Tuesday, November 15, 2011

What it Really Means

Not too long ago, I blogged about going OLD SCHOOL, and how much it meant to try to write a novel long hand again. Today, I'm going to update you on my progress.

5700 words. That's about when my brain started going faster than my hands, and I couldn't keep up. Transcribing those last 5 or so pages into the computer, for instance, was a fight to read my own chicken scratch. Not that I've ever had stellar handwriting, but let's just say it gets much worse when I'm in a hurry.

One of my friends, when I told her what I was doing, quipped, "learn shorthand." That might work, but I struggle with the old dog/new tricks reality I realized I didn't want to take time away from my writing to learn another way of writing.

Here's the thing: I may start all my novels long hand from now on. I may write the first chapter without using a computer because it DOES do amazing things to the human brain--or at least my (mostly) human brain. I found the experience to be much richer, and I got to know my characters quickly and I tended to do more description.

Or not. I may just end up doing extensive drafting by hand, so it helps me develop my characters before I actually write the story ON MY COMPUTER.

Because that's what all this boils down to. I can ALMOST match my thought speed with a keyboard. Haven't got a prayer of doing that with a pen and paper.

So, for now, it's keyboard all the way.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to write everything by hand, and had problems with my hand not keeping up with my brain, but the biggest problem came with the fact that I've never typed any of it. Shelves of composition notebooks, folders with papers, notes on napkins, and nothing ever typed out.

I'm thinking I should find time to do that, and maybe have a book of short stories to put together. Completely unrelated stories, but still.

WilyBCool said...

I can't write by hand anymore, mind moves to fast for writing stick to keep up. ;D

Steven Page said...

both methods have their pluses. a had-writen first draft is often more spiritually rewarding--and if the power grid goes down, you have a hard copy.