How I write

[altariel]

Last year's Computer Crash of Great Doom and Horror turns out to have had a really positive effect now that I've got a good year's perspective on it.

Left PC-less, I was forced to write long-hand. I wrote most of the Tolkien-based fic (including the novel) long-hand (mostly sitting on trains, actually). The best bits of the thesis have been written long-hand. I think it's something to do with adding a level of thought or control - you certainly think before you write...

Last week I was back writing scenes that involved lots of dialogue; rapid fire exchanges between characters. The keyboard was the only way to keep up with the dialogue as the characters played it out for me...

So, current preferred writing tools of choice? Back of used A4 printer paper and a cherry gel pen. Type up (and edit as you type), print, hack at with the cherry pen.

Or, as we were reduced to on Saturday while we waited to go into the cinema, the ever-trusty back of an envelope. Or, in this case, the back of a NatWest ATM paying-in envelope. That'll be worth a fortune one day...

Comments

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I spend an unsocial (and probably unhealthy) number of hours per day in front of my computer. (Bizarrely, I seem to get paid to do this, but that's another story.) So I've always regarded it as a slightly shameful retrogressive quirk that I write much better and more easily when scribbling on a piece of paper. But you've given me the courage to come out. Like you, if the words are flowing, I find that I have to type. But if they aren't, or if any kind of Deep Thought is required, then long-hand is the only way to go.

But I think my feeling about it may be different from yours. For some reason, I feel much freer when writing long-hand. I'm happier just to throw down something - even fragments - long-hand and keep moving, in the hope that it might bump-start some inspiration, or help clarify my thinking. And the whole seems to remain more open to change, if/when the aforementioned inspiration sputters into life. On the other hand, words written onscreen seem to assume a finality that they don't deserve, and, if things aren't flowing easily, I find myself juggling paragraphs endlessly in my head, worrying over minutiae, and generally losing any chance of momentum that there might have been. But maybe I'm just odd...!

As for preferred writing tools, my usuals are (depending on what I have to hand) either a multi-coloured biro or a blue sparkly gel pen. If, for whatever reason, writing is going to be difficult, I figure it might as well at least be pretty.

Re:

[altariel.livejournal.com]

One thing I tried this week which proved creative was altering the font I was using in Word. It worked. It's strange how these silly things help with creativity.

I do know what you mean about long-hand helping with throwing ideas down - scribbling down notes and so. I do all my planning of prose (fiction and non-fiction) long-hand. Complete with arrows and diagrams and stuff.

The other thing I like about long-hand is that writing with a pen is actually pleasurable. I just like watching ink (well, gel ink) make marks on paper.