Look down from the screen on which you are reading this, and wonder. QWERTY. This pattern of letters on a keyboard has stayed pretty much unchanged since it was standardised in the 1870s.
Stephen Fry, discussing the origins of Qwerty on Radio 4, argues that the Qwerty keyboard and its inventor (Christopher Sholes) could be accused of ‘conspiracy to pervert the course of language and to limit the speed of creativity and language input, endangering billions with repetitive strain injury’.
A bit harsh!
Continues Fry, “Imagine you’re on the maiden flight of that new ultra-modern aircraft, the Dreamliner. And you notice it’s being towed to the runway by donkeys. In exactly the same way, the Qwerty keyboard is an ancient system attached to our most modern devices.”
This discussion got me thinking. Not about the origins of Qwerty – interesting though they are – but about the different ways in which we, as writers, like to get our ideas down on paper. Personally I use a standard computer with separate keyboard and type straight from brain to screen. I can type almost faster than I can think. No, make that definitely faster than I can think!
However some writers find this impossible and would far rather write everything in longhand first and type it up at a later date. They claim – and probably with some justification – that their words flow better when written down on paper first. Certainly the temptation to constantly go back and revise what I have typed on screen is considerable and often delays getting to ‘the end’.
All I would say is that, as far as approaching publishers is concerned manuscripts must be typed. You would be amazed at how often hand-scrawled stories written on torn out pages of spiral notepads, turn up on my desk at Puffin. And I would go a step further than saying manuscripts must be typed. They must be typed in keeping with presentation standards considered the norm in 2010. So no manuscripts banged out on old-fashioned typewriters or word processors please. They look unprofessional and, more often than not, are impossible to decipher.
But how about dispensing with the keyboard altogether? Many authors already use dictaphone devices to come up with a first version of a story. So why not take it a step further? Advanced speech recognition systems can be found in smartphones and most modern computer operating systems. Could they replace Qwerty?
Not according to Dan Dixon, of the Digital Cultures Research Centre at the University of the West of England.
Says Dan, “Human computer interface research has shown recently that people actually like to think and type, not think and speak. When people are given the option to speak they have a much harder time organising their thoughts.”
So the real block turns out to be turning our thoughts into words in the first place!
So as far as presentation in concerned, what is considered the professional ‘norm’ in 2010?
So long as a manuscript is neat, clean, clear and presentable you can’t go far wrong. But I would suggest typing work on single sides of A4, double-spaced using 12pt Times Roman. Provide a cover page showing your ms title, name, number of words and contact details. Number your pages and don’t bind your work. Instead put the whole lot into some sort of folder. The ones that we provide in the ‘resources’ section of our ‘shop’ are perfect.
Interesting what Dan Dixon says. I would love a voice recognition device but know it wouldn’t work. I’m good at muttering in the bath (that’s when I get my best ideas, somthing to do with hot water increasing blood flow to the brain) but put a recording device in front of me and suddenly I’d clam up! Rather worrying not to be able to think and speak though!