!
Great video Joe! Love your typing area. I use the 81/2x11 receipts that come in amazon packages as packing lists. They always seem to have one side blank. My wife's a teacher so on over prints for class assignments again back is blank. Then all the times the printer is offline,or just doesn't print. So you try over and over to get it to print and nothing. Hours later you hear something....its the printer...printing and its ALLLL printing. So the backsides of those all get used like the others.Having no value at all and destined to go into recycle I save it,just like I saved the typewriter. The two go together.....Total freedom to create and saving the environment and pieces of history together. My thoughts just flow about as free as it gets. Thanks again for a great video.
Your "ROYAL KMM" sounds GREAT! What a fantastically smooth and resonant "CLICKETY CLACK"!!! That's music to ANY writer's ear. Wish MY machines sounded so good! (That's a clue I guess that it's WAAAAY toooo looking since I've had them both into the shop for a proper "servicing" and NEW ribbon too. As always... ENJOY ALL.YOUR VIDEOS! Thanks for putting them ALL out on the internet for us less talented, trained and practiced typists. Much appreciated!
I agree; I find it intriguing you note this because of the implications of typewriting. Many often use typewriters to ensure they think out ever sentence and watch their grammatical structuring. In a way, using better quality paper seems to further embody this idea to ensure that there is thought to typing. I likely wouldn't endeavor in stream of consciousness on old papers, but I would be inspired to plan my structuring and content.
This concept can be applied to many different hobbies with regards to their associated supplies! Really interesting, and I'm sure everyone has been able to relate at one point or another!
Wow. What a helpful video. Especially those last 2 minutes. But the whole object of it really answered a lot of questions for me. And I think I’m going to try using the # sign for strike-through correction. But I’ve been trying to wean myself from doing any corrections and just moving forward. Especially for my journaling/free-writing, but also because I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year, and I just want to keep piling up that word count towards 50,000. I find your videos extremely helpful. Thank you.
Hi Joe! Thanx for this video, it really make me think...and you are absolutely correct, inexpensive paper makes you write more freely. It is not the actual cost, but the mental barrier that limits. So for the most part I use cheep copy paper for my everyday writing. Last but not least, I wanna say that I love your typewriter videos - both the reviews of typewriters and those about more philosofical issues regarding writing, typewriters and creativity...And the videos have made me a typewriter collector and most of all user myself...During the last two years I have gotten myself 17 different typewriters, mostly portable and ultra portable ones...and a bit of a storage problem 😊 All the best, Hugo Charles Hansen from Mo i Rana, Norway🇳🇴 PS. Please, keep those videos coming!
Thank you for the video. I appreciate all I have learned from watching your channel. My collection has grown some over the past year and I am still looking for more to add to the collection. Over the years I have collected hundreds of training manuals, over printed flyers, and other documents with printing on one side. I have used these for printing rough drafts and unimportant things. Now I use them in my typewriters. Almost all my typewritten pages get scanned into the computer for editing so I don't feel like I am wasting paper, I'm just doing my part to recycle something that would have been thrown away anyway. I also ended up with some boxes of tractor feed printer paper and have used that. I find that not spending money on paper makes it easier to just put it in the Smith Corona Sterling and clack away. I seldom take a sheet out and throw it away when I make a grave error, I just xx it out and start a new line.
When doing brain dumps or first drafts it is all about "The cheaper the better". As an archive producer I often have piles of research material and a lot of photocopies. When a project is over I don't throw them away but use the back for typing (or handwriting), and it feels like a second life I give to the paper :)
Great video. I love jamming on my typewriters---free-writing, junk-writing, whatever you wanna call it. At a thrift store a while back I nabbed a big sealed box of old perforated fan-fold tractor-feed printer paper--$5 for 2400 sheets! 20# "premium white bond." I tear the sheets apart before typing, but I think you could feed them straight from the box into your typer, like a BAROP.
