How many people actually use a phone to write?

[Voyeurkenneth]

Prefer writing on my keyboard but I write on my phone when inspiration strikes on the go.

Apple Pages is great on mobile for Speech (Read Aloud equivalent). Though I wish I could trigger it based on the cursor placement rather having to tediously select text beforehand.

 

[NightPorter]

I'm dating myself here, but I write on a desktop running Windows 7 and I use Word 97.

Word 2016 I purchased it years ago and I apparently have an active license for life? I redownload it from my microsoft account every time I build a new computer.

 

[DeMont]

I wish we had polls on this board.

I've noticed people saying that they write their stories on their phone. This is wild to me. I suck at using a smart phone to write but have a pretty good word count on a keyboard and I certainly can't live without a spell check on a word processor. Maybe it's a generational thing. I grew up in the 90's when we had computer labs and typing classes.

I'm also curious how many people use word vs an online word processor like google docs.

@NightPorter
If you'll pardon my French but "Hell's Bells" it would take a month of Sundays to get a sentence down. "Give me a good PC and a good keyboard to sail her by" I say. Deepest respects, D.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I'm dating myself here, but I write on a desktop running Windows 7 and I use Word 97.

I've done this. The two earliest stories that I have in here, plus the content I've deleted from my profile, was written in WordPerfect 5.1. I've always had an instance of DOSBox with WordPerfect installed because I like both its simplicity and its friction since I have to learn all kinds of new commands. I wrote a cheat sheet of them in one of my notebooks though.

I also installed Windows 3.1 on that same DOSBox instance and used Word 95 to convert the files into .doc so that I can edit them outside of the DOS environment.

Why in the hell I did this? I started doing this before Obsidian was out, and I kept doing it until I learned about Obsidian like in late 2020. I still wrote a story on WordPerfect 5.1 last year though. It is fun, not going to lie.

I've heard George R. R. Martin still uses WordStar to this day, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

I get good ideas on the toilet, so I have a note app for my phone for when that happens. But aside from ideas, all my writing is done on a computer.

The majority of the writing sessions I've had on my phone were in the toilet.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I mostly write on my phone in a text app as I rarely have time at the computer with a keyboard. I've found that Word or Google docs encourages messing around with formatting which is a distraction.

I do sometimes paste into Google docs to use the spell checker but I find it annoying that it loves to pick up instances of variant or dialectical grammar.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I've done it exactly once for a 6k (I think) story which I wrote in a day mostly on a ferry. I havent been able to repeat that and am in no hurry to.

 

[shelleycat1]

First draft of a scene? Fountain pen.

Then computer and MS Word. Too fixed to change my ways. I need to see more on the screen. Global changes are easy with that.

If I’m beta reading a computer with change tracking on. I don’t know how you even do that on a tablet or phone.

 

[Erozetta]

I'm currently working on a piece that is around 32k words in Google Docs.

When I edit for other people, it's always on my laptop.

It basically boils down to: I don't always have time to set up my laptop lately, so I write where I can however I can. Waiting in the car to pick up my husband, soaking in a bath, in bed avoiding sleep, laying on the bathroom floor when sick, while cooking or baking, between loads of laundry or dishes, etc.

I personally hate typing on my phone. I much prefer my laptop, but I need to write and my laptop isn't always convenient.

It doesn't help that I've aggravated an old shoulder injury recently, so carrying my laptop bag (Maybe 10-15 lbs?) kinda hurts, so does pulling my laptop out and setting it up. My phone weighs less than a pound. It's typically in my pocket at all times, and I can hold it and type all right handed to give my injured shoulder/arm a break. (Tippy tap typing. I know nothing of swipe typing.)

The worst part about it is the tiny keyboard. The second worst is falling asleep while typing then trying to figure what the fpluuuu was actually supposed to be. Third really is it falling on me sometimes. I keep telling myself I won't write that long (and I can't lay on my stomach or left side 'cause of my shoulder, can't lay on my right because of typing) but then I inevitably end up with a bruise of mysterious origin.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I have the manual dexterity of a four-legged hoofed animal, so I think you can figure it out from there.

 

[AchtungNight]

I’ve used both computer and phone, not sure which I prefer.

 

[FrancesScott]

I sense a generational divide (on average) here.

 

[FrancesScott]

I sense a generational divide (on average) here.

