Writing long hand

I write longhand, too, for a few reasons:

• I get distracted on the computer. Too many other things for me to look at, play with, etc. Ooooh, shiny....
• I like the feel. I love how the right pen feels in my hand, the way the words are formed, how my handwriting looks, the color of the ink...I'm a very tactile person, and writing, for me, needs to be a tactile experience as well as an intellectual one.
• A notebook is easier to carry around and use in various locales than a laptop is. My notebook doesn't need a power source, thankyouverymuch.

I've tried and tried and tried to just write straight to the computer, because it sure would take less time than writing longhand and transferring it, but it's just not my thing. Once I accepted that, writing got a lot less frustrating.

I adore writing long-hand, like I adore writing on a typewriter. A computer is a necessary writing implement for me, and I'm not always happy about it.

I write long hand for most of my short stories, or for bits where I'm unsure what's happening yet. I treat it like my first draft. The process of typing what I wrote into the computer (I follow the handwritten draft loosely here) is essentially my next draft.

Novels I tend to write on the computer. "Tend to" is the operative phrase.

I like that I have notebooks I can shove in my pocket and take with me. I have all sorts of notebooks and journal things and things. It's wonderful.

I suggest for anyone about to begin handwriting their stories, get a comfortable ink pen. A ball point pen will murder your hand, because you have to push. Get something like a V5 or even better, a fountain pen. You have not known heaven until you've written with a good non-scratchy, non-clogged fountain pen with a nice grip on it and a good weight on the back.

I used to write everything in longhand first. My book was born between the pages of a couple of notebooks. But for the last few years torn ligaments in my forearm make holding a pen uncomfortable and painful if prolonged.

I've simply had to adapt to composing on the computer but it hasn't been easy. I miss writing the old-fashioned way.

I miss it, too. I can jot a quick (short) note to myself, or manage a grocery list - but anything more than that and the pain in my elbow will last for a week.

But back in the day, I was a pen and paper devotee. Oh, well, that and there were no PCs back then

I do some of both, its the translation into the computer (like PeeDee) that is where a second draft comes from. But sometimes it slows me down severely. I had handwritten thousands of words on my current Novel in progress and felt that I couldn't move forward until I got them put in the computer, and it screwed me up. the actual writing in longhand was great, but I think I really require a computer to get the work done.
Poetry, I still love to handwrite.(but I do most of my editing to it once it's on the computer screen).

I find that I hit the "flow" state of writing faster with pen and ink. Like Kbax, the keyboard is connected to so many distractions.
For most writing (articles/short stories), I tend to write my first drafts longhand and start editing as I enter them into the computer.
For NaNoWriMo (which is the only time I've written whole novels) I start on the keyboard most of the time. I switch to longhand when I'm feeling blocked up.
For work (tech writing) I do everything on the computer.

I can't read my own writing. The only long hand I do is writing checks and even that's becoming few and far between thanks to debit cards. I'm actually losing the callous on my finger from lack of writing.

Not sure why you wouldn't expect your writing to be perfect if it's in pen versus on the computer. I try to put down the best I can at any given moment despite the medium I'm using.

Besides, I type so much faster than I could ever write. I can keep up with the flow of my thoughts without getting behind and then losing the whole train.

I may make notes in long hand but I write everything on the computer. Learned to do it on typewriters years ago and now if I try to write long hand, I can't keep up with my flow fast enough!

I like writing short stories in long hand and transcribing later on the computer. I find the process works better for short works rather than novels and such (I dread ever having to transcribe a WIP that long).

I'd rather just type it directly onto the computer. I type faster than I write. Guess it's because I like/have to write neatly. (A little OCD poking through.) And for some reason, when I do put pen to paper, I get side-tracked easier than when I'm at the computer. My mind starts wandering. You'd think it'd be the opposite, but for me, it's not.

Longhand is my preference, especially for long WIPs. Too distracting to be on the computer for me.

I use to only be able to write longhand, but now I've gotten used to this new-fangled thing known as the computer! Who knew?

Longhand writing keeps you sharp. Computers, while quick and easy, make me lazy. Everything from my spelling to my typing suffers if that's all I use.

I keep a nice, longhand journal.

My handwriting is atrocious, and I was brought up with computers, so I do nothing in longhand. Well, that's not entirely true. Sometimes I'll do a short outline on paper, but I could never write the actual story like that. It would take twice as long to write out, and there'd be no guarantee that I'd be able to read it once it was finished.

