Typing vs writing longhand

James Marinero

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Sea-shore

Sea-shore

aka Anne Chen
Nov 16, 2015
London, UK
My productivity has shot up since I’ve gone back to pen and paper. Yay!:)
Down side: hand/arm aches, can’t check in on Litopia as much, getting though quite a few trees worth of paper… and the dreaded type-up later.
Also weird side-effect: I shed about 10 pens when I stand up.

What do my fellow Litopians prefer?
 
I switch :) I don't have a laptop, so when the muse gets me on the way home in the train I just fish out some scrap of paper and a pen. Also, when I had a big artblock some time ago, I just sat down one night and started writing in the back of my agenda. Next day I was back in the game! :)
 
Long-hand - research notes, middle of the night ideas, vignettes, but nothing substantial. Brainstorms, planning - all that sort of thing.

Actual drafting, editing and revising, all on the computer. I now type way faster than I write.
 
I type much faster than I write, but I can get more writing in at odd places and I tend to get less distracted looking at a blank page rather than a blank screen. However, I also hate doing twice the work (writing and then typing it in), so usually I type my manuscript out. But I hand-wrote the last thirty or forty pages of my last book, which was a completely new experience for me. So really, I have no clue. :)
 
Rather enjoy scribbling down notes in longhand and it can be sometimes more constructive when trying to surmount some fiendish plot twist/knot issue in terms of letting the grey matter do its thing but all the heavy graft is via a key-board. My muse uses a rather fine, antique, fountain pen but I tend to go for pencil.
 
I create stories on my aged laptop, having a couple of separate documents containing plot ideas and words to seek out while editing. I also write down such repeated words, phrases and questions of punctuation on scraps of card that I shove beneath the cooling cradle—where they look at me reproachfully reminding me that editing is never far away.

While writing, I research online to get things like police interview techniques and sentencing guidelines correct, making a note of the webpage address at the bottom of the WIP.

After writing Christmas cards with a Biro, and noticing the declining standard of my penmanship (which used to be quite good) I invested in a fountain pen with ink cartridges. I found this for a princely £1.29 in a petrol station shop, and the nib is of reasonable enough quality to improve my handwriting. It certainly makes whatever I write look more important than anything scribbled down in ballpoint or rollerball ink.

The thought occurred to me that future archivists of literature are going to have a much harder job of collecting the preparatory work of novelists, their letters expressing doubts to editors, publisher and friends and different versions of their stories. Modern technology has made much of what we write transient, instantly changed with a keystroke and consigned to some cyber wastepaper basket. There will be no discoveries made of tattered forms of our novels, short stories and poems, complete with crossing-outs, ink blots, notes to self in the margin, sketches of our cat sleeping in the sun as we paused for a moment of reflection.
 
Paul Whybrow said:
The thought occurred to me that future archivists of literature are going to have a much harder job of collecting the preparatory work of novelists, their letters expressing doubts to editors, publisher and friends and different versions of their stories. Modern technology has made much of what we write transient, instantly changed with a keystroke and consigned to some cyber wastepaper basket. There will be no discoveries made of tattered forms of our novels, short stories and poems, complete with crossing-outs, ink blots, notes to self in the margin, sketches of our cat sleeping in the sun as we paused for a moment of reflection.
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Paul, I think it would be nice in the next century when technology has advanced beyond our imagination, and someone fishes out a old laptop from the Cornwall coastline and to find a treasure trove of poems, short stories and even the previous drafts your, now, world famous books. ;)
 
Yes, I really, really hate typing up work too.:mad: :mad: It's takes so much time to write a story I really don't want to duplicate the work. But I've found it's not only that I'm not distracted from the internet using pen and paper, my creativity is going crazy. :D I can play around and explore things, and plot things visually, instead of the linear restrictions of typing. I use Scrivener too which is also good, but still can't go in free-flow mode like on paper.

I also have a secret weapon: my little brother is a crazy-fast typer and is sometimes nice enough to help me out.
Good points: he works for free, saves me time and has excellent spelling and grammar.
Bad points: I have to carefully check his work as he adds his own snide/sarcastic comments e.g. he/she had dumb name - this makes no sense - this sounds stupid - you should change this.:rolleyes::rolleyes: I cannot read any mushy or sad bits to him. Also cannot slow down the pace to ponder a sentence as he is super impatient. :p
 
Paul Whybrow said:
There will be no discoveries made of tattered forms of our novels, short stories and poems, complete with crossing-outs, ink blots, notes to self in the margin, sketches of our cat sleeping in the sun as we paused for a moment of reflection.
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There will be of mine. I swear by a longhand first draft of everything I write, I'm obsessed with fountain pens and finding the most versatile notebooks with the best paper, I color code ink and notebook combinations based on the project, I have copy paper boxes full of previous novel and short story first drafts on legal pads and notebooks of all sorts...

The method to my madness is that it allows me to quite literally write anywhere, for any amount of time, no matter how short. From a long, relaxing bath, to my lunch break at work, to 20 minutes waiting in a doctor's reception area, I'm not the type who needs quiet and a desk and designated time. Plus, I'm tech-wary: I hate the idea of being tied to some device that could shut down at any time. I'm quirky that way.

