Writers block due to specific medium?

I am incapable of sitting in front of a computer and writing. My mind completely blanks. I have to write longhand, which makes me very slow, but it also means I carry a notebook with so I can literally write anywhere, no electrical outlet needed, so maybe it balances out?

I get more writing done longhand than on the computer. I'm not sure why. I think because on the computer I usually get distracted easily, thus finding something else to do. o.o

Is the distraction of a computer based on the internet? If so, stay off-line when you write. I'm always amused by people who see me working on my laptop somewhere, and ask me what the password for the wi-fi is. When I tell them I'm just working on a document and not on-line, I get the most jawdropping looks. Everybody assumes that everybody is connected 24/7. Don't be.

As for me, I do a lot of longhand (much more convenient than the computer if I'm out somewhere), but work about equally well on the keyboard. I do sometimes notice a difference in prose style, however. I tend to be wordier in longhand. As I'm aware of that, it represents no real problem in editing, and I do a lot of rough editing as I write, anyway.

caw

I used to prefer writing longhand, but my arthritic hands had other ideas. I have found that if I'm getting too distracted, it's time to bring out the kitchen timer. I set my timer for a small, non-intimidating period of time, say, 10 to 20 minutes, and tell myself I will do nothing but write until the timer goes off. I can keep doing that as long as I feel like it's helping me (and it really does help me) stay on task. Or, if after my first time increment, I feel like I need to be allowed to figuratively (and sometimes literally) get up and run around for a bit, great. But then, I can sit back down, set my timer, and have another whack at it.

My handwriting is illegible, and it hurts to hold the pen or pencil.

no computer = chicken-scratches

I just close the browser and write, but computer screens have been my writing environment since the PC-AT was released.

Physically, I find typing far quicker and easier than handwriting. Mentally, the opposite - when I'm writing a first draft, I seem to be able to get words down quicker with a pen and paper. It doesn't matter if I have internet or not - it's like something about looking into the glowing screen switches off parts of my creative thought processes.

Unfortunately, I haven't managed to find a typewriter in my price range yet, but I'd like to try it out and see if it combines the best of both worlds.

I might freeze up more on the computer because I can read what I've written and I have a tendency to focus on making it *really fine*. So it's not distractions for me with the computer. When I write by hand it's easier for me to explore and not make it read like a story, since I'm going to have to rewrite it anyway when I type it into the computer. That being said, some stories I can write directly into the computer.

I broke a multiyear block after I purchased a typewriter at a local secondhand shop. It took a while to get the old fingers back into typing, which is striking the keys for those too young to have grown up typing, after many years of pressing computer keyboards. With the blank page inserted I typed out a few little stories, then partial scenes and finally almost entire chapters. I like the sound of the keys striking paper.

My handwriting is illegible, but I do it anyway. It is very much back to our primal sensory beginnings. Ink (fountain) pen scratching the paper. I carry a steno pad in my purse for those times when the urge to write overcomes everything else.

I also use voice recognition software on the computer. That along with a voice recorder lets me talk my way through scenes. I enjoy that too. I find this as good as reading a chapter aloud while editing.

The computer is my "put it all together" machine. I have typewritten, handwritten and scribbled yellow stickies all sorted out and scanned into the computer ywrite program for assembling into something that looks like a novel.

I haphazardly scrawl patches down on tablet and transfer my treasure chest/trashcan haul of stuff to the dinosaur of a laptop to piece together with the solidified stuff I did on these projects before writer's block assaulted me. I have years of fragments and chains of things at this point, I used to be able to write on the laptop no problem for hours a day but when life sent me reeling into a sapping purgatory for a while I lost my ability to find solace in regular creative work. A tablet slowly allowed me to express my inner sloshing again. I can't really force myself to get reacquainted with the laptop as I have nowhere comfy to sit since the ancient relic overheats on a lap and blue screens if I overwork it so the tablet's been my buddy for a while now. I need to make it a daily challenge to slam myself infront of the laptop to develop stuff properly, maybe twice a week I get my arse on it to develop sections I slashed out via tablet forays. I jot stuff down fathoms swifter on a tablet but find it easier to expand and build the fragments on a laptop. I do tons of scribblenotes in mountains of notepads but there's no way I could write stories with a pen anymore, it used to take me an hour to write what takes me fifteen minutes by typing! Notes do my wrists in enough as it is, wipe my forehead and it turns into a squid's daydream.

I can't seem to write on a computer. I absolutely type up stuff I've written in notebooks and print out the word doc when the story is finished, but that's both for editing purposes and to have a backup in case I lose a notebook or my work is stolen. Typing up notes on a computer, however: watch me go! For whatever reason, typing up my notes on a computer and referring to them while writing helps bust writer's block.

Depending on what I'm writing, different mediums will produce block.

I can't write prose anywhere but on a computer, because I edit as I go, sometimes jumping back whole pages to fix one or two words. This is something I simply cannot do while writing by hand.

On the other hand, when I'm writing poetry I absolutely cannot do it on a computer - and it's for the same reason. In m experience, you cannot edit a poem as you go and expect it to be fabulous: you have to write the whole damn thing first, including nonsense lines and things you're going to cut later, and then go back and clean it up.