I normally type on the computer as opposed to writing on paper. I have terrible hand writing, and also can type faster than I can think, so no time is wasted trying to get my pen to keep up.
I'm fully digitised. Although, I don't read e-books. *chuckles* I use treepad to hold my outlines -- and maintain a form or organisation. Open Office to draft. Far quicker to type then to slog with a pen (touch-typer), and backing up is a doddle and there are various means. Although, I do sometimes scribbles notes down on paper -- if the needs must.
I do tend to use different colours for different sections (mainly with my main piece, Twinsanity) Black for main story (Fountan Pen as per) Blue for flashback (another fountain pen, this gets quite a lot of writing like main) Red, section break and Green, thoughts (my character tends to think quite a lot, and a lot of info id conveyed that way) or sounds that are necessary...
I prefer using laptop, but i dont type fast( Just recently I started online lessons on several websites. Here are a few sites that will help you type fast: http://www.ratatype.com/, http://www.typingweb.com/ And what services do you use to type faster?
Pen, every time. I seem to write better using pen and paper over a keyboard, I think the time it takes to finish writing a word allows me to think of what I'll say next. I absolutely much acquire a fountain pen.
I use my laptop. The delete key is so much easier than whiteout or scratching out, and better yet it doesn't waste trees.
I love pen and paper. Especially because I tend to edit as I go so with pen and paper I am able to see how everything has/is progressing.
What Ginger said. For many years I tried writing stories with pen and paper, and even pencil and paper with eraser handy, but I like to chop and change so much my MS soon became an ugly dog's breakfast. (Breakfast ugly, not dog.) We bought our Mackintosh Performa, back in 1994 ...and what fun! Since then, I write with ease, cut, paste, copy, delete, make new chapters, duplicate old ones and work on the duplicates—whatever I want. I still scribble down thoughts or notes in a paper notebook, though, and always carry a little one with me when I'm out walking, in case a story idea appears. Which it often does, when I'm out walking!
It depends. Usually I write the story on a computer, and then rewrite the crucial scenes on paper, to make sure I don't miss an opportunity for a correction or improvement. With songs, I write exclusively by hand, but that's because I feel it lends an authenticity to the work that you don't get with the blank anonymity of a computer screen.
When writing poetry I almost exclusively hand write in a notebook. Than, after a few drafts I write on an A4 paper (or even A3 if any available) - it gives me a sense of power over words and I allows me to grasp the poem as a whole, even if it's a longer piece. I need to see the first and the last line of the poem in one glance. When doing a prose piece, it starts and develops in a notebook too - of course, ideas come in craziest places & times, under shower, during commuting, just after sex, while on a powerwalk or while picking fresh tomatoes on the market - so in comes the handiest gadget of all, my trusty cell-phone and only recently did I start using an android phone with all those fancy widgets... After I'm through the first set of ideas, larger chunks of scenes, dialogues and descriptions by hand, I use it as guidelines for the first typed MSWord version: and I actually prefer Verdana over TimesNewRoman, which most people tell me is crazy, but I don't care And I type on a laptop I can move arround the apartment (sometimes in the park, but I prefer to travel ligthly, so park= notebook+mobile)... Finally, for the last (few) revisions I sit down with my old trusted desktop Pentium and do the hard work (a basic yoga training is what I recommend to all my friends who work in the office and have to sit for hours in those nasty spine-killing chairs)
Brainstorm is pen, pencil, or whatever I can get my hands on to fill in the page. Writing, that's all word processing: Scrivener, to be precise...
I write out a lot of my first drafts of longer scenes with pen and paper, as that's the most portable option. Then it all gets typed up onto my computer. Some scenes get typed directly onto computer, especially shorter and transitional scenes, though less than get written in my notepad first.
