Stuff that’s spinning round in my head

Hiya, 

Just thought I’d try to get some stuff out of my head and onto something else, so that I can forget about it. I don’t know about you, but I find that sometimes I get stuck on something that my mind just won’t let go of, and the only way to expunge it from my consciousness is to write it out. Once written down it’s no longer in my mind, so I don’t need to keep referring to it mentally. As such I find that when I get stressed about anything, the best medicine is to write it out of my life and onto the computer screen. 

I’ve written some interesting poems that way, and I hope to keep doing so for as long as my keyboard remains QWERTY and my fingers remember which key is which. On that subject I wonder how you learned to type, or if indeed you have ever learned to type properly? 

In my case I was at university and found that after struggling for hours to think up coherent arguments, when I wrote them out I couldn’t read my own handwriting. It was so bad that in the end I bought myself a small portable typewriter in order to be able to type up my essays. Then a friend lent me her electric typewriter, and when she did she showed me the ‘home’ keys and how to use them. After that she suggested I learn to type the sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” It contains every letter of the alphabet, so writing it out properly meant learning where each letter key was, and training my fingers to find it with the correct finger when needed. Needless to say, I practised and practised until I could look at the paper instead of the keys when writing the sentence, and eventually I was able to fill A4 sheet after A4 sheet with the sentence, and with very few mistakes.

I now touch type and rarely look at the keyboard, except when typing numbers or looking for brackets, etc. I’ve found it makes quite a difference to my writing as it allows me to keep watching the screen as the words appear, so that I can go back and instantly change anything I’m not happy with, without having to reach the end of the sentence, then look up from the keyboard to see what I’ve typed. 

It also means that my typing has got quicker (if not always more accurate!) over time, although recently I’ve noticed I make more mistakes than I used to. I put this down to my advancing age and lessening control over my digits. Eventually of course I’ll have to type with my forehead and a strap-on unicorn like horn to push on the keys as my hands become less easily controlled by my brain. However, by then I expect that the electronic tools Stephen Hawking used will be universally available for even paupers like me to buy and use. 

As to what they’ll be used for. Well, in case you weren’t aware, I pledged on this website at the beginning of the year to write a poem a day from January 1st till June 30th. I’ve managed to do it so far, although I don’t think I wrote anything of value, particularly in the early poems, as these were effectively practice runs. Recently I’ve tried to break out of the rhyming restrictions of either rhyming each two line couplet, or rhyming lines 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 in a four line stanza. I’ve also tried to break away from writing about either the prevailing weather, or my own boredom at being stuck at home during lockdown. 

I didn’t post any of the poems that I wrote on this website, but it’s just occurred to me that perhaps it might be a good idea for me to post them here as this is where I made the committment to write them. Doh! As it is I have posted them up on another website in a poetry thread on a Writer’s forum that I spend time on most days. 

Anyway, if you think it would be a good idea for me to post them somewhere on this site then let me know, and I’ll see about uploading all the one’s I’ve written so far, and after that I’ll see if I can remember to post them up either each day or each week after that. Oh, and if you know the correct place to post them I’d be very grateful. As it is I’m not sure if there is a dedicated poetry section on here, but if there is I’ll see if I can find it and post up my musings there.

However, that’s changing the subject somewhat. Getting back to what I started this rambling rant about, do you find that if you’re bottling something up inside you, and you don’t feel you can burden anyone else with your troubles, that just the simple act of writing it down on paper, or typing it into your computer, will then lighten the load on your conscience? It certainly has with me, and if you haven’t tried it, I recommend that you do the next time you’re feeling down and that the world is trying to squash you with its heavily booted heel.

All the best,