Retro Technology--Not just a thing of the past

Pre Internet Google search engine AKA, The World Book Encyclopedia.
1958 Ed. and many yearbooks

Technology is a wonderful thing/

Technology is a time sucking trap/

Technology has many faces

I was cleaning out my Dropbox folder to make more room for new files I'll probably never use after saving them there when I found these two items. Each deals with technology in its own way.

Spell chequer

Martha Snow

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a quay and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
It's rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
It's letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

This is one of several versions floating around the internet. I'm using it because it is more Americanized than other versions. It makes a point about relying strictly on electronic correction options when writing. I suspect that until the end of my lifetime, reading and editing hardcopy or an electronic file by an author or proofreader will continue as a necessity. The screenshot below shows errors my Grammarly browser app found. 

While those words are spelled incorrectly for the way they are used, they are not spelled incorrectly. In addition, Grammarly did not indicate the dozens of words spelled correctly that are used incorrectly.

I'm using ProWritingAid on a regular basis. I'll be posting a review of the product in January 2019.

The second example harkens back to the no-tech days. It's a Thesaurus Wheel. It's included in a sizeable sample of other non-electronic hints, examples, reminders, and other tools for reducing the use of ineffective literary techniques I found on Pinterest via a Google search. 

Here's the wheel.

Start with the general feeling in the center ring and narrow your search by zeroing in on the aspect of the general feeling you're trying to convey.

Here's a bonus idea I found while on Pinterest. I offer it because "Show/Don't tell" is a phrase I was unfamiliar with until recently. 

It's also a warning to not let Google take you down the rabbit hole of following search trails when you should be writing!

I like the attitude of the author of this tweet. The advice is excellent, too.

The bottom lines in this impromptu post are

1. Use technology when you write.
2. Do not rely on technology as the end game for any writing project.
3. Search online for a specific reason. Go back to writing after that search is accomplished!

If you have a no-tech, low-tech writing idea to share, email it to me at crd.author@gmail.com. I'll compile a batch and put them in a follow-up blog.

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