Why do I write? Who knows. It's just something that I started at an early age and which has just grown and grown.
It's certainly a way of expressing myself when I feel I can't do so effectively with words when there is a tendency to be awkward. Speaking to somebody is an immediate thing whereas with writing you can take your time and put more thought into it, although at times in our modern age people fire off emails and other messages without really thinking about what the consequences will be for their actions.
Writing has changed so much over the years. I started, like everyone else, with a pencil and then a pen and an exercise book. Then I was given a portable typewriter as a present and loved that. It went with me into my life as a journalist and I only got rid of it a few years ago when I realised I wouldn't be using it again.
The problem with typing of course was mistakes had to be either crossed out using a line of xs or the dreaded tipp-ex had to be changed. This was a sticky white substance that you put over the mistakes with the aid of a very small applicator which was attached to the bottle top. You allowed it to dry and then typed over the top. If you didn't give it sufficient time to dry it just splodged into a mess.
Carbon paper was another thing. When I first started my career on local papers we typed our "copy" (story) onto copy paper. Copy paper was just offcuts of paper chopped into small pieces so that you could only type one or two paragraphs on each page which would then be numbered with a catchline to identify it. So if the story was about a new shop opening you might call your pages shop1, shop2, shop3 etc. At the bottom of the pages you wrote either more, mf or ends. Mf stood for More Follows and ends indicated the end of that story. You were only supposed to type on one side of the copy paper and often one side would have photos or other material on it.
Very often we would put carbon paper between the sheets in order to give us a copy. Carbon paper left a copy, but you had to press the keys of the typewriter quite hard to make a significant imprint. One copy of the story would make its way to the sub editors to correct and write headlines and decide on type sizes etc. The other would be kept by the author for reference and probably kept on something that looked a bit like a article of torture. This was named a spike and was usually a long piece of metal bent into a shape and with a wooden base. You would spike your copy onto this contraption which was also used to "file" press releases and other information. The spike very quickly became unwieldy and had to be cleaned out which meant chucking most of its contents in the waste bin irrespective of whether you were ever likely to need the contents again.
Back to copy. If you had a difficult phrase or name in your copy you would enter the word correct in brackets after it in order to indicate that you realised it to be a difficult or unusual name and had checked it and not mis-spelled it. This would also be done if you had an unusual spelling of a name e.g Wilson would be the usual surname spelling but our subject might be Willson with two ls. So you would put the word correct after it to indicate that it had been checked and you were aware that the unusual spelling was the correct one. This would save the sub editor from having to phone you up to check the spelling, although some sub editors seemed to get delight in phoning you up anyway. Having said that I have to point out that later in my career I became a sub editor.
* * *
To me one of the great things about writing is how you can vary styles to suit what you are writing about and also how you can experiment with different styles.
At work I might write to a kind of formula and then go home and write a diary entry in a much more chatty style and then write something as a stream of consciousness which basically means chucking down everything coming into your head irrespective of whether it made sense or not.
So writing can be rigid or free flowing and I enjoy both. Sometimes these blogs are written in contrasting styles. Today's is more chatty than many others.
* * *
I have been having a lively discussion on a Norwich based Facebook site about graffiti.
Regular readers of my blog may remember a few weeks ago I walked round Norwich taking photographs of the unsightly graffiti that seems to have sprung up during lockdown. A member of this Facebook group published a photo of some graffiti and was met with a comment suggesting that there was nothing new in this and graffiti has been around for centuries. The person posting this seemed to suggest that the mess we are now suffering is no worse than medieval graffiti that abounds in churches and Norwich Cathedral.
To me this is absolute nonsense. There is an historical context to medieval graffiti. Much of it was deliberately hidden by disillusioned workers and has been uncovered over the centuries. Much of it was political or religious in context and much of it was done by disillusioned workers who were often expected to work very long hours for very little reward. They often left clues of just what they thought about their patrons or their bosses.
There is no justification for today's graffiti. It is ugly and has no message and won't stand any test of time. It is done by people who have no pride in where they live. It has no artistic merit. This is the wording I put on the Facebook page.
"There is a considerable difference between graffiti that was placed in the cathedral in an historic context by men disillusioned who wanted to leave hidden messages of their plight and ugly slogans painted today that are born out of nothing more than an interest to deface and destroy."
* * *
Finally today I hope you enjoy my gallery of photographs taken a couple of days ago in North Norfolk. If you want to see more of my photographs please have a look at my You Tube channel. Just search for Norfolk and Suffolk photographs.