Sorry, no help from me on the typewriter side, I couldn?t survive without editing features (that would make me stare at The White Page).

You might want to try blockwriter.

I don?t know if it works.

Sometimes when I find myself rewriting without making much progress on a paper, I'll remove the backspace key from the keyboard, just to remind myself to keep going forward. This would simulate the effect of a typewriter...

One of the ways I've been known to distract myself when writing is by toying around with the formatting too much. The LyX word-processor prevents this, because you don't do ANY formatting while typing, other than to say whether something is a paragraph or a header or a list (formatting is applied by a stylesheet afterwards.)

It comes pre-installed on some Linux distros; this is how I use it. (It's a pain in the neck to install on Windows, because there are pre-requirements that need to be installed and configured separately. I don't know if it's available for Mac or not.)

Not exactly "lickable" but it's available.

Writer is the Mac app based on the blockwriter post. It might just be the thing you're looking for.

My suggestion is to avoid the word processor for the drafting stage and only move into it when you’re ready to edit. I find that using an app dedicated to drafting makes you more inclined to write. I use Scrivener for large projects myself, but Writeroom or even a modified TextEdit works well for smaller projects.

Some tips:

• Set the font in you drafting app to something larger and more casual then you would use in the final paper. The goal here is easy readability and a tangible difference in font-style will quickly tell your eyes whether or not you supposed to write or edit.

• Full screen. Many apps have full screen modes, and Afloat can give one to apps that don’t. Full screen can aid the illusion that you’re using a dedicated typing machine and keep you from getting distracted from widgets elsewhere on the screen.

• Inverted color. Provided by Writeroom by default and achievable with Universal Access “Switch to Black on White”, or Alcor’s Nocturne (free), an inverted color scheme helps the above two goals. It both signals visually to the mind that something different is to take place and makes your computer seem more like an old terminal. It can ease readability also.

I don't use a typewriter, but I do write a lot, and am attracted to the romantic image of the typewriter, in the sense of no distraction + being able to to a coffee-shop and just type. I'm very attracted to the Dana (http://www.alphasmart.com/products/dana-w_In.html) as a 21st century solution. It runs on Palm OS and has a fairly long battery-life, plus a full-sized keyboard.

I write things out on pen and paper for my first draft. I don’t necessarily write every sentence in reasonable English, sometimes it is a bit annotated. I use ‘bad’ paper as well, usually things that have been printed on the other side.

After I’ve got my bad first draft down, I’ll cover it in markings showing where the different sentences will go. Because I tend to have no more then two paragraphs per page, I can then effectively cut’n’paste them by rearranging the pieces of paper.

Because I have to type it all into the computer, I get an automatic full edit of the whole thing.

Though I do actually collect typewriters, I don’t do any writing with them. (My kids used to call them “old computers.”) Since all my typewriters are manual, I found that the work of pressing the keys was more than my lazy fingers were used to, and so I reverted to a cheapo composition book and a pencil.

Programs like WriteRoom or BlockWriter tend to leave me too open to distraction, which then draws me out of my writing and pretty soon I’m back with a full-blown word processor and into the perfectionist mode that was the OP’s concern.

Stay true to your vision, but find a nice quiet, lightweight, electric typewriter and take it to town, baby. The small processes that writing with a physical medium (sharpening a pencil, turning a page, inserting more paper into the typewriter, refilling the ink in the pen) I find make my writing go more slowly, but also more thoughtfully and more polished from the get-go (refering to structural polish, not stylistic polish, which is never present in first drafts). Writing outside of a computer also removes the temptation to recycle writing that’s “kinda good enough” rather than subject it to scrutiny and real editing. Kinda like this writing here.

I got a MobilePro for about eighty bucks on Ebay, with a good battery and touch screen. It rocks. I can edit, but because the screen is small, it doesn’t really invite editing. It’s mobile and I can transfer it to computer. Because I haven’t written much for years, I can barely read my own handwriting, so typing is much better!

It’s a mental shift though - why do you need to force yourself? Do you keep all your chocolate under lock and key, and have a timer dispense you a beer every half hour? No, you’ve just learned to make responsible choices for your health. Do the same for your writing.

Tell your mental editor to take a holiday, and just keep writing. Don’t even open the pages you did the day before - start a new document, logically titled.

It’s pretty difficult, giving yourself permission to write rubbish! But you can’t edit a blank page, and you’re wasting edits if you haven’t yet discovered the seeds that you need to sow for future story revelations.

Yes, absolutely you can do this. I just did 69,000 plus words for Nanowrimo. I now use a typewriter daily. It’s amazing how much more I get done without the distractions of a computer. Go for it. OCR software isn’t great but then I didn’t try to tweak it much. Get the story down with a typewriter first then work on revisions later (sometimes this makes more sense on a pc.)

Don’t listen to the others ;) Accept no substitutes for that typer!

MDL,

I collect old typewriters, too, and sometimes I do use them, but only for theraputic reasons. There is something just nice about using an old manual typewriter. Maybe it’s the way you have to hit the keys just so, and are rewarded by the tap of the hammer. It’s kind of like playing a grand piano when you usually just play a synth keyboard.

Try it, if you have one. If you find yourself stressed about something writing-related, try just typing pointless sentences on a typewriter. It gets out your frustrations, and the sound (I think) relaxes you.

-Andy

Have you heard of AlphaSmart? They make word processors for schoolkids but their products have been adopted by writers. The current model is the Neo and it’s like a typewriter updated for the 21st century because you can’t do anything but use it to write, but in addition, there’s a screen that lets you see enough to carry on writing but is not easy to edit with, and it’s lightweight, about 2 lbs and the size of a sheet of A4 paper, plus it runs for up to 700 hours on 3 AA batteries.

More infomation here: AlphaSmart Neo