As much as I love computers for all they have given me — Excel, Oregon Trail, cats on the internetz — there’s something about handwriting I’ll never get over. It’s all so very tactile: your hand brushing against paper; the smell of lead; the ink spots that cover the sides of my index finger after a writing session.
While it’s a lot slower than writing on the computer, most of my writing starts out like this — handwritten in a small purse-sized notebook. There are two reasons for this. One: I don’t own a laptop! Pen and paper is cheap and portable and no matter where I am I can steal fifteen, thirty minutes whenever I can to write.
Two: this may sound odd, but my writing is better when it starts in handwritten form. I really got on the handwriting bandwagon after reading Lynda Barry’s What It Is. (Let me stop right now and say: if you are a creative individual and haven’t read this book, STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING GO NOW WHERE IS YOUR CREDIT CARD??) Barry is a big proponent of handwriting. She says it opens up a different part of the brain, something we’re not able to access by sitting stationary at a computer ::
There is a state of mind which is not accessible by thinking. It seems to require a participation with something.
And I dunno. I’ve always argued that I’m a great candidate for the placebo effect, but there’s something about handwriting that just works. The story progresses to places I didn’t imagine — characters say things I didn’t expect. My own stories surprise me in ways they never do when I’m working solely on the computer.
I try to get other things into my notebooks, too. Drawings (which I do poorly). Typography (OH SO AMATEUR). I’m not good at these things but I’d like to get better. One notebook at a time.
This weekend’s plan: map out the future backyard on grid paper. Draw out the lines. See where it takes me.
I always carry a few sheets of paper and a pen with me. Later I do an edit as I’m typing. Best of both worlds.
That tends to be my process as well — first draft by hand, edits as I type it up later. It typically works well (although still doesn’t save me from heavy editing later on).
I can relate. I’m trying the hand-written approach to draw up an outline for the latest draft of my novel, and I really like it! Best selling author Kristen Hannah writes the entire first draft of her novels by hand, then her assistant transcribes it into her computer.
Love it! Love hearing of different author’s processes.