I think it is a good idea to use acid-free paper, so it will last, and that cuts out all the real cheap copy paper. You can still get a ream of that for not too much. As you point out, once you think the paper isn't worth anything, the things you type sometimes become worth more. I have good paper, but I generally save that for letters, and I might type out a draft version first to get the words about right on lesser paper. My wife has an almost identical relationship to paper with her watercolours -- she does her best painting on scrap paper, and enjoys it more, even though she has good paper. Before you start any creative journey you don't know how it will turn out, and a lack of confidence is natural. Backing up the truck a bit though : no typing is a "waste" of paper, it is a USE of paper, and that is why it exists. If you don't end up wanting to keep it, you can recycle it and the material can be re-used. It is pretty guilt free if you think of it that way.
Hi Joe, It doesn't seem right to use "new old stock" paper except for the best work, like correspondence. There was a bunch of rough sheets torn out of an exercise book under a typewriter when I bought it, and I am using those for the current draft of a novel. As long as you have a backing sheet to protect the platen, you can roll any kind of paper into a typewriter for freeform or creative writing work, knowing you ill be editing and rewriting it later.
My "brain dump"/practice paper is the backs of the reams and reams of copier paper that get spit out as fax cover sheets at work. So long as there's nothing sensitive on them I stash them in the bottom drawer of my desk at work, then grab a handful to cart home now and again.
My partner recently bought me a Lettera 32 (my first typewriter) as a birthday present so now I have a new Avenue to burn thru all these random collections of old paper I've held onto for some reason. Looking forward to trying out the different types of lines, graph, engineering type paper to see what I can come up with. Lots of paper will be wasted, I can guarantee you that!
... haven't fully watched yet but I use my typewriters to just write out what ever really comes to mind.. I actually started getting concerned with just wasting paper... so i started taking front and back of paper.. I use multipurpose copy paper... like $5 for 100 pages.. so not terribly expensive but not to different from a furnace? Love the content 👌 ( I used to live in Farmington,NM) VERY often traveled to Abq.!
Another way of thinking about paper - instead of writing on a sheet - and change the sheet - stick them with Scotch Tape - to make an infinite leaf - like Jack Kerouac - Or use continuous computer paper for dot matrix impact printers - 1000 sheets size 9.5x11 inch, 1/2" margin perforated on the right and left, easy tear off and once the fin-feed holes are removed the computer bond paper will become 8 1/2" x 11"
My happy medium is to buy some nice 24 weight Georgia Pacific copy paper. It's nicer than standard copy paper but not ridiculously expensive. I like the feel of it, but it's not so expensive to be distracting from writing.
I have southwoeth resume and some of the resume paper and envelopes, antique laid woven or laid too. I imported some of them to UK as its not sold here anymore. I'm admiring that typewriter it looks better than the FM on in the comparison video it looks very smart.
Yes, the "MEADE" paper is good. I too was and still do use PHOTOCOPY PAPER when I run out of the genuine typing paper. I, like you, also TREASURE any of the older, real "typing paper" I've got in my "stash" or find "out in the wild" as you say. I reserve it for VERY special letters to my friends mostly and occasionally some "official" purposes too.
There is something about using scraps of paper or cheaper paper that makes you just whack paper in and type. You don't need to think or worry as you do with more expensive paper. Good vid. Makes you think....
The legendary paper used throughout the 20th century by newspaper reporters, magazine writers, writers and playwrights for their first drafts, outlines and edits was yellow 8 1/2 x 11" newsprint paper. Comes in reams of 500, costs nothing, trash cans in newsrooms throughout the country were full of it! Nobody thought twice about wasting it, and newspaper and magazine managements could easily afford to buy it by the ton.
