Friday, October 16, 2009


One hundred sixty words a minute? That's 50K words in 5.2 hours. He could start on Monday at lunchtime and be done by Saturday night... if he took it easy.

Loving the bright orange machine, too. A Royal?


Mike Speegle said...

That's FANTASTIC. Plus, he gets bonus points for his typing outfit.

Mike Speegle said...

Also: I was talking to my dad about the video and he told me that he saw Ron "Typewriter" Mingo live at his college in the late 70's. So cool.

mpclemens said...

I was going to say how I remember faithfully watching "Real People" on TV, but your father's story trumps mine, easy.

best part is around 2:00... "Hard work... hard work..." I'm going to keep that in mind in November.

deek said...

Disclaimer: I am a NaNo virgin.
Its not the typing that is the bottleneck, its the TPM (thoughts per minute) that makes 50K a challenge.

I've written over lunch at work several times. And I've pumped out between 400 and 800 words of mostly cohesive thought. If my math is correct (which can be suspect), that's just over 13wpm (assuming I was typing for 30 minutes).

I'm a pretty fast touch-typer. For short bursts, I can peak over 90wpm, but probably fall between 60 & 75 normally.

Again, using math, 13wpm gets you 50K in 62.5 hours or just about 2 hours a day writing.

Maybe I am just setting myself up to fail hard, but I know that I have 2 hours each night (after the kiddos are in bed) to write. Granted, I sometimes struggle to spend 15 minutes writing a day!

In any event, I really need to get myself a typing outfit.

mpclemens said...

Yes, the TPM is the killer, which is why I have to pre-plan: maximize my typing time while minimize the starting-at-the-blank-page-thinking-now-what? time.

2 hours a day should be plenty, if your muse can keep up. I managed about 1.5 hours daily on weekdays last year, less on weekends with kiddos around. It's completely doable, but you have to stick with it, and just write something every day.

Olivander said...

"Do not try this at home with your own typewriter!" Heh.

Also, do you think we'll ever again see spontaneous applause break out at the sight of someone typing?

BTW, looks like he's got a Royal FP that's been painted orange. Royals came in several colors, but orange was not an option.

mpclemens said...

I figured it was a custom job, since it looked like the logo was painted over (that familiar crown-shape made me guess Royal.)

Mike Speegle said...

If I ever sell my book and get rich, I am totally going to try and buy that sage green Royal FP off of Ollie.

mpclemens said...

I think you're going to be Indian-leg-wrestling Monda for it, Speegle. She mourned the loss of this very machine and I'm not entirely sure she's stopped working that wild Arkansas Juju on Olivander to make him give it up.

Little Flower Petals said...

Groovy...gotta love the music. Wonder if it's the big honkin' rings that do the trick?

Speaking of which, loved seein' all those big honkin' Olympias!

Duffy Moon said...

Best video ever.
I agree - I think the rings are somehow related to his success. It's like those weights on bats the heavy-hitters use to warm up.

And the outfit. If I could pull off an outfit like that, I'd give it a shot.

"Hard work....hard work...." that is gonna stay in my head for a good, long time.

Olivander: maybe we'd all type faster if there was the expectation of a nice ovation for a job well done.

olivander said...

No dice, Speegle. I've left Clarice to Monda in my will. Seriously.

Typewriter karma will smile upon you in other ways for your gift of Tippi. I'm positive on that one.

Word ver: undevent: "I vent oot in my long-johns dis mornin to get da noospaper, jah, und dat's ven I realized dat my undevent vas oopen."

James Watterson said...

I meant to leave something earlier... This Video is Amazing and Inspiring! Who would have thunk a baseball, football and pro boxer would ever become worlds fastest typing teacher.

Speegle thats damn cool that your dad got to see him live in action!

I myself ran a few tests to see exactly how fast I could type on my manual. From what I found on a good run (with out jamming up all the keys) around 50WPM is what I can do.

I spent last night typing "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" for a while on my Skyriter trying to get a touch more speed. I find that I rarely use my pinkies and have been practicing that. He isn't kidding when he sings the song "Hard Work," it is incredibly hard work to type that fast.

Great find on the video Mike!!!

Word verification: Brown- hmm weird... "The quick *BROWN* fox jumped over the lazy dog... How could it know what I was writing last night???

Mike Speegle said...

Olivander: Curses!

James: Yep, evidently Butte Junior college (as community colleges were called back in the day) in Oroville, California was important enough to warrant a visit from Ron "Typewriter" Mingo.

Strikethru said...

Finally watched this video... I want a recording of 'hard work' to play when I am trying to get something accomplished.

What a trip, BTW, to see Real People again, which definitely marks me as being Of A Certain Age.

Monda said...

Okay, that was almost too much of a flashback. I know why he used the Royal, though. Those things type crazy-fast for me, too.

Oh, Clarice.