Handwriting or Typing?

[VenusButterflies]

I haven't handwritten an entire story in years. When I write my stories now, I write them on my phone (I tap quickly) and on my computer. I used to carry a journal with me, but no more.

But today I started writing the beginning of a story out on paper (I was slacking at work), and realized how good it felt to actually write instead of type. I was flowing better, refining my thoughts better. It sounds somewhat luddite, but I feel as though computers can sometimes create a sort of disconnect, and take something away from the whole writing process.

So I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing. Do you find that inspiration flows better when your hand is connected to a pen instead of a keyboard? Does anyone here ever handwrite an entire story first and then digitally transcribe it?

 

[slyc_willie]

The very first stories I wrote I did by hand. But then, I was in ninth grade. I wrote about five or six sci-fi "books" in composition notebooks. Never did anything with them later.

I wouldn't be able to handwrite a story for a few reasons. One, I have Tourette's syndrome and writing seems to set off my hand and arm ticks. Two, I can't write a story twice. I just can't. So to write it out and then transcribe it wouldn't work for me. Three, I can type a hell of a lot faster than I write, even if with just a couple of fingers.

But I do sort of miss the "classic" feel of writing a story out by hand. I've just gotten used to doing it the "modern" way.

 

[sr71plt]

I write research notes on paper and then can't decipher half of them later on. Anything I want to be able to read again I have to key into the computer.

 

[VenusButterflies]

The very first stories I wrote I did by hand. But then, I was in ninth grade. I wrote about five or six sci-fi "books" in composition notebooks. Never did anything with them later.

I wouldn't be able to handwrite a story for a few reasons. One, I have Tourette's syndrome and writing seems to set off my hand and arm ticks. Two, I can't write a story twice. I just can't. So to write it out and then transcribe it wouldn't work for me. Three, I can type a hell of a lot faster than I write, even if with just a couple of fingers.

But I do sort of miss the "classic" feel of writing a story out by hand. I've just gotten used to doing it the "modern" way.

Yeah, I have journals and journals of old writing. Sometimes I go through them and cringe. Other times I find things I'd forgotten about that aren't half-bad. It's a double-edged sword to look back on old work. Hmm . . . maybe I'll start a thread that encourages people to find their old work and post excerpts of it. That could be interesting.

I'm the same way -- can't write a story twice. I wonder what that's about? I can edit the hell out of something I'm in the middle of writing, but to even think of writing the entire thing all over again makes me real sad. And yes, I can type a lot faster.

But it feels so good to just write on paper. As inconvenient as it is, it's more intimate and sensual.

 

[VenusButterflies]

I write research notes on paper and then can't decipher half of them later on. Anything I want to be able to read again I have to key into the computer.

I write in a sort of bastardized 18th or 19th century script (I taught myself in 8th grade, it did not come naturally). It's very hard to read when I look back at it -- which is the point, since I wanted it to be hard for others to read if they ever peeked inside my journals. But it looks real pretty! Anything I really, really know I need to see upon looking again, I write in all caps.

 

[StrangeLife]

Why not have both?

 

[sr71plt]

I write in a sort of bastardized 18th or 19th century script (I self-taught myself in 8th grade, it did not come naturally). It's very hard to read when I look back at it -- which is the point, since I wanted it to be hard for others to read if they ever peeked inside my journals. But it looks real pretty! Anything I really, really know I need to see upon looking again, I write in all caps.

Where the handwriting (which is just my usual cursive that the keyboard has sent to pot over the years) mostly gets me on reread is that I take notes on spelling os personal and place names and then when I go back to use them, I can't read what I wrote--even if I've printed it. Often have to look it up all over again.

 

[sheablue]

I used to only be able to "create" on paper. Even at work (I used to work in advertising) I had to write on paper and then type it up later. I felt that to be creative I had to start with paper and pen.

But the more I used computers, the more I abandoned the paper and pen. At work, I would be rushed and wouldn't have time to do things twice. The computer was more convenient.

Also, my handwriting has really started to decline! I was taking notes in a meeting the other day and I couldn't even write in a straight line. On lined paper!

If I'm brainstorming something new. sometimes I do like to still use paper and pen. Sometimes there's more of a flow, or I might cross something out, but then come back to it, or see how it can be reworked. With a computer, I just would have deleted.

I used to write faster than I could type. Now it is the opposite.

 

[AuthorAdrienneW]

For me it depends. Sometimes when I am working on multiple manuscripts a change is good. I'll write one, type two/three. I don't see writing by hand then typing as re-writing the MS, rather I see it as "editing" what I had written but putting my edits into a file. I normally can't "rewrite" a story either. I have on a few occasions taken a finished story I did not like and revised it into something I can live with. But again, I see that as "editing" not as re-writing in the truest sense of the word. Maybe because I see all first draft MS as "rewrites" (i.e. heavy edits).
I used to carry a note pad with me too for thoughts but lately I've been using my phone. Probably should invest in another note pad though. Still trying to figure out a way to "write" and run at the same time.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I have a stack of composition notebooks that I used when my computer was down and I couldn't get it fixed. I have since transcribed those stories and published them. Pen and paper come in handy when there isn't a computer around.

 

[patientlee]

Graph paper and mechanical pencil. And I write in cursive.

 

[VenusButterflies]

If I'm brainstorming something new. sometimes I do like to still use paper and pen. Sometimes there's more of a flow, or I might cross something out, but then come back to it, or see how it can be reworked. With a computer, I just would have deleted.

I think that might be a good idea -- I don't even want to think about ideas or potentially good lines I might have lost from simply hastily deleting them on a computer! Yeesh!

 

[VenusButterflies]

Graph paper and mechanical pencil. And I write in cursive.

