Week fo July 15, 2012 - Writing by Hand Vs. Typing on the Computer

Whenever I write, I find I go back and forth between typing it in on the computer and writing by hand. There are a number of reasons for using both methods, but the main reason is that they both feed my writing.

Writing By Hand

When writing by hand, I use different kinds of pens – broad point roller ball pens, gel pens, fountain pens, fine point markers. I like the way the feel as they mark up the pages. I also like being able to write in different colors because it feeds me visually (eye candy), and I can easily highlight specific points or categorize pieces of information by color (outlining by color scheme).

I also find that writing by hand slows down my thinking, allowing ideas to form more freely and more profoundly and giving me time to consider all the options. When Ideas have difficulty forming, the slowness of writing by hand seems   them out, allowing my brain to think them out on the page I like brainstorming by hand rather than on the computer because it’s easier to map out the ideas by hand, I can color scheme it and lay it out with far less effort.

I find that when I am having difficulty figuring out where an article is going or what story I am trying to tell, I find writing by hand, especially when using colors and different types of pens, helps me see the story differently. It changes my thinking patterns.
Probably the main reason for writing by hand is that it’s more portable than writing by computers. Yes, I have a laptop that I can carry around, but it’s heavy and the battery doesn’t last forever. I also can’t take it some places. Paper and pen can be carried everywhere. It allows me to write in write in a variety of places, which in turn, allows me to catch snippets of conversations and glimpse new sights that I wouldn’t get sitting in my office chair in front of the computer. A small pad that tucked into my purse can be pulled out anyplace, anytime to jot down key ideas.

Typing on the Computer

There are times when I am writing, when I find that the ideas flow quickly – so quickly, in fact, that I can’t write them down by hand as fast as my brain can think them. I can type far faster than I can write by hand, so I find that typing speeds up the writing process. I get the ideas down on the page before they have a chance to escape into oblivion and be forgotten forever.. No, I don’t always use the ideas that pour out onto the computer screen, at least not for that story. But, sometimes those ideas get used for other stories or act as idea sparkers for other stories.

Another thing I find is that it makes editing faster. Using the editing devices on the computer are so much easier than starting over by hand – or by typewriter. It speeds up the entire process, start to finish.

Some of Both

Alternating between the two methods – writing by hand and typing into the computer – jars my thinking. It changes the way I see, feel, taste, smell and hear things. I find, from time to time, that the mere act of transcribing my handwritten notes helps spur new ideas. I would say that the use of both methods makes my writing better. It certainly keeps the writing process interesting.