Keeping It Going – Paper or Plastic?

There sometimes need to be an reckless approach to writing material. Just putting your hand to the keyboard, or as I prefer, pen to paper.

The advantages of writing by hand are nurmerous and I’ll share a few here.

I’ll get rid of the obvious:

1) When the electricity goes out, the paper can still be read. This may seem to an obvious statement, but I’m surprised by how often I’m surprised at my pleasure at seeing something I’ve written by hand. Yes – it can happen.

2) When the computer fritzes out, there’s a hard, hand written copy. Yeah, I know – more of the obvious, but back up of this sort is still back up.

- There’s an argument here to print out everything that you put on the computer. Aside from the cost of ink, I’m not sure this is always a good idea. But I do print a lot of my material so I can review it.

- If I am more than 10% into a revision, I’ll usually print out what I’m working on so I can read it for consistency and grammar and readability. Unless – I’m unusually proud of what’s being edited at this point.

I’ve rarely been caught short as a result of these habits – I shred or throw away much once revisions have been accomplished.

The not so obvious reasons for writing by hand: 1) allows for greater options while writing – length of time to write a word vs. typing one. 2) keeps the hand and body more available to service the mind: read here exercise. 3) Taps into the mythology of creativity. While typing is no less a creative effort than handwriting, it is nonetheless a different kind of creativity – handwriting offers another outlet of experience.