When you sit down to write, do you reach for a pen? Or a keyboard?
It’s not just an idle question. There’s a completely different flow to the act of writing when you’re writing long-hand on a pad of paper as opposed to tapping away at a keyboard.
First, there’s the portability issue. Even with laptops springing up at every coffee shop around the world, having dedicated power jacks on airplanes, and being smaller and lighter than ever, they will still never be as portable as paper and a pen. With paper, you don’t need to worry about the battery running down, or software glitches–or that dropping it will render your precious work irretrievable (unless you drop it in a puddle). You can fold paper into your pocket with a golf-sized pencil and be ready for anything. You can jot down notes and impressions in a journal in your briefcase while you’re on the train. You can meditate with a pad of paper on the beach without worrying about sand or water damage. For sheer ease of use, paper is hard to top.
Laptops and typewriters, on the other hand, keep you in one place, in a seated, upright position, often at a desk or table. They rely on mechanics, and therefore put a “machine” between you and your writing, which bothers some people. On the other hand, the output is immediately legible, which cannot be said of everybody’s handwriting (cough). Additionally, if you’re using a word processor to write, it makes editing a snap. Instant find/replace for name changes. The spell-check function (which should be used warily but is still handy). Easy insertion of new paragraphs, or moving entire sections.
Of course, in this modern age, even a handwritten manuscript is going to need to be typed before it can be submitted to a publisher or posted to a blog, so keyboards are going to come into the equation at some point.
Me, personally? My handwriting is so abysmal at this point, writing anything longer than a few sentences in a note card is a chore–for me and for the reader. The thought of writing an entire book by hand? My hand cramps at the thought. How J.K. Rowling managed to write 1,088,072 words of her seven-book Harry Potter series out by hand just boggles my mind. If that had been me, you wouldn’t have been able to decipher anything past page six–if you made it that far. Therefore, I’m used to thinking in front of a keyboard, where I can simply type without having to worry that I just skipped half the letters in “writing” because I can’t seem to write “i-n-g” any more.
This is the first entry in a series of posts about handwriting. The next entry? It will be about the personal touch.
I love writing both ways. What’s great about the computer is that it’s easier to make changes and save your work. However, using pen and paper allows for doodling and making random notes all over the place. If I had one of those electronic drawing pads (a stylus?) for my computer, I’d use paper a lot less.
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Five Ways to Help Fight Illiteracy
I technically have one of those, but the bluetooth function on my computer doesn’t work any more, so it’s kind of useless at the moment (grin). And, besides, I’m an awful doodler.
For everything except Nanowrimo and my blog, I start with a pen or pencil first. Happy writing. 🙂
I used to have excellent handwriting and enjoyed writing with pen and paper. But since my stroke 16 years ago, my handwriting is horrible (though I’m glad I can write at all!) so I only pick up a pen to write grocery lists and phone messages.
Lillie Ammann’s last blog post..Better Late Than Never: You Are Part of My Life
I don’t have anything like that as an excuse for my poor handwriting. It was never great, but it went downhill in college due to massive amounts of note-taking, and in the last 10 years or so it’s gone down even faster as I do more and more things on computers. Typing skills are detrimental to handwriting skills! Good for you, though, Lillie.
My handwriting was never very good and has gotten much worse over time. I use a keyboard for everything except writing cartoons. For some reason I get far better results scribbling out notes in my little Moleskine.
Brad Shorr’s last blog post..Jacob Share, Group Project Aggregator
Hey, I’ve often said that if I had a genie grant me three wishes, I’d use the first two for good health and prosperity for me and my family and then use the third to ask for fast, beautiful, legible handwriting….
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I tend to suit the tool to the job – e.g. lyric stuff by hand, tech by machine. For some reason, although I write love notes by hand, I write erotica at the keyboard.
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