I’ve long been someone who uses a keyboard almost exclusively for writing work. I can write longhand passably enough (for my own purposes at any rate), but I’ve never really seen the point, since I know I’m just going to copy anything useful over to a digital format anyway. Why do the work twice — unless you have to, as I did in London?
\nI’ve amended that stance somewhat.
\n1) I’ve discovered that I really enjoy writing longhand when I’ve got the time and no particular place to “be” with regard to writing. In other words, when I’m doing a little verbal meandering — don’t know exactly where I’m going and I just want to look around for awhile — then longhand is just the thing. It lets my brain run out ahead a bit and see what’s coming up next.
\n2) When I don’t know where I’m going because the path ahead is dark and unknown, then longhand is just the thing — it let’s me explore slowly and take my time as I go.
\n3) When there’s a big wall in the way, pen-on-paper is the tool I use to get it taken down, one brick at a time.
\nEventually, I start to see where I’m going, though, and I have to set the pen down and hit the keyboard, because my longhand simply can’t keep up when whatever I’m writing is really coming through at a good (even normal) clip. If I can’t type at that point, it gets pretty frustrating and I’ll even (horrible mistake!) starting editing things out of what I’m thinking of writing just so I can get it written down without going numb from the elbow down.
\nSo: not 100% useful, but much more than I’d once have thought .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve long been someone who uses a keyboard almost exclusively for writing work. I can write longhand passably enough (for my own purposes at any rate), but I’ve never really seen the point, since I know I’m just going to copy anything useful over to a digital format anyway. Why do the work twice — … <\/p>\n