Goodreads Sci-Fi/Fantasy Authors discussion
Writing and Publishing
>
Personalizing the Creative Process: pen and paper versus the word processor
date
newest »
newest »
For me, the thought of using a pen and paper turns me into a blubbering and inconsolable child.Although you do not see it in the retail releases of my work, my editors and publisher are intimately aware of the fact that I am full-blown dyslexic. In an earlier day in history, there would not be one chance in hell I would be an author—much less, and award-winning one!—as each and every word that I know how to spell I have memorized as you would memorize a phone number. Letters just do not form in my brain into coherent words. So, it is only through the magic of technology that I am able to write anything intelligible. (I spelled that word inteligable, for example, as it is not one of my “memorized words.” I then right-clicked it once it became underlined in red and selected the correct spelling.) (And, yes. I write all my responses to blogs and websites in Word first, and then transfer them to the website once I know I don’t look like an idiot.) (Well, more of an idiot than I look like naturally.) (Hey, writing in parenthesis is fun!)
Anyhoo…
Add this to the fact that when I am creative writing I write with my eyes closed, I would not be able to stay within the lines with pen and paper. So for me, I am all digital. I have no options. But when you combine MS Word, a large dry-erase board with copious notes about the correct spellings of homonyms, and a team of professional editors with my natural storytelling abilities, you get some pretty good stuff if my critics do say so themselves.
Maxwell Alexander Drake
Read the first five chapters of my award-winning fantasy saga at www.genesisofoblivion.com
For me, it is the opposite. I much prefer typing at a computer. For one thing, it's much easier to make instant changes. Pen and paper and typewritten stuff gets so messy with corrections that it soon becomes unreadable. Perhaps it's due to the way I work. I write a synopsis beforehand, but seldom stick to it. Actually my first draft is really the synopsis. Having it on the computer allows me to easily rearrange, add, subtract and correct. Of course, before I started writing fiction, I was a technical writer for a computer firm. As a result I feel very comfortable with computers and digital writing.
Oh, wow, how about all three: pen and paper, typewriter then the computer! lol.
As a kid, I wrote everything long hand, scribbles, scratch-outs, you name it. In school, I learned to type on a IBM Selectric. In the early 1980 - we were among the first to buy a Mac!
When no computer is around, I do write ideas in long hand. And surprise! Typewriters are making a comeback. At least for nostalgia sake. Good! No more of this 'keyboarding', kids need to learn how to type without looking at their hands.
As a kid, I wrote everything long hand, scribbles, scratch-outs, you name it. In school, I learned to type on a IBM Selectric. In the early 1980 - we were among the first to buy a Mac!
When no computer is around, I do write ideas in long hand. And surprise! Typewriters are making a comeback. At least for nostalgia sake. Good! No more of this 'keyboarding', kids need to learn how to type without looking at their hands.
I prefer the computer myself. When I write, I make constant mistakes or decide to change the sentence I just wrote. The computer makes this so much faster. (I've heard many times that, on a first draft, you should just write and not correct as you go. But I'm a perfectionist and it truely frustrates me to see an error and not fix it.) With long hand, I end up erasing stuff over and over. It's so much faster for me to use a word processor.However, I write my notes/outline in a journal, so I can easily flip to whatever part I need.
I do exactly the same, Lisa. Write directly on to computer and use a notebook to make notes!
I write on the computer at home, and until recently used paper and pen when I attended our biweekly writing group (started during NaNoWriMo and continuing). I finally got myself a netbook, partly so that I could edit as well as write at the group meeting. I have Dropbox on both my desktop and the netbook, so whatever I write on computer is automatically synced to their online storage and to the other computer. (That's a slight oversimplification.)
The response has indeed confirmed that I am the antiquated fellow I always suspected myself to be...perhaps explaining my love of dark age fantasy...not another pen and paper scribe to be had?
