[Warning: Giant wall of text ahead -- all typed in Colemak]

My History With QWERTY

I had an electronic typewriter as a young teen and got a computer in my mid-teens in the '90s, but I was always a hunt and peck typist -- even though I took a computer class at the local community college at 17, part of which required a keyboarding lesson.  The class was infrequent and the keyboarding such a small part that I found it uncomfortable and frustrating and just determined from the get-go that "I can't touch type."

This was, of course, on the QWERTY layout.

Flash-forward to my twenties when I got involved in web development as a hobby, and created a website for a TV show I liked.  Part of that involved transcribing the audio of each half hour episode for the enjoyment of my site's visitors -- and I typed all my transcripts with about 6 fingers in my now-natural fast peck style.

I was up to about 50-60 WPM typing that way, and never had any problems typing... But I realized that by not using all of my fingers, I likely wouldn't be able to get any faster.

My False Starts Learning to Touch-Type

Now we're at the present.  I have fatigue issues that make me have to work from home, and though transcription has always been at the back of my mind, I've always avoided it because I didn't think 60 WPM would allow me to do the work efficiently.  So at the start of the new year, out of work and thinking about transcription again, I said to myself, "I'm going to find some typing tutors and I'm going to teach myself to touch type."

I used the Sense-Lang and TypingWeb online tutors and started to learn QWERTY.  I noticed other layout options, but they sounded foreign to me, so I just put my head down and stuck with what I knew (I may have looked them up on Wikipedia just to know what the heck they were!).
I wasn't too many days into learning QWERTY when the pain set in.  The fingers on my left hand started to feel a little numb and I thought, "Hmm, maybe I should switch to that Dvorak thing they say is supposed to be more ergonomic."

I researched Dvorak a bit more and found a QWERTY-to-Dvorak switching program and did maybe one or two lessons of it at Sense-Lang -- but I immediately noticed how much more it favored the right hand, which was quite a shock to lefty me.  I did a Google search for "'Dvorak'+'I'm left handed'" and found a thread at GeekHack where someone mentioned their choosing Colemak over Dvorak because of their own left-handedness.  Sounded good to me, and I liked how much more similar to my familiar QWERTY it was, while still claiming to be ergonomic, so I came here and installed Portable Colemak on January 7th.

January 7th – My Colemak Journey Begins

I initially attempted to do Colemak lessons at TypingWeb, because I had really come to like the style of that site's tutorial, but even though alternative layouts are available – including Colemak – the lessons are all the same, for QWERTY:  drilling F&J, D&K, etc.  It jumbled my brain too much; Sense-Lang wasn't exactly working for me either. I had to get some software.

My Software and Lessons of Choice

I started with TypeFaster, because I'm on WinXP.  The big onscreen keys that would light up which keys you're supposed to type really helped.  However, because even the first STNE lesson, typing actual words, was too much for me, I plugged in the lessons from LearnColemak.com, where I could drill only 2 keys at a time.   At that point I felt the similarity to QWERTY was both a blessing and a curse.  My brain and fingers and eyes were always at odds.

I established a routine of doing some lessons when I first got up, some in the day if I felt like it, and then the rest at night before bed so my brain could process it while I slept.

It was only a couple days (at most) before I felt ready for Shai's default lessons.  And not long after that that I had to leave TypeFaster behind because the giant light-up keys and strange scrolling were becoming a distraction.  I installed KDE for Windows, which has the option to install KTouch at the same time.  This was a great stepping stone for me, since the scrolling is smooth and there's a static onscreen keyboard.

I quickly got up to about 15 WPM with over 90% accuracy, but I did not go cold turkey.  Trying to type any emails, forum posts or IMs with Colemak was too frustrating.  It was so slow that I'd often leave out chunks of words because I couldn't maintain my train of thought.  I tried it while IMing with one friend on 1/09 and said: “Gahhhh. It shoud not take over a minute to type a simple sentence!” (sic)

Layout Doubts (And Why I Stuck It Out)

