Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Hook


(from U.S. Patent #2486473, "TYPEWRITER RIBBON AND SPOOL" by H. J. Hart (1946)

On my Royal's ribbon spools, there is a small hook that drops down: the ribbon holds it in place when it's wrapped around the core, but when you reach the end, the hook lowers and trips the reverse mechanism, and what was now the end of the ribbon becomes the beginning. (This is a snip from the patent drawing, above.)

We're ending week two of NaNoWriMo, and maybe you're feeling a little at-the-end too? Like you've typed all you can and have run out of ideas? Time to invoke the Hook: make a change, kill a character, summon those monkey ninjas from the ninth dimension. Do something dramatic and you'll have a whole fresh story all laid out before you.

All the way to 50K, people. You can do it.

1 comment:

J.A. said...

Dude, I have as much fun resding your tags as I do your posts! "Come to me my fighting Typewriter Brigade!!" :: snort :: p.s. Found another typewriter at Goodwill today. An SC-Silent Sterling, or something like that. Nearly perfect condition. A mere $12.99!! Damn! I are a collector, just like you said would happen! One of the SCs is going to my brother for Xmas, though.