Sorry, George. It seems you are alone in this.:)
Maxwell Alexander Drake
Read the first five chapters of my Award-Winning Fantasy Saga at www.genesisofoblivion.com
I was always one for my notebook and a pen and have moved through two novels that way. But, recently I've found that my writing is far smoother and ultimately stronger when I type directly in to my laptop. I think it's a growing thing, and the fact that my laptop is as portable as a notebook these day:] I wish you well in either endeavor. take care,
Kat
I use both paper and computer in my writing, but I have a special fondness for longhand. Notebooks in office-supply aisles make me drool. It takes a lot of self-control not to buy them all the time! I currently write in four different notebooks, ranging in size from tiny to large. I get ideas most often when I am on the move--in the car, on a walk, at work--and I like being able to just grab my journal, walk to the park, sit on a bench and write. It's easier than carting around my laptop, and it's more stimulating for my imagination. I have to say I am thankful for my computer, though. My hands hurt from too much longhand, so I type often, especially while editing. I like best to write a scene on paper, then rewrite it on the computer.
I'm like you, Shawn. When I was a kid, which was a few years ago now (LOL), it was pen (or pencil) and scraps of paper or anything I could get my hands on to write my poetry and stories. I still have several duotang books with full-length hand-written stories in them. Then, I really moved up in the world when my parents bought me a little manual Brother typewriter. Oh, I was in heaven then! But, correcting mistakes or making changes was still pretty challenging and frustrating.Nowadays, it's the computer for me with its instantaneous capability of moving whole paragraphs around or adding in pages of writing among the existing pages. I still use a notebook every now and then to jot down ideas, but the majority of my writing is done on my sleek new laptop.
I couldn't imagine writing with paper and pen. I didn't write my first book until I got a laptop (didn't sell any books until my third - so that would have been a lot of writing). Plus you have to put it to computer for editing, so why not start there?
The only time I use paper and pen is when I'm driving somewhere and I get some ideas I have to jot down.
Norm
http://www.normcowie.com
That said, I was having trouble coming up with the ending of a book once, and came up with the sequence of events while swimming laps. So I spit out water, and had the lifeguard bring me pencil and paper so I could write it out before I forgot.
I prefer pretty much working on any machine instead of writing longhand. No patience for it and I'm constantly changing things anyway. Much easier to do on a laptop. I'd still be working on my first book if I had to write it by hand! :)Contrary to what some might say, I also find this frees up the mind and enables inspiration to come better. Rather than grousing at my handwritten, often scratched out manuscript, I can think of what should come next.
George, don't feel alone. I love fountain pens and paper, I grew up with that. My family makes fun of me, but I love the feel of paper and a smooth fountain pen, gets my creativity going.
As I first stated...there is no correct answer here...in a world ruled by (often times) frenetic lifestyles and deluged by endless waves of new electronic gadgetry, it was not surprising that the vast majority of writers would work to a laptop. The tactile sensation of taking up a pen and commiting my creative notions to paper is a private delight...albeit a far from efficient one.
As soon as I laid hands on my parents' old Royal Typewriter, I wanted to type everything. Over the years I have learned to take down notes, create outlines and write the final manuscripts in MS Word, which allows me to transfer and make edits on my laptop and my smartphone, and read the entire text on my reading device as needed.Trying to write longhand would take me so long, I'd barely remember the intent of my sentence by the time I got to the end of it! A blank piece of paper does absolutely nothing for me... nor does a computer screen induce in me a "blank stare," as I use it as a desktop filled with all the elements I need to develop my story.
I will chime in by saying that I prefer the more intimate relationship between a writer, his pen and a blank page. For me, the blank page offers a rather seductive invitation…an implied intimacy that I cannot replicate while squinting at a blank screen and a blinking cursor…much like peering out over a barren wasteland that promises a kind nihilistic frustration. Though my penmanship leaves much to be desired and has led me to actually print for the most part, there is something about a lined page in a bound journal that stirs the creative process and gives it direction…almost as though the pen is an icon that can channel creative energy the way a wizard’s staff can give focus to his magic. From a more pragmatic perspective, I find that the pen and paper process adds yet another layer behind the conception of a creative notion and its culmination…as I do all of my own input (indeed, no one else could read my scrawl), I have another opportunity to evaluate what I have created.
Again, this is my preference and there is no right and wrong here…I would like to know what other authors feel about the paper and pen versus electronic medium method of creating your initial artistic work. Even though preferring paper and pen might well carbon date the respondent, don’t be deterred.