I met with my writer’s group this week and the subject of writing methods came up. My friend Judy said that she’s been taking the train so often lately that she’s begun carrying a notebook with her so that she could get some writing done. The only problem was that she then has to type everything up. “I hate that,” she said.
“I hate it, too,” I said. But I then went on to say that as much as I hate transcribing, I still prefer to write by hand. I seem to be more creative when writing by hand. My thoughts flow more freely. My friend Anne put it well: “There’s a different quality to writing by hand.” I’m not sure why that is, but stuff does come out differently when written on a keyboard. (If they haven’t done a study about that, they should.)
And, practically speaking, carrying a notebook around is much easier and more convenient because I do write on the train, on the bench outside at lunch, and in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. My netbook is small, light, and compact, but taking it with me every day, everywhere I go is logistically challenging. Besides, writing outdoors on any laptop is almost impossible because of glare.
Anyway, I thought I’d toss out an old writers’ favorite conversation starter: Do you prefer to write long-hand or on a keyboard, and why?
I have been heavily blocked for quite a while now. I have tried writing in both forms. I find I get just a bit further with pen and paper than with the computer. However, back in my heyday of rapid production, I could produce volumes in either mode. I considered the handwritten work a little better quality though.
I tend to take my netbook everywhere, although I’ve found that typing on some trains has been giving me migraines recently. Writing for long periods makes my wrists cramp, but a good compromise is to take print-outs in need of editing on long journeys and make full use of my red pen.
Stevie–I do the same thing. I constantly have pages to edit with me.
I write long-hand. Your right things seem different when on paper. Have bought Dragon NS for my computer. After I get it set up, I will speak my thoughts and see how that works, but knowing me, I’ll probably go back to long-hand. Has anyone else tried Speaking software and letting the computer type for you?
I love drafting longhand, because then I can’t edit anything until the story is down.
For someone who kills stories in infancy by over-editing, that means a lot.
Of course, it also means that transcription means that I rewrite.
So, it sounds to me like a lot of you still use the old pen and paper. Makes me feel better.
Before I owned a typewriter, I wrote with pen and paper. Before I owned a computer I wrote with a typewriter. Now I use pen and paper for occasional shopping lists and not much else. I do however, proof edits with a printed page.
I can’t write long hand to save my life, as my handwriting is so bad I can’t read it to transcribe it. And I find if I don’t have to worry about slowing down so I can read what I’ve written, I can create faster.
I used to write fiction and non-fiction exclusively long-hand, then transcribed. I have a couple of manuscripts written long-hand, and in the days of typewriters, I preferred writing things out long-hand because it was such a pain in the butt to have to correct crap on a typewriter, even if you had the correcto-type kind. Now that we’ve got word processing capability, I write mostly on-screen, because I type fast (why, yes–I learned typing in high school!), and I can keep up with myself. For the most part.
I do, however, journal long-hand and I have a notebook handy in my various messenger bags to jot ideas down or cool quotes I run across or book titles or music I need to check out. And I long-hand the notes to each book project I’m working on. I’m also kind of old-fashioned and I do still send thank you notes and cards the snail mail way, handwritten. So some things, I do still prefer long-hand.