PS: I'm VERY envious of you Joe! Because you, being a "normal" sized person have the option of actually sitting at a proper desk to work with your typewriter if you choose to do so. I, being of "HINDENBURG" proportions, DON'T. So? I am constantly lugging my portable "ROY" around and setting it upon a properly supportive surface to work on. Bad for spontaneity (and my back) but great for building up my biceps! LOL
Okay I got a good one for you Joe, So, as I'm going through and laughably trying to catch up or watch all your videos, (Because there's so many been watching almost 3 months now still haven't caught up, and I still have all the camera stuff too). I have noticed that you have mentioned, here and there, here as well, you have some friend over and they brought whatever typewriter, well, every neighborhood has a nosey neighbor, and sometimes it's a kid, now do you suppose, the nosey neighbor sees these guys showing up and they say this... "WHAT'S WITH ALL THE SUITCASES?" "Well, here we go again, another gentleman walking up to that man's house, you know they guy, he walks and talks into the camera, anyway here is another one of his 'business associates', walking up to his door with a suitcase, not a briefcase, a suitcase....what's with all the suitcases?" Nosey neighbor doesn't know these 'suitcases' hold typewriters. Hope you got a laugh or a smile out this Joe. Be well friend.
Hey Joe.Does your family has Dutch roots. Here in The Netherlands there are a lots of ''Van Cleef'' and van Kleef. Your last name looks a bit the English version of it :p
Yes, our family came from Holland in the 16th century from the Dutchy of Cleeves, the family name was Waldyke, was renamed Van Cleave in the New World.
A spot-on analysis of how attitude toward paper can free up or stifle creative flow. If you're comfortable, no one watching, no cares about wasting paper, ink, time, no concern for mistakes, you might coax that elusive genius through dancing fingers onto a page. Then stare in wonder.
These typewriter videos are fantastic-I’ve binge watched so many!
Big fan of drafting on legal pad paper ... about a dollar per pad, 50 sheets x 2 = 100 pages = a penny a page. Pretty liberating for dumping words. Thx for the discussion, Joe!
Great video Joe! Love your typing area. I use the 81/2x11 receipts that come in amazon packages as packing lists. They always seem to have one side blank. My wife's a teacher so on over prints for class assignments again back is blank. Then all the times the printer is offline,or just doesn't print. So you try over and over to get it to print and nothing. Hours later you hear something....its the printer...printing and its ALLLL printing. So the backsides of those all get used like the others.Having no value at all and destined to go into recycle I save it,just like I saved the typewriter. The two go together.....Total freedom to create and saving the environment and pieces of history together. My thoughts just flow about as free as it gets. Thanks again for a great video.
Your "ROYAL KMM" sounds GREAT! What a fantastically smooth and resonant "CLICKETY CLACK"!!! That's music to ANY writer's ear. Wish MY machines sounded so good! (That's a clue I guess that it's WAAAAY toooo looking since I've had them both into the shop for a proper "servicing" and NEW ribbon too. As always... ENJOY ALL.YOUR VIDEOS! Thanks for putting them ALL out on the internet for us less talented, trained and practiced typists. Much appreciated!
I agree; I find it intriguing you note this because of the implications of typewriting. Many often use typewriters to ensure they think out ever sentence and watch their grammatical structuring. In a way, using better quality paper seems to further embody this idea to ensure that there is thought to typing. I likely wouldn't endeavor in stream of consciousness on old papers, but I would be inspired to plan my structuring and content.
This concept can be applied to many different hobbies with regards to their associated supplies! Really interesting, and I'm sure everyone has been able to relate at one point or another!
Wow. What a helpful video. Especially those last 2 minutes. But the whole object of it really answered a lot of questions for me. And I think I’m going to try using the # sign for strike-through correction. But I’ve been trying to wean myself from doing any corrections and just moving forward. Especially for my journaling/free-writing, but also because I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year, and I just want to keep piling up that word count towards 50,000. I find your videos extremely helpful. Thank you.
