Re:The digital typewriter and the unnecessarily costly pursu...
by dredmorbius on Friday July 15, 2022 @05:18PM
(#32112916)
IME structure starts mattering somewhere above the 6,000 word mark (about 12 printed pages, 24 typewritten).
For longer works --- fiction or otherwise --- structure matters far more, and works written without consideration to this tend to show this as much lower in quality.
That said, many writers (both before and after invention of typewriters) would dictate their works to an assistant who would either write longhand or type the text. If you read a lot of 19th and early 20th century material, this is sometimes evident in the style, which tends toward conversational. I'm presuming these would typically at least begin with notes.
John McPhee is an example of a writer whose works are heavily structured, and who relies on index cards for drafting his stories, as well as extensive editing and rewriting. (See also Niklaus Luhmann and Nabokov.)
For longer works --- fiction or otherwise --- structure matters far more, and works written without consideration to this tend to show this as much lower in quality.
That said, many writers (both before and after invention of typewriters) would dictate their works to an assistant who would either write longhand or type the text. If you read a lot of 19th and early 20th century material, this is sometimes evident in the style, which tends toward conversational. I'm presuming these would typically at least begin with notes.
John McPhee is an example of a writer whose works are heavily structured, and who relies on index cards for drafting his stories, as well as extensive editing and rewriting. (See also Niklaus Luhmann and Nabokov.)