That's why I have been writing first draft on pen and paper, type it up, and then go from the laptop. I don't know if it's the staring at the screen that does it, but it seems to drain away my creativity. When it comes down to editing and rewriting, the base ideas for the chapter are already there, so it's more just technical, so then it gets easier.
My mistake, I wasn't clear. The note-taking is always on regular paper / notebooks. The Moleskine is my journal, because it's a bit more archival. I learned the hard way that many of my old notebook journals weren't archival and had bad reactions between ink and paper, rendering them unreadable. The worst offenders were some writing journals and poetry I had in black and white composition books, written with ballpoint ink (various brands). Within less than ten years the inks had bled through and smeared together, making the pages completely unreadable. I refer back to old journals for ideas and and even menu planning ("What appetizers did we make for New Year's Eve last year?"), so now they're as archival as I can affordably make them.
I use paper less and less these days. Just for when I have an idea away from my computer. Something that hasn't been mentioned so far is whiteboards. I do my high level outlining on whiteboard. Well, not board exactly: I actually repainted a wall with dry erase surface, so I currently have an entire side of my office as a jumbo outline, for reference.
I pretty much type everything. I didn't buy a mechanical keyboard to not use it, after all. I do write with pen in my journal when I'm away from my sweet clicky clicks, but I won't write anything very long. It gets frustrating because my hand can't keep up with my thoughts, and ten minutes in, I'm writing in barely-legible scratches with a hand cramp.
I do scribble notes when I don't have my notebook and I don't have a book to read and I have time to kill (usually at work). But I couldn't function as a writer if I wasn't using a word processor, spellcheck and the vast resources available on the Net.
Pen and Paper all the way. Better ideas come out naturally when I write using longhand. One, I could come up with fresh ideas even before I finish one paragraph. Two, my ideas don't feel forced. I really enjoy it. I write using a nice quality fountain pen, writing on any paper I could find. I only type after I have written by hand.
My wrists start to hurt after only a few minutes of writing by hand, and even giving them rests by switching back and forth only lets me write for an hour before both are killing me, where a computer keyboard I can type on for hours. I also prefer the computer because I know it'll be consistent. I'm not sure if it's a real effect or entirely in my head, but I feel like my writing will come out very differently depending on which hand the pen is in.
I use both, but I prefer pen and paper for the first and most basic draft. I use Moleskines or Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks. They're expensive, but I love writing in them. They're hardcover, which is a huge plus, and as @Shenanigator said above, they're archival. Besides, I kinda like thinking my prose deserves the best notebooks I can find! I use very fine-point pens: Uni-ball Signo DX or Pilot G-Tec-C 0.25 usually. I like writing with a fountain pen, but for some reason the results are nearly illegible for me - too much ink on the page and it smears too easily. Once I have something - anything, what I think of as a zeroth draft - down in pen on paper, then I turn to the laptop and my beloved Scrivener for the delicious, soul-satisfying work of shaping, revising, rewriting almost endlessly. I sometimes think I'm not writing a novel; I'm creating a universe of words, images, themes, moods, characters, philosophies, songs, and dreams for me to live in forever.
I had an interesting writing peer a few years ago, in one of my writing circles. All her submissions were done with a manual, ribbon typewriter. Meaning, not even electric. She didn't know what model it was, but based on description, I think it was an old Remington portable. She got it from her dad and somehow is able to find replacement ribbons. I originally assumed the pages were just a strange word processor font choice (distressed type maybe) but upon closer inspection, I can see she was telling the truth - the letters indented on the paper, they were definitely struck in. She said this is the only way she can get into a flow - that handwriting and computer processing are too distracting. I still can't get the mental image of her shoving that carriage return every twenty words, thinking "thank goodness there's no distractions with this thing..." I have my grandfather's old Underwood, but it's just decoration. A sort of 'prop' in my office to remind myself I should be writing. I find it too slow going for actual workflow.
I get mine off of EBay, thought I know Amazon has them, too. They're actually not that difficult to find and,by pages filled, cheaper to use than the Brother all-in-one I've got next to my computer. I agree that physically putting marks on paper is far better at being a distraction free enterprise than working on my desktop, laptop, tablet, or whatever. There's also the benefit of putting the physical pages into my computer. Somehow I get such an intimate refresher on what I'm writing, especially if it's something I've been working on for months, before I start revising and editing. Whenever I work on and edit something exclusively on my computer, it ends up being more of just a skim and revise type thing. Whereas with copying it, I seem to get a much broader overview of the story. It's definitely faster to crank something out on a computer, though. There's no argument about that. Each one has their own place, I suppose.