Neil Gaiman pointed out when he was editing the Sandman: Book of Dreams short story collection that some stories that should have been 3,000 word were coming at 6,000. It was part of what sent him back to writing by hand. Computers, I think, sometimes make the words come too easily.

When I write by hand, I write faster and more steadily than I do on the computer (in theory; I write pretty steadily on both these days) but ultimately, i produce less content and it takes longer.

The downside of writing for deadlines is, I haven't always the luxury of doing it on paper. Not if someone's expecting something Right Damn Now.

My handwriting improves the more I handwrite. I think my hand just settles into doing it again. Plus, I have to be able to read what I write well enough that it doesnt' trip me up when I go to type it.

That said, I don't keep perfect and beautiful notebooks. I'll write a chunk of a scene, then scribble out a line and write something else.

Something else fun to do: Get a journal that isn't lined. Write a story from one end, and then flip the journal over and start writing another story from the back. Or do two different colored inks. It's amusing.

RG570 said:

My handwriting is atrocious, and I was brought up with computers, so I do nothing in longhand. Well, that's not entirely true. Sometimes I'll do a short outline on paper, but I could never write the actual story like that. It would take twice as long to write out, and there'd be no guarantee that I'd be able to read it once it was finished.

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This is exactly why, the more computers integrate in the world around me, the more inclined I am to handwrite certain things. I think complete dependency on a computer for my writing is not a good thing at all.

I prefer to write longhand. I find myself tinkering too much with a computer draft. Sure, I mix up paragraph order, but I can get it out of my head. I have three WIP in leather-bound journals.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I can't read my own writing. The only long hand I do is writing checks and even that's becoming few and far between thanks to debit cards. I'm actually losing the callous on my finger from lack of writing.

Not sure why you wouldn't expect your writing to be perfect if it's in pen versus on the computer. I try to put down the best I can at any given moment despite the medium I'm using.

Besides, I type so much faster than I could ever write. I can keep up with the flow of my thoughts without getting behind and then losing the whole train.

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It's been a long winding transition for me. I used to think that something important in the process happened when I moved my rough paper draft onto my screen, editing all the way. But when I hand write to keep up with my mind, my penmanship goes down the tubes. "Sample grasping? Ideal switch of raisins?" I had no clue. Then I started losing things--folders, notebooks, sales slips with great ideas on them. THEN, despite a few fingers that tilt in odd directions, I realized I could type much faster than handwrite without getting cramps. That makes me a convert to the Temple of the Machine. Handwriting is for behaving badly in meetings (by starting a story instead of listening to a bad presentation) car rides (because it takes twelve whole hours to get to a beach from Arkansas) and public places (when I get to eavesdrop with impunity).

No way. I hate writing longhand, always have. Of course I did it, but now I won't unless I have to. My handwriting is bad, so I have to concentrate on my actual writing, and it's next to impossible to keep a story flowing when I'm using valuable (and limited, ha ha) brainpower on penmanship.

I make notes by hand, I make grocery lists by hand, but anything much longer than that? No.

I write poetry and lyrics longhand on lined paper. Old habits die hard. But I do everything else on the computer. (Count me in with the messy handwriting crowd.)

I do print drafts and edit them by hand, then retype the changes.

With writing longhand, I find that I can just write without worrying if a sentence is perfect or not. When writing on the comp, I can go over 1 sentence over and over until I'm satisfied before moving on. I probably need to time how long each process (longhand, then comp vs. comp alone) to see which actually takes me longer to complete my work.

I can barely write checks by hand anymore.... I need my computer. If it wasn't for computers I would be in a diferent line of work.

My hat is off to Shakespeare...

I stopped writing most things in longhand the minute I got my first typewriter, which I think was when I was 18. Never looked back. I'm with you, John--if I had to write a novel in longhand, I probably wouldn't.

- Victoria

PeeDee said:

This is exactly why, the more computers integrate in the world around me, the more inclined I am to handwrite certain things. I think complete dependency on a computer for my writing is not a good thing at all.

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Could not have said it better. I started a letter writing campaign among friends several years ago, in which we write each other at least twice a year--by hand. These are generally long letters on nice stationary and include discussions on topical subjects, as well as things of a personal matter. We do this for two reasons:

1) Nothing helps focus the mind more than sitting down with pen and paper and forming the right words prior to committing them. It's becoming a lost art, I fear.

2) I hate the idea that we're losing a vital source of history. Imagine how much less we'd know of or ancestors, if not for their collection of written letters. I know, email can save too, but I don't trust anything that can be altered by some technologically sophisticated twelve-year old.