Writer's Cramp or RMS? Hmmm...
Jared over at Mysterium Tremendum poses an interesting question for all actual and aspiring writers: which do you prefer in the practice of your craft, handwritten or computer-generated text?
I was intriged to learn that one of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson, has now returned to drafting his excellent novels in longhand, following the disastrous crash of a laptop. Stephenson's books tend to be long and his storylines exceedingly complex, and I can't imagine getting it done by hand, especially after coming to rely on a timesaving tool like a word processor.
As I mentioned in a comment to Jared's post, I find my own handwriting to be less than inspiring, and that fact tends to distract me from the primary task of generating ideas. I'm sure that's a symptom of OCD, but that's my reality.
[I'd like to say that if I could connect a feed directly from my brain to my hard drive and bypass the keyboard, that would be even better, but to be honest it would be a disaster of the first order. My mind is all over the map, it seems, and I rarely think in complete sentences. When I was in the corporate world, I never could give dictation worth a darn. Fortunately, about the point in my career where that skill might have become required, corporate culture changed and only CEOs had secretaries. But that's another post for another time.]
I was the first kid in my class to cut class. Specifically the class teaching you handwriting...so my handwriting is horrible. That's why I love computers :) But if I had a nice handwriting it might be a "novel" idea.
Posted by: Reporter at June 29, 2004 03:34 PMAbout the publisher
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In my case, it depends on what I'm writing. I grew up watching the PC grow and spread from its birth in 1981 to the present. That's colored the way I approach writing. For subjects that don't require a lot of concentration or effort, I can draft and edit entirely on the PC. If the subject is very technical or the work is to be a large one (like a report), then I prefer to use pen and paper for the first (and sometimes the second) draft.
There seems to be something innately satisfying about the physical act of writing which contributes to what is produced. My penmanship is terrible. On top of that, a paragraph will have innumerable crossouts and arrows pointing to additions above or below a line of text. But the act of writing focuses my thoughts far better than typing.
Posted by: Mr. Freen at June 29, 2004 07:02 AM