I think writing by hand beats typing for first drafts, and I've got the proof

I spent 6 months typing out my novel on a laptop in Portland and kept getting stuck on word choice and sentence flow. Then I switched to a cheap spiral notebook and pen, wrote 15 pages in a single sitting with zero editing, and the story just poured out. Does anyone else find that the physical act of writing slows your brain down enough to actually figure out the plot?

2 comments

2 Comments

simonreed2d ago

Wait did you read that study from some university... I think it was Berkeley maybe? They had people do creative writing tasks on laptops vs paper and the handwriting group came up with more original ideas. Something about the physical feedback loop with the pen. When I switched to writing my short stories on actual notebook paper I stopped second-guessing every little thing. The typos and bad sentences just felt more okay because I could cross them out and keep going instead of hitting backspace. There's something about seeing the crossed-out words that makes the process feel more human less like you're fighting with a machine.

troy_butler72d ago

Stop lying, you actually switched to paper for writing? I call BS on anyone who says they can go from typing to handwriting and actually stick with it. I tried that once for a blog post and my hand cramped up after like three sentences. Plus my handwriting looks like a doctor's prescription so I couldn't even read my own "genius" ideas the next day. But that bit about crossing out words instead of backspacing is interesting because yeah, seeing the mess might make you feel less pressure to be perfect. Still think you're full of it though if you claim you do all your stories on paper.