A few weeks ago, I attended a writing seminar offered by a local writers group. Despite my love and passion for writing, this was the first writing seminar I have ever attended. And it helped to kickstart me and my aspirations. I've never been a believer in these types of seminars in the past as they seem to me to be a forced effort and I don't like being forced into anything, let alone something that I feel so passionate about such as writing. But I found it was not entirely like what I had anticipated. Instead, it was a session wherein we were given a variety of topics over the course of 4 hours and asked to write about them for anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes - by hand!
Now, let me point out here that I tend to write all of my stories, articles and blog posts on my computer. The only time I really write anything by hand is when I'm writing poetry. Poetry seems to be very odd to do on a keyboard and I feel it is more elegant, for lack of a better term, when done by hand. But I haven't written anything other than poetry by hand in years - though everything I wrote when I was younger was done by hand (and I have the boxes of papers to prove it!). To me, it just seemed much easier and faster to type things as I tend to type fairly well and it helps when my mind is racing along a story path to be able to keep up. Writing by hand has been slower for me for many years and I've really fallen out of the practice.
However, at this seminar, I did not take my laptop and had to rely on handwriting. And after the first five minute exercise where I could only write up a single paragraph, my hand felt like it was cramping up on me. I wasn't sure that I could complete the remaining 3+ hours. However, I did persevere through a series of writing exercises and, by the final exercise, a 30 minute process, I produced two full pages worth of a pretty decent story that the mediator even commended as a decent effort.
More importantly, though, I was hooked on writing by hand again! Whereas writing on a computer is still faster for me and my computer has the nice ability to auto-correct my spelling (well, my typing since my spelling is usually pretty decent), I have re-discovered the joy of writing by hand. It may go slower but that allows me more time to really organize my thoughts and produce (what I feel is) a higher quality of writing. It forces me to consider what I am writing rather than just putting words to paper and then trying to go back later and sort them out via a random editing process. And considering how I feel about editing my own work, that is a huge plus.
At some point, I will have to go back and transfer my writing back onto a computer so that I can save what I have in an electronic format should I decide to seek publication (an eventual goal). But, for now, I am glad to return to what some would call a troglodyte methodology in a world that increasingly disdains anything done manually. To me, it is a more peaceful and fulfilling effort and one that I have found is allowing me to do things I enjoy again. And, at the end of the day, isn't that what is most important?
I'm finally getting around to responding to this! I'm SO glad you sent me the email with this link. My own thoughts: Yes, writing by hand is different, slower, more thought provoking. In some way I think we're losing something (but what??) when we write only by typing.
ReplyDeleteIt took me years to get comfortable typing up papers, stories and poems on the computer. YEARS. Now I do it as a matter of course, unless I'm upstairs nearly asleep at which point I grab paper and pen (rarely pencil) and start jotting. In my formative years as a writer, I did everything by hand. When I tried typing it felt forced and disjointed. Now I'm amazed at how natural it comes.
When I do need to write out something by hand, that slower process lends itself to a richness I think I would have otherwise glossed over and missed. I consider my words more carefully. Interesting.