Ohhhh we need to start a "Favorite Pens" thread--preferably mentioning the country in which we buy them. I once had a boss that said "No fine point pens for signing our correspondence; it makes your signature look weak" so I only use fine point for things like my checkbook and filling out forms. I'm no longer happy with my formerly beloved Uniball Vision Elites. (The quality has gone down.) For my "dear diary" journal, I like a fountain pen. I wish I still had my little portable Sears manual typewriter (model from the 1980's). My parents bought it for my 13th birthday, and that thing was a workhorse. They were made for Sears by Olivetti, if I recall, and the only plastic parts on it were the keys. It was smaller and flatter than most portables but still had a normal size keyboard and keys, and you had to have strong fingers to type with it. I still pound computer keys way too hard from learning on that thing, particularly if I'm ticked off or writing an emotional scene. I have killed keyboards.
I constantly switch between the two, I don't have any preference. It all comes down to the type of mood I am in.
Pen and paper is comfy, but if you're doing anything serious you'll save a lot of time by typing it; and I absolutely hate that that's the case.
I usually go pen and paper when I have to jot down notes and ideas. My preferred method for main writing is typing, though.
I write on my tablet with a bluetooth keyboard and I think it's difficult to do on the go. When I'm on the go, I take a notebook and just do it with pencil and paper. But if I want to post it online or do anything with it online, I have to retype it. That's the part I hate
For a while now, I've been in the habit of buying fountain pens for the hell of it. Not fancy ones. If you look on Amazon or eBay, there are lots of sellers hawking dirt cheap Chinese pens with assorted levels of quality, and the prices are crazy. Some of them are actually nice! If nothing else, it's pretty interesting to be able to spend thirty bucks and have a different fountain pen to play with every day for the next two weeks.
Thanks for the tip! Has anyone here successfully flown with a fountain pen? I've never traveled with one because I envision the thing exploding and ink going everywhere. (Plus, of course the cartridges would have to travel in the gels & liquids ziplock.)
As a 2000s kid it was a mixture of both, the pen and paper is for more thoughts, ideas and such while typed was for more finished work
Eventually we all turn to the computer to write our books, our cherished writings. But before we do that, we have a rough either written the old fashion way of Pen and Paper or just straight to the computer. Though sometimes I do start on the computer, my preferred starting place is Pen and Paper. With several journals, notebooks and drawling (Poorly, ), I always prefer to start my work by hand first, using a main journal and a few notebooks for notes and characters. But I wanted to know what is everyone else's preferred starting location for their writings.
Computer. I'm faster at it, and my hand gets sore after 2-3 paragraphs of handwriting. Plus, once I finish I'd have to decipher my handwriting and type it out anyways.
Computer for me too. I will occasionally write flash, poetry, or lyrics by hand, but my hands get mad at me. They like typing better. Plus, I can type as fast as I think - I can't do that by hand.
Yup, I type much more quickly (and legibly!) than I can write by hand. It's probably just poor posture but writing by hand gets to my tendinitis much quicker than typing, too. I also just absolutely hate transcribing, if I'm honest.
Computer. My handwriting is sloppy and terrible, so I will chose to type whenever I can. The one exception is when making notes to keep track of character names, scene settings and such, but I'm incredibly brief with those.
Man, I'm starting to feel like a lone wolf here with my writing. . Thanks everyone for your responses and participation. That's understandable, I'm a lot faster with the computer as well, however with hand written, I feel less pressure to be accurate, since there is no redline telling me my errors. Also since they are just more concept and a rough rough, I'm not worried about grammar, sentence structure or cleanliness, as I a have entire paragraphs crossed out sometimes. or words revised on the fly. (If I think of better ones). And I also fully understand the dechipering, as sometimes i'll look at my writing and say WTF did I write there. . That's understand able, as I sort of hinted at prior, sometimes my words get jumbled as I write over myself. or leave out entire words all together, do to my brain dictating faster than my hand can write. My hand is a little more use to writing, so it doesn't get tired as quickly but does struggle to keep up sometimes. Sometimes I go back and fourth between the two, but I recall when I was first transcribing the stuff I had written by hand, onto the computer, it was a bit of a bear to deal with. . And for a long time I stuck with the computer but eventually came back to writing by hand first or co-currently with computer. As for Tendinitis, you most certainly should go with what is better for it.
I usually write by hand at first then transcribe and make changes on the computer. Mainly because I usually don't have a computer handy when I'm writing.