Just as important to me, the initial typing into Word becomes the first round of edits at the same time. I catch the notes in the margins, the asterisks that point out "find a better word", and find simpler, more eloquent ways to phrase the ideas I put down so quickly.

I know this method doesn't work for most, and it makes me a bit of a dinosaur, but it works really well for me. :D
 
Paul Whybrow said:
The thought occurred to me that future archivists of literature are going to have a much harder job of collecting the preparatory work of novelists, their letters expressing doubts to editors, publisher and friends and different versions of their stories. Modern technology has made much of what we write transient, instantly changed with a keystroke and consigned to some cyber wastepaper basket. There will be no discoveries made of tattered forms of our novels, short stories and poems, complete with crossing-outs, ink blots, notes to self in the margin, sketches of our cat sleeping in the sun as we paused for a moment of reflection.
Click to expand...

Oh they would find plenty of mine :D I am sort of obsessed to not throw away stuff and that includes what I wrote. So I almost never overwrite files, certainly not if I make large changes. Because OMG, what if that was THE genius version and I will loose it? :D There are at least 10 versions of my MS as far ;)
 
I go back and forth, using longhand when I'm stuck and using the computer when I'm moving ahead. Editing? Only on the computer. I change too many things too often to use paper and pen -- or pencil. Then, when I think I'm in good shape, I print it out and see that I'm not. That edit is done on the print out.
 
Matnov said:
Rather enjoy scribbling down notes in longhand and it can be sometimes more constructive when trying to surmount some fiendish plot twist/knot issue in terms of letting the grey matter do its thing but all the heavy graft is via a key-board. My muse uses a rather fine, antique, fountain pen but I tend to go for pencil.
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Ah, I've been hoisted by my own petard! (I think). I do keep a piece of paper handy to make notes of where I need to tighten, extend, fill or plot hole or develop another aspect.
 
I usually type nowadays, because typing is so much faster, but I find typing sterile. If the scene is meaty, or difficult, or emotionally fraught, I go to paper and pen (or pencil, depends on my mood). I love the retyping step--it's a chance to read, edit, and polish, so I don't think it's time wasted at all. I always make sure I have pen and paper with me at all times--all those little bits of time waiting for kids at various lessons and after-school activities add up to a lot, if you can make use of them.
 
Robinne Weiss said:
I usually type nowadays, because typing is so much faster, but I find typing sterile. If the scene is meaty, or difficult, or emotionally fraught, I go to paper and pen (or pencil, depends on my mood). I love the retyping step--it's a chance to read, edit, and polish, so I don't think it's time wasted at all. I always make sure I have pen and paper with me at all times--all those little bits of time waiting for kids at various lessons and after-school activities add up to a lot, if you can make use of them.
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See...I find the experience opposite. I love typing and find that when I'm writing a meaty or emotionally fraught scene, that my typing speed increases. And since I have a super noisy mechanical keyboard, the cadence of the struck keys creates a sense of urgency.

It's the best! :D
 
Lex Black said:
I love so much of this. :) Right up until the end I was very similar in my habits for many of the same reasons. To this day I still sadly find myself eyeing sales of hard-bound notebooks in stores.

I also really enjoyed the tactile sensation of writing. Anyone else feel that way?
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Oh. Yes. And the writing implement has to be just right. Sometimes it has to be a good old wooden pencil (HB), sometimes a mechanical pencil, sometimes a ballpoint pen (only the right one, of course)...the writing implement has to match my mood and my writing...
 
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If I reverted back to longhand I would be spending most of my time trying to decipher what I had written! My handwriting is pretty appalling, so unless I am consciously thinking about the neatness of each word I scribble, even I can't understand what I have written sometimes.
 
Sea-shore said:
Hey guys! I found a " Type with your voice" function on Google Chrome Docs. It transcribes when you read into the microphone.

Type with your voice - Docs editors Help

I have not tried it out yet as my microphone is not working at the moment, but will definitely try it out when it's fixed.

Anyone want to try it and let us know if it's any good?:)
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Yes, I actually used it for about a week, but I found myself concentrating on how I said stuff rather than just typing it into a keyboard. I also found that what I wrote needed an awful lot of manual correction afterwards as either my accent 'got in the way' or some of my universe doesn't come across well.

For instance, when I say 'Don El Gordo' it comes out ad 'Donnell Porter', too many to mention.

I learned to type a long time ago and I am quite fast, so I prefer to type to get my words down.

Following on from what @Paul Whybrow said, when our children went to school in Switzerland and Spain, they are taught to write with a fountain pen first of all. I don't know if that's the case in the UK.
 
My handwriting has become so unruly even I can't read it. I've never had good handwriting, even as a kid. And now my hands cramp up when I try to write longhand so I don't bother other than quick notes. Which I can't read the next day. LOL!! Typing is SO much easier and doesn't hurt my hands. :)
 
Boopadoo said:
That well-balanced Lamy or Platinum fountain pen in hand, on a gloriously fine paper like Maruman or Tomoe River, the words flowing as smoothly as the ink. Writing in Elysium.
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That sounds perfect for a love letter or even a thank you note, but my writing is such a back and forth and round and round effort that it would be a waste of a lovely paper - and hideously expensive to write a whole book.
 
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James Marinero

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