I'm quite fond of using a computer to write. One of the things that I don't like about writing with pen and paper is having to cross out any mistakes I find, whereas with a computer I can just delete them. However, I do like using pen and paper as well since I'm old-fashioned that way and it helps preserve my work, whereas with a computer preservation of months or even years of hard work isn't guaranteed unless you back up your files (which I still need to do as hard drive crashes have taught me to do so in case the worst is to come). I agree with the OP that using pen and paper allows you to carefully select your words as having to cross out mistakes is very glaring when reading through your work. However, one of the other things I don't like about using pen and paper is having to go through various pens when the ink in one runs dry and having to buy multiple notebooks, especially when working on a novel. I also hate my poor penmanship, which is why I've resorted to writing in all capitals when I write in pen and paper. It isn't just me, though; a common complaint about my handwriting is that it's too small, thus making it hard or near impossible to read.
For a rough draft, I like pen and paper. Very portable, don't have to worry about lugging around a laptop and finding an outlet due to a crappy battery life. Plus it just feels organic to me. I didn't grow up with a computer. Didn't even learn how to type until my senior year of high school. We had an electronic typewriter and my mom typed up all my papers. So I just got used to being able to write with a pen and paper. I type up my chicken scratch, print out the finished product, and then go through it with pen, scratching notes and whole sections with pen. Then back to the computer. You get the idea. Not sure if this is what I'll stick with when I start my first novel in November. When I work on a blog entry, I do use the computer because it's just short, one-off thing for me.
For me, it ultimately depends on what I'm trying to do. If I know what I want to write, I prefer typing it. Doing so allows me to get it down quickly and iron out bugs without having to translate my nearly illegible handwriting. If I'm brainstorming or just figuratively wandering, I would rather have a pen and some paper. It helps me just throw things down on the paper without fixating on technical stuff. It's nicer to just cross things out and move stuff around.
To tell you the truth, I'm constantly going back and forth between pen and paper, and the computer. It really depends.. I prefer to hand-write everything, because it gives me a chance to really tackle my thoughts one at a time, and when it comes to the computer, I type faster than I think, most of the time, so I lose my thought progression. Sometimes I start off writing something by hand, then after I've digitized everything, I'll finish the piece on the computer. Sometimes I'll start on the computer and then move to pen and paper. I don't exactly have a set way of doing things, yet.. Most of my process has been trial and lots of error thus far, so quite frankly, I'm not sure you should listen to me.
Sometimes i write so fast that the muscles in my hand hurt. When it comes to getting ideas in writing quickly, I type so I can write as fast as I think.
I tend to write in MS Word, as my handwriting is almost illegible at the best of times, and my hand gets cramp if I handwrite for more than ten minutes. Like a previous poster has mentioned, to me the delete key is so much easier to use than tippex or an eraser. I also find that ideas come more easily to me when I'm typing, although I'm not entirely sure why.
I grew a serious dislike toward pencils in elementary due to the fact teachers wouldn't allow us to use pen. Pens glide when writing and I'm not conformed to any parameters when writing as opposed to typing up on a computer.
But to me, this is an advantage of writing by hand. I don't erase; I don't even attempt to. I just draw a line through the word or phrase I don't like. That way, I can see later where my original thoughts were taking me, and I have the opportunity to change my mind back. Sure, it makes for a messy first draft, but I think messy first drafts look cool, like pieces of modern art.
When I'm writing a rough draft for anything, I always use pencil. Then I type it up later on. When journalling, it's always pen. For the most part (especially if I want clean and crisp), I use my keyboard - it gets my racing thoughts onto the page much quicker.
Wow I use a keyboard, either on my desktop computer or my iPad. Handwriting tires my hand, I did a lot of handwriting in the past and I'm over it. I can think and consider as much as I want, but once I start to write, I do it faster on a keyboard. And not to mention the neatness, no crossing over, arrows going up half a page indicating where what needs to be inserted, and the rest of the mess. I used to love my typewriter too, but as soon as the word processor became available, I upgraded and have done so ever since. At the moment, I'm really happy with the whole computer-thing
Primarily pen and paper - there's something more organic and real about seeing the words on paper in your own (or someone else's) hand. It tells a story that the anonymity of text on a computer screen just can't convey. That said, I'm usually jotting down poems or short prose pieces in the notebook I carry around with me. When doing something longer, like any sort of research paper, or essay, or doing NaNoWriMo, or even just expanding and polishing an idea from my notebook, then it's computer - so much easier to edit.
