Celebrating 100,000 words with a new toy

So, as I mentioned briefly in this week’s 365K Club check-in post… I hit my 100,000-word yearly goal!

That’s right: we’re only halfway through the year, and I’ve already met my target.

I think I need to take some time to let that really sink in, so that I can celebrate it.

I mean, really, how cool is this? As of June 24th, I’ve written 100,000 words in 2016. That is a LOT of writing.

Granted, many of the things I’ve written this year have been blog posts. Some of the writing has actually been for books I’m working on (yay!), and some of it has simply been personal journaling. But it all adds up! And the more you stick to an everyday writing habit and keep track of your daily word count, the easier it gets to keep on putting those words on the page.

So, in light of this momentous milestone, I’ve decided two things:

I will up my yearly goal to 200,000 words, which now means I’m halfway there, and
I will reward myself with a writerly present.

And yes, I’ve already chosen my reward: It’s a Hermes 3000 typewriter, made in Switzerland!

I am super excited about this gift to myself, because it’s the second typewriter I have purchased, and it’s one I’ve had my eye on for quite a while – ever since a coworker bought a Hermes Baby off a blanket in NYC, in fact!

This one is cool, because – as you can see in this close-up picture – there are special keys for umlauts over the O, A and U.

The first typewriter I bought was a Royal Quiet DeLuxe, which I purchased from a guy in Austin, Texas, who had listed it on Craigslist. (See, there are some benefits to living in a hipster haven…) It requires a good deal of force in order to impress each letter on the paper, and for some reason the top likes to pop open while you’re typing, which can be a bit irritating.

This one, however, was an eBay score. I was surprised that it was only listed for $50, and shipping wasn’t too steep since it was already in California, so I made a bid and won!

It does come with its own quirks, though. It seems there’s something amiss with the tabs or margin settings, as the carriage return bell rings about halfway across the page, and then you can’t move further to the right unless you press the “Mar. Rel.” key to release the margin. I’ve tried hitting “All Clear” and “Tab Clear,” to no avail. But if you hit “Mar. Rel.” you can continue on, and then move the lever to get to the next line.

There’s also a bit of weirdness there, because the typewriter doesn’t seem to want to go all the way to the left hand side of the page, either. But, once again, if you depress “Mar. Rel.” while moving the carriage back towards the left, you can get it to wherever you want it.

Strange, eh?

I may try looking up a user manual for this particular brand, to see if I can reset the margins/tabs and avoid having to press all these extra keys, but for now at least I’ve figured out how to get it to go all the way across the page.

Here’s a sample of some of my typing, so you can see the font:

I’m also toying with the idea of offering custom stories, typewritten for a fee. I’ve already created one custom story for a friend, and it was a super fun writing exercise, so if you’re interested in commissioning a piece, stay tuned! I will post a “How to Order Typewritten Stories” page soon with further details.