Writing: Longhand, Typing or Word Processor?
For any writers out there, you’ve probably grappled with this one. I mean, unless you can type at about 60 words a minute, writing longhand is the quickest way to get your thoughts down on paper.
Only problem is: transcribing them. It’s just not fun!
I know of some writers who write longhand and employ a typist to type it up on a word processor.
I’d like to do that, and I should do that. But I’m afraid of the cost. 
The advantages of writing longhand are it mutes the editor and you can get thoughts down quickest. Even on a type writer I feel a compulsion to think more about what I’m writing, and hence edit in my head as I go.
Well - tomorrow is 1st September. First day of spring down here. It’s writing season! So I have to hit the typewriter again, but I’m also gunna hit the Yellow Pages and see what transcription services there are.
writingtyping
Happy spring, Chris!
My experience has been just the opposite. Writing longhand is slower than my thinking, so I lose my train of thought as my writing tries to keep up. Not that I don’t write with pen and paper, many things I do begin that way - ideas, poetry, drafts. I use a type of speed writing to be able to keep up.
Thanks Rick. Proves yet again how everyone is different, eh?
I guess in your part of the woods you’re headed to Fall? Do you find writing easier in Spring and Summer?
I cannot believe how many times I’ve changed my writing instrument also. I started with a notepad & ballpoint, then moved on to a cheap electric, a 4th hand laptop, a pc, another laptop, a new electric, an old olympia and now back to a ballpoint and legal pad.
When I think my story through, I think it very fast. Writing longhand forcibly slows this process. For me, longhand produces sparse literature, whereas a processor produces too much waffling. And there is no real middle of the ground for me, not yet anyway.
As for preference, I prefer longhand. I love the