Writing, My Way
When Emma Thompson was on Oprah’s show last week, she explained how she handwrites her screenplays, using a favourite pen from her Dad. My writing isn’t quite that idyllic. In fact, I would describe it as rather clumsy and painfully slow.
I plunk away at the computer keyboard with only my left thumb; my four fingers glide along the top of the keyboard to steady my unsteady hand. This position is definitely not ergonomically sound and makes the occupational therapists cringe, but hey, it works!
The blue Dycem® non-slip mat (also called blue squishy by my Nanna) holds my keyboard relatively still. This stuff also works great under my dinner plate! I remember also using it way back in elementary school to prevent me from sliding off those plastic orange chairs, but I digress.
In place of a mouse, I use a Traxsys (formerly Penny + Giles) joystick. Definitely not an inexpensive alternative at approximately $700 Canadian. OUCH! But I have much better control with the joystick than with the mouse. With the mouse, one involuntary or jerky hand movement and the mouse pointer goes flying across the screen. Ugh! How frustrating!
I also use software EZ Keys for word prediction and abbreviation expansion. As I begin typing, the six most frequently used words starting with those letters appear in a small blue box on the screen. Different words appear as I continue typing. When the word I want appears, I simply hit the corresponding number and the computer completes the word. It does save me quite a few keystrokes! Although, even with this handy software, I still only type approximately ten or twelve words per minute, give or take. It also depends on whether or not my Muse is whispering in my ear!
However, all of this beats how I first started typing when I was five, which was on an electric Smith Corona typewriter with a keyguard to prevent me from hitting multiple keys at once. I used that typewriter all through elementary school and high school. (Actually the one shown in the picture is my second one.) People are amazed that I still have a typewriter. How else do I write cheques and fill out darn PDF forms!
I am sure my writing ability has improved since switching to a computer. I no longer need to fiddle around with that messy correcting paper every time I hit the wrong key, which is frequently. Rewriting and editing are so much easier! I no longer need to type something two or three times to get a “good copy “. Heck, if I had this technology back in high school, maybe homework would have gone faster and I would have escaped my bedroom more frequently!
Mom and I have often joked that I should insure my left thumb with Lloyd’s of London! I would be so lost without my left thumb! What would I do for a livelihood if I couldn’t type? How would I communicate with the outside world? Actually I considered calling my autobiography My Left Thumb – a take off on Christy Brown’s bestseller My Left Foot. But I thought I’ll Do It Myself: A Collection of Memories from a Woman Living with Cerebral Palsy was much more appropriate. Although now I’m wondering if A Collection of Memories is too lengthy and clumsy. Something else to think about as I plunk away on my book.
Wow, you are amazing!
Yes, I agree about the book title, yours sounds much better.
Comment by Jules — March 15, 2006 @ 7:10 pm
Thanks Jules! Simply doing it the only way the works. A few years ago, when I was having hand pain, I tried various other input methods - Morse code, voice recognition, onscreen keyboard, and scanning - but nothing was faster and nothing felt as natural as plunking along with my left thumb. The only thing that I did change was my mouse for the joystick, which gives me much better control.
Last year or so, something happened to my left thumb. It felt somewhat dislocated at the first joint. I reluctantly went to the walk-in clinic to have it checked. I say reluctantly because, for the most part, I am not great fans of doctors because they don’t see beyond the cerebral palsy to see me, the bright, intelligent, capable woman. Anyway the doctor looked at my thumb and said nothing was wrong, and to take iboprophren for the ’slight’ inflammation. He didn’t understand why I was so concerned about a thumb. He didn’t appreciate how important my left thumb is to me and how lost I would be without. Ugh.
I still think I should insure it!
Comment by Glenda — March 20, 2006 @ 6:24 pm
In case you were wondering who I am, this is your friendly nieghbourhood hairdresser. Thank you for inviting me to your website. As I read your bits and pieces I have to chuckle at some of it. Just recognizing that sense of humour I have seen when you laugh at my terrible jokes.
You are an amazing lady and I look forward to reading your book. Mom says she has dibbs on it after me.
Good luck finding a publisher.
Mary
Comment by Mary — April 9, 2006 @ 10:43 pm
Hi Glenda!
You ‘ll never cease to amaze me.
I’m sure you make less mistakes using your left thumb than I do using both hands on the cmputer–and you sure do know your way around that confounding machine.
I was talking to Mrs. Peart yesterday and she told me about your upcoming book. As always you are one determined young lady. You have a great story to tell and I’m sure it will be an inspiration to everyone–with or without a disability.
All the best to you,
Trudy Rutherford
P.S.
Have you been to Cold Slap lately?
Trudy
Comment by Trudy Rutherford — April 14, 2006 @ 12:26 pm
Ode To My Left Thumb
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner and stuck his thumb in a pie
A thumbs up or thumbs down in ancient Rome meant that you lived or you died
When we are just wee little tots and weaned from our mothers breast
Do we suck on our fingers? No I think not! We use our thumb cause it’s best
Without your wondrous, opposable thumb you wouldn’t have a pinch
How would you eat, write, or get dressed? Life wouldn’t be such a cinch
Many overlook the virtues of the thumb but for quads this isn’t true
We know if our thumbs moved just a bit, there’d be a whole lot more we could do
And so I hold my left thumb high and with grateful eyes I look
For without this digit on my hand, I may’s well have a hook
John Kraimer
Comment by John Kraimer — April 26, 2006 @ 9:21 am
[…] ll committed to launching my book on my 40th birthday – November 4th. Barring a broken left thumb, I will do whatever it takes to meet this commitment. I’m not sure whether it is red-hea […]
Pingback by JustWrite » Writers, Stop Writing — August 13, 2006 @ 12:14 am
[…] bloggers email me their questions three or four business days prior to their date so that my left thumb has plenty of time to type out responses. Current Itinerary Monday, January 22 - Th […]
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[…] other is in constant motion. My left hand has some function and I type with my left thumb (http://webaccessibility.biz/blog/?p=28), while my right hand is generally in a tightly clenched fist. I ca […]
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