Have you written a novel longhand?
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I have written a novel longhand. My first novel was in dark purple ink and I still have the original manuscript somewhere. It was as if I'd bled purple on the page. Being left handed is rough sometimes. 
No, but I have seen one-- on a Milka wrapper. My nephew thought there were purple cows until he was eight.
I wrote the first draft of my first novel longhand in journals on the beach in three weeks. When I typed it, I realized it was more or less a 50,000 word outline. I rewrote it over two months and had an 80,000 word finished manuscript I was happy with. Signed with an agent not long afterward. It worked the first time, but I don't think I'd ever do it again. The three weeks I spent typing it felt wasted, and the longhand draft was really bare bones.
Nowadays I obsess over every sentence, and it takes much longer to write.
Nowadays I obsess over every sentence, and it takes much longer to write.
As a staunch and loudly-supportive luddite who believes that longhand is a good thing (and that technology is frequently a bad thing, alas, for writers), I will happily admit that I haven't done a whole novel longhand, mostly because I haven't the time, but I do large portions of it. My Rome novel has about 140 notebook pages full of tiny lines. When I'm too tired to write on a computer, I switch to notebook, because I can always write there.
IF I had readible penmanship and the ability to use a pen for long periods of time, I'd much prefer using a pen and paper to write everything. It's so much more . . . what's the word . . . Pure? Biblical? - - Intimate.
Yes, intimate.
Yes, intimate.
My first long project was a play and I wrote it longhand--and an entire novel that was probably only about 10K long. I was in junior high at the time.
To make myself feel old, I've also written on a typewriter (that was a treat. Oy! the typos!) and I wrote an entire play on my first computer, a TRS-80 in Scripsit. I printed it on a dot matrix.
Technology ain't always pretty, but I can haz it now, plz? Kthxbai.
eta: I still do a significant portion of my writing in a notebook.
To make myself feel old, I've also written on a typewriter (that was a treat. Oy! the typos!) and I wrote an entire play on my first computer, a TRS-80 in Scripsit. I printed it on a dot matrix.
Technology ain't always pretty, but I can haz it now, plz? Kthxbai.
eta: I still do a significant portion of my writing in a notebook.
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I have not wrote a novel longhand. By the time I started wroting novels the computer was invented. I had wrotten many short stories longhand and then transcribed them to a manual typewriter.
Nope. I haven't written anything longhand since university (way back before I had a computer or anyone had thought of a thing called a "laptop"). Besides, writing wrecks my wrist even worse than using a mouse or typing on a keyboard. And I'm a super fast typist. Whizz...
Okay, come on - I know laptops are portable, but we don't need to know you're typing away in the bathroom, do we?
Sheesh.
Yup, and still do. It means typing it all up, you look at every word fresh, because it may be months since you first wrote it. Typing up is an intense second-draft process. I've tried doing first draft straight onto PC, and don't like the end results as much.
I once went to a screenwriting course where the instructor forbade the use of laptops in class. At the end of the day, only the novelists were still taking notes - your hands get stronger!
I once went to a screenwriting course where the instructor forbade the use of laptops in class. At the end of the day, only the novelists were still taking notes - your hands get stronger!
This is why I haven't written a novel longhand. I'd be crippled by page three.
I'm in the process of writing my current novel longhand. It's about three and a half notebooks and counting. By not doing it on the computer, I'm forcing myself not to go back and fiddle with the beginning until I know the ending. I figure I'll have enough pent-up frustration from wanting to fix stuff that typing it all in will be a breeze. Typing it in will become the first revision.
For the other novel draft I finished, I composed either on the computer or in a notebook. I found that stopping periodically to type in what I'd written stalled my momentum.
For the other novel draft I finished, I composed either on the computer or in a notebook. I found that stopping periodically to type in what I'd written stalled my momentum.
I'm left-handed. I happily write and write and write. Yesterday, I did three thousand words longhand in the afternoon. And MY hand still works. So ner.
Yesterday, I did three thousand words longhand in the afternoon. And MY hand still works. So ner.
All fixed.
Well....the thread is ruined now.
Usually takes a mod a while to learn when to wield the power.
I have in fact written four novels in long hand and am working on #5. It helps me think, keeps me honest (no editing and calling it "writing.") Plus, I dunno, nerd that I am, I like to see the row of journals on my bookshelf to remind me that I'm making progress.
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Luddites!
Embrace the 21st century.
I tend to write in a way that will sometimes wander off at a tangent. I just sit and let the words flow out of me. I think I would be less likely to edit myself if I had to rewrite everything. I love these tangents and sometims they have really funny stuff in there (more of a bonus when writing humor than serious) and it's a chore to kill them. With a WP I can cut them out and save them for later reworking. Oh I don't usually use them in other stuff, but it's there if I want it, and I know a lot more of it would be left in without a WP, which would be a mistake.
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