Hi Joe! Thanx for this video, it really make me think...and you are absolutely correct, inexpensive paper makes you write more freely. It is not the actual cost, but the mental barrier that limits. So for the most part I use cheep copy paper for my everyday writing. Last but not least, I wanna say that I love your typewriter videos - both the reviews of typewriters and those about more philosofical issues regarding writing, typewriters and creativity...And the videos have made me a typewriter collector and most of all user myself...During the last two years I have gotten myself 17 different typewriters, mostly portable and ultra portable ones...and a bit of a storage problem 😊 All the best, Hugo Charles Hansen from Mo i Rana, Norway🇳🇴 PS. Please, keep those videos coming!
Thank you for the video. I appreciate all I have learned from watching your channel. My collection has grown some over the past year and I am still looking for more to add to the collection. Over the years I have collected hundreds of training manuals, over printed flyers, and other documents with printing on one side. I have used these for printing rough drafts and unimportant things. Now I use them in my typewriters. Almost all my typewritten pages get scanned into the computer for editing so I don't feel like I am wasting paper, I'm just doing my part to recycle something that would have been thrown away anyway. I also ended up with some boxes of tractor feed printer paper and have used that. I find that not spending money on paper makes it easier to just put it in the Smith Corona Sterling and clack away. I seldom take a sheet out and throw it away when I make a grave error, I just xx it out and start a new line.
When doing brain dumps or first drafts it is all about "The cheaper the better". As an archive producer I often have piles of research material and a lot of photocopies. When a project is over I don't throw them away but use the back for typing (or handwriting), and it feels like a second life I give to the paper :)
Great video. I love jamming on my typewriters---free-writing, junk-writing, whatever you wanna call it. At a thrift store a while back I nabbed a big sealed box of old perforated fan-fold tractor-feed printer paper--$5 for 2400 sheets! 20# "premium white bond." I tear the sheets apart before typing, but I think you could feed them straight from the box into your typer, like a BAROP.
Perfect! I'm always on the lookout for things that I might be able to blame my relative lack of creativity on. ;-)
I think it is a good idea to use acid-free paper, so it will last, and that cuts out all the real cheap copy paper. You can still get a ream of that for not too much. As you point out, once you think the paper isn't worth anything, the things you type sometimes become worth more. I have good paper, but I generally save that for letters, and I might type out a draft version first to get the words about right on lesser paper. My wife has an almost identical relationship to paper with her watercolours -- she does her best painting on scrap paper, and enjoys it more, even though she has good paper. Before you start any creative journey you don't know how it will turn out, and a lack of confidence is natural. Backing up the truck a bit though : no typing is a "waste" of paper, it is a USE of paper, and that is why it exists. If you don't end up wanting to keep it, you can recycle it and the material can be re-used. It is pretty guilt free if you think of it that way.
Hi Joe, It doesn't seem right to use "new old stock" paper except for the best work, like correspondence. There was a bunch of rough sheets torn out of an exercise book under a typewriter when I bought it, and I am using those for the current draft of a novel. As long as you have a backing sheet to protect the platen, you can roll any kind of paper into a typewriter for freeform or creative writing work, knowing you ill be editing and rewriting it later.
My "brain dump"/practice paper is the backs of the reams and reams of copier paper that get spit out as fax cover sheets at work. So long as there's nothing sensitive on them I stash them in the bottom drawer of my desk at work, then grab a handful to cart home now and again.
My partner recently bought me a Lettera 32 (my first typewriter) as a birthday present so now I have a new Avenue to burn thru all these random collections of old paper I've held onto for some reason. Looking forward to trying out the different types of lines, graph, engineering type paper to see what I can come up with. Lots of paper will be wasted, I can guarantee you that!
... haven't fully watched yet but I use my typewriters to just write out what ever really comes to mind.. I actually started getting concerned with just wasting paper... so i started taking front and back of paper.. I use multipurpose copy paper... like $5 for 100 pages.. so not terribly expensive but not to different from a furnace? Love the content 👌 ( I used to live in Farmington,NM) VERY often traveled to Abq.!