There were times when I doubted the layout a little bit.  Since the standard 101-keyboard  key positions make Z, X, and C almost impossible to type “correctly” (I use the ring, middle, and index fingers respectively), I considered the “Culemak” variant but ultimately didn't adopt it.  Typing Colemak this way makes “CT” digrams a little tricky, but not conceivably moreso than the “PT” digram, which is an accepted part of the layout. 
I also find the D inward stretch to be rather taxing, and wondered why P, G, and D weren't rotated clockwise, since index-finger-up seems more natural and familiar for such an oft-used letter as D, especially coming from the common use of that key for R in QWERTY.  Having D where P is would also make the “DG” digram less of a leap of faith.... 
However I do recognize such a movement would inconvenience the “SP” and “PS” digrams, which are probably more numerous. These considerations, along with the fact that I can't figure out how to get the CarpalX analyzer installed and working in Windows so I could properly critique my ideas, have compelled me to just learn Colemak as it is and hope I can eventually get comfortable with floating to D and G.

Building Steam and a Breakthrough

I continued on with Shai's lessons in KTouch, focusing more on the “common words” lessons as time went on, trying to work out mnemonic devices for finger strikes (I found it amusingly helpful that “FU” were the middle fingers) and trying to feel out simple rolls for common letter combos.  I was soon getting up to 20 WPM.

A real “trial by fire” came on 1/12, when I decided to write a 6-paragraph email to a friend.  I had stopped using the help image in PKL a while before, since all it seemed to do was get in the way, and when I struggled to remember a key what seemed to help the most was just closing my eyes, so I was on my own.  Taking frequent breaks and only writing a little at a time, it took pretty much all day to complete, but the exercise gave me a much-needed lesson in typing real words, real sentences, while composing at the same time.  I felt that I had really accomplished something!

The next day, 1/13, I got braver in using Colemak in IMs and short forum posts and emails.  It was still quite tiresome and by that evening I told my friend in IM: “I'm starting to hate typing.”

A Little Burnout

I had had some bad sleep over the weekend.  I think I dreamed about typing.  And I spent the time I was lying awake by imagining finger movements and key presses of the words I thought.  If only my fingers were as error-free in reality!
By this point, R&S, E&I, and I&O still get confused on an annoyingly frequent basis.

I laid off my lessons for the most part on Saturday, but did work in a quick run through of Shai's lessons in KTouch, clocking an average of 25 WPM with 95% accuracy.

I was wanting a more detailed log of my progress, so on Sunday I installed Amphetype.  This was a new milestone – no onscreen keyboard!
I learned how to use Amphetype with random excerpts from Hans Christian Anderson (I had yet to figure out how to take them in order).  My stats ranged from 17.5-23.7 WPM and 94.2-97.8% accuracy (not taking into account the abysmal lesson where I learned Amphetype doesn't forgive a single typo and wouldn't let me move on until I backspaced over everything and retyped it all correctly!).

Where I Am Now

Before bed on Sunday, I improved a bit with Hans, but the funky dialogue and punctuation were annoying me, so I downloaded and imported Grimm's Fairytales instead.  Much better:  23-25 WPM with mostly 96% accuracy.  Today, Monday, was even better still – one of my excerpts I was able to type 29.8 WPM with 98.5% accuracy!

So here I am, 10 days after starting with Colemak.  And though it's still slow – I have a ways to go before it's second nature and my mistakes are rarer (R&S still make me mad, and I've come to really hate the words “like” and “joke” and anything with the “kn” digram) – the Tips for Learning page is right:  “The first 10 days are going to be difficult ... but it will be worthwhile in the end.”  I'm now at a point where I felt I could register here and share my very long story without wanting to die halfway through (though it did take a little longer than I'd hoped and my typos are increasing as I reach the end).

As I look forward, I intend to install the registry-level layout, since my gaming keyboard and its speech macros don't seem to like the portable layout too much.  I'll do that once I can figure out how to set up a QWERTY portable keyboard layout I can have as a safety net in case I need to quickly peck out to my teammates that I'm surrounded by monsters, or if any QWERTY-using family or friends need to “use my computer for a sec.”
Other than that, I'm anxious for the day that I feel like a solid Colemak typist, when QWERTY seems totally foreign, and I can hopefully be racing along at 70-80 WPM.

Wish me luck!  And thanks for reading!