Tomorrow and tomorow and tomorow. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day. To the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out out brief candle, life is but a walking shadow. A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

1:50 on my phone

1:58 in Word on my laptop.

And - as I did Word second - I had less time wasted trying to remember the quote.

Neither are exactly speed typing (about 35 words per minute), and the punctuation is all wrong (sorry William), but I can type on my phone as quickly as in Word.

In both cases, I included time fixing errors.

For the avoidance of doubt, I use Word every day at work.

 

[TheLobster]

I sense a generational divide (on average) here.

There's definitely one between the sole fountain pen user and everyone else

 

[Statius]

Phone. Always. Editing is a bitch tho. Lots of errors to correct but time wise it's easier and I can write and/or edit at work during down time.

 

[TheLobster]

As I write this very post on the phone, I can't help but marvel at people who seem to have similar writing speed on the small touchscreen as they have on an actual keyboard.

Im curious: are you just relying on autocorrect and thus write about your characters ducking each other silly; or do you use any special software like that Swype keyboard that was all the rage like a decade ago?

Also, what's the average spread between the amount of text you type in daily on a phone or on a PC? Is it predominantly the phone?

In asking because I'm wondering whether it might be worth the time to 'invest' into learning to type on a phone to give myself more opportunity to write. Due to my work I can write very quickly on a normal keyboard, but all I use the phone one for is text messages, and short ones at that.

 

[iwatchus]

Neither are exactly speed typing (about 35 words per minute), and the punctuation is all wrong (sorry William), but I can type on my phone as quickly as in Word.

When I am trying to actually write, not little things like forum posts, I would be cursing my fingers if I was only typing 35WPM. At 100WPM, I am skipping about every fourth or fifth word because my fingers won't keep up with the words coming out of my head.

 

[Writer61]

I write using Word on a Mac because that is the tool I use professionally. To help with editing, I use colours to mark sections that I am not happy with or need more work.

Can't imagine typing on a phone. I have tried using speech-to-text on one; the results were horrible.

 

[Zeronix]

I definitely write snippets on my phone on the go. Ideas are ephemeral and I'll forget them quickly if I don't capture them somehow. I paste these into my Google doc as soon as possible though.

 

[alohadave]

Word 2016 I purchased it years ago and I apparently have an active license for life? I redownload it from my microsoft account every time I build a new computer.

I got a copy to through work for $10 years ago, before they got the subscription model finalized.

 

[alohadave]

are you just relying on autocorrect and thus write about your characters ducking each other silly; or do you use any special software like that Swype keyboard that was all the rage like a decade ago?

I back up and type the word correctly. If I don't, sometimes autocorrect will pick a seemingly random word and when I go back I have no idea what I meant to type. Usually I can figure from context, but sometimes it's so out of left field that I never figure it out.

So I make corrections as I see them.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I'm dating myself here,

Oddly enough, Lit doesn't seem to have a category for that.

 

[SimonDoom]

I never write on my phone.

I do almost all my writing at a desktop computer, using the latest version of Word. I've used Word for over three decades, so it's familiar and easy.

I think it probably IS to some degree generational, but also the product of your lifestyle. I'm middle-aged, have no kids at home, and work part time at home. So it's very easy for me to get uninterrupted time in front of my computer screen. I've been using a keyboard for decades, so it's much faster and easier for me to write this way than if I tried to write on a phone.

I've done a little writing on a Google tablet and I didn't like that much, either.

 

[FrancesScott]

When I am trying to actually write, not little things like forum posts, I would be cursing my fingers if I was only typing 35WPM. At 100WPM, I am skipping about every fourth or fifth word because my fingers won't keep up with the words coming out of my head.

I like to both write and think about what I am writing at the same time. 35 wpm seems to work fine for me. YMMV.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I would be cursing my fingers if I was only typing 35WPM. At 100WPM, I am skipping about every fourth or fifth word because my fingers won't keep up with the words coming out of my head.

I back up and type the word correctly. If I don't, sometimes autocorrect will pick a seemingly random word and when I go back I have no idea what I meant to type. Usually I can figure from context, but sometimes it's so out of left field that I never figure it out.

Banging away at the KB, my fingers poop out a string of characters, then I review them and try to pick out what words, if any should go in what order.

I made like 10 errors in this post.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

There's definitely one between the sole fountain pen user and everyone else

As someone who favors fountain pen over markers when drawing, I feel called out.