'...give youself permission...' That just about says it all. Stay sane.
Another way of thinking about paper - instead of writing on a sheet - and change the sheet - stick them with Scotch Tape - to make an infinite leaf - like Jack Kerouac - Or use continuous computer paper for dot matrix impact printers - 1000 sheets size 9.5x11 inch, 1/2" margin perforated on the right and left, easy tear off and once the fin-feed holes are removed the computer bond paper will become 8 1/2" x 11"
My happy medium is to buy some nice 24 weight Georgia Pacific copy paper. It's nicer than standard copy paper but not ridiculously expensive. I like the feel of it, but it's not so expensive to be distracting from writing.
I have southwoeth resume and some of the resume paper and envelopes, antique laid woven or laid too. I imported some of them to UK as its not sold here anymore.
I'm admiring that typewriter it looks better than the FM on in the comparison video it looks very smart.
Yes, the "MEADE" paper is good. I too was and still do use PHOTOCOPY PAPER when I run out of the genuine typing paper. I, like you, also TREASURE any of the older, real "typing paper" I've got in my "stash" or find "out in the wild" as you say. I reserve it for VERY special letters to my friends mostly and occasionally some "official" purposes too.
There is something about using scraps of paper or cheaper paper that makes you just whack paper in and type. You don't need to think or worry as you do with more expensive paper. Good vid. Makes you think....
I’ve been using wall paper.
A light patterned paper looks quite cool for notes.
Cut it to any size. Works well both sides.
The legendary paper used throughout the 20th century by newspaper reporters, magazine writers, writers and playwrights for their first drafts, outlines and edits was yellow 8 1/2 x 11" newsprint paper. Comes in reams of 500, costs nothing, trash cans in newsrooms throughout the country were full of it! Nobody thought twice about wasting it, and newspaper and magazine managements could easily afford to buy it by the ton.
PS: I'm VERY envious of you Joe! Because you, being a "normal" sized person have the option of actually sitting at a proper desk to work with your typewriter if you choose to do so. I, being of "HINDENBURG" proportions, DON'T. So? I am constantly lugging my portable "ROY" around and setting it upon a properly supportive surface to work on. Bad for spontaneity (and my back) but great for building up my biceps! LOL
I have a lot of those mistakes where people can see them. It is the only way I can type.
Do you still use the paper roll?
Yes, depending on the machine and my purposes.
Okay I got a good one for you Joe,
So, as I'm going through and laughably trying to catch up or watch all your videos, (Because there's so many been watching almost 3 months now still haven't caught up, and I still have all the camera stuff too).
I have noticed that you have mentioned, here and there, here as well, you have some friend over and they brought whatever typewriter, well, every neighborhood has a nosey neighbor, and sometimes it's a kid, now do you suppose, the nosey neighbor sees these guys showing up and they say this...
"WHAT'S WITH ALL THE SUITCASES?"
"Well, here we go again, another gentleman walking up to that man's house, you know they guy, he walks and talks into the camera, anyway here is another one of his 'business associates', walking up to his door with a suitcase, not a briefcase, a suitcase....what's with all the suitcases?"
Nosey neighbor doesn't know these 'suitcases' hold typewriters.
Hope you got a laugh or a smile out this Joe. Be well friend.
The League of Extraordinary Suitcased Gentlemen!
@@Joe_VanCleave
YES!!!! Glad to be a member!
Thanks
Hey Joe.Does your family has Dutch roots. Here in The Netherlands there are a lots of ''Van Cleef'' and van Kleef. Your last name looks a bit the English version of it :p
Yes, our family came from Holland in the 16th century from the Dutchy of Cleeves, the family name was Waldyke, was renamed Van Cleave in the New World.
Treat Yo Self! :D
Typewriter looks cool 😎
I waste paper every day! No "fast food" for my machines!
HAPPY KEYBOARDING!⌨
My typewriter doesn't have a pound. Lol