That is dedication! Why graph paper?

 

[VenusButterflies]

I wonder if inspiration just keeps better pace with handwriting, since it takes longer and the brain is given more time to work on things in the background as one writes?

Or if different parts of the brain are used when one is writing by hand vs. typing?

 

[patientlee]

That is dedication! Why graph paper?

I can section off pieces of the page for the other things I have to do. One of the pages of my FAWC 5 story has a list of students that owe me a test in a box on the right. The list of things to take to my mother's is in a box at the top. It probably helps me feel control over the chaos or something.

The graph paper started when I was doing diagramless crosswords, so it wasn't like it evolved from a love of m-a-t-h. I can't even say that word out loud.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I can section off pieces of the page for the other things I have to do. One of the pages of my FAWC 5 story has a list of students that owe me a test in a box on the right. The list of things to take to my mother's is in a box at the top. It probably helps me feel control over the chaos or something.

The graph paper started when I was doing diagramless crosswords, so it wasn't like it evolved from a love of m-a-t-h. I can't even say that word out loud.

Math. Yeah, I didn't like it in school either. Then I became an actuarial programmer at an insurance company. Math came in handy there.

 

[VenusButterflies]

I can section off pieces of the page for the other things I have to do. One of the pages of my FAWC 5 story has a list of students that owe me a test in a box on the right. The list of things to take to my mother's is in a box at the top. It probably helps me feel control over the chaos or something.

The graph paper started when I was doing diagramless crosswords, so it wasn't like it evolved from a love of m-a-t-h. I can't even say that word out loud.

That's actually not a bad way to keep track of things, since you keep everything in a place you know you'll get back to.

Lol I thought it might have to do with drawing. So . . . You write to-do lists tangentially to your stories, huh?

Terrible math joke. I couldn't resist.

 

[patientlee]

That's actually not a bad way to keep track of things, since you keep everything in a place you know you'll get back to.

Lol I thought it might have to do with drawing. So . . . You write to-do lists tangentially to your stories, huh?

Terrible math joke. I couldn't resist.

It's a good thing you told me it was a joke. I would have missed it. Seriously.

I don't draw at all. I multiply better than I draw.

(Some days I have to remind myself that there are things I can do. I'm terrible at so many things. )

 

[VenusButterflies]

It's a good thing you told me it was a joke. I would have missed it. Seriously.

I don't draw at all. I multiply better than I draw.

(Some days I have to remind myself that there are things I can do. I'm terrible at so many things. )

Yeah it was an awful joke. I'm good at making terrible jokes.

I try to draw. It takes so much time. I'd like to write a graphic novel one day. I've been sitting on the premise of it for years.

 

[patientlee]

Yeah it was an awful joke. I'm good at making terrible jokes.

I try to draw. It takes so much time. I'd like to write a graphic novel one day. I've been sitting on the premise of it for years.

I've never even read a graphic novel. I'm all auditory, so I hardly look at pictures in books.

I've got a young adult novel rattling around in my brain. I should set aside the smut and write it. Maybe this summer.

 

[VenusButterflies]

I've never even read a graphic novel. I'm all auditory, so I hardly look at pictures in books.

I've got a young adult novel rattling around in my brain. I should set aside the smut and write it. Maybe this summer.

It's just so hard to set aside the smut . . .

 

[THROBBS]

Like slyc_willie, I have a tough time rewriting.
Still, I do (did) much by hand, and if I could muster myself, I'd transcribe. THE PAIN!

A great reason that I will never be even a good writer — I am not well schooled in the craft AND do not like proofing/editing. The catharsis comes from that initial purge.

"AH! I got the concept out!"

 

[THROBBS]

I've never even read a graphic novel. I'm all auditory, so I hardly look at pictures in books.
....

!!! *gasp!*

 

[VenusButterflies]

Like slyc_willie, I have a tough time rewriting.
Still, I do (did) much by hand, and if I could muster myself, I'd transcribe. THE PAIN!

A great reason that I will never be even a good writer — I am not well schooled in the craft AND do not like proofing/editing. The catharsis comes from that initial purge.

"AH! I got the concept out!"

I can't help but proof or edit. I just do it automatically, with everything. It's useful, but not always fun. Sometimes I edit myself before I even start writing, and then don't write anything at all. There's danger in it.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Learning to type was a middle school godsend for me. My handwriting has always been "dr. writing a prescription" poor. My letter for mechanical drawings and architectural drawings? Pretty good, but that's really a different kind of writing.

I once found rolls of abandoned paper for a Teletype machine at a radio station where I worked. I fashioned a holder, fed the paper into my typewriter and was released from the nuisance of putting in a new sheet of paper (though I still had to hit the carriage return after each line of type). When my girlfriend (now wife) and I were separated in college, I would write her letters that were measured by how many feet long they were instead of pages.

Once I purchased my first "word processor," even greater freedom arrived. No more carriage return or changing of pages. Better yet, I was able to touch type instead of pound on a mechanical keyboard. Though I'm an accomplished typist, I still can't write as fast as I think and my writing is often plagued with dropped or missed words.

I had a stint in the Army, overseas and removed from my trusty typewriter and its endless roll of paper. I wrote by hand and often decorated the page as I wrote. I would often right justify instead of left justify my thoughts or change the color of my pen. Sometimes I would alter my lettering style to fit the passage. It was a very creative writing process informed as much by the sight of the words on the page as the words themselves.

I change computers about every two years and there is always an adjustment period adapting to a new laptop keyboard. I've tried writing on my tablet, even bought a keyboard for it and still loathe the idea. I need my words coming out as fast as I think them up.

Keyboards feel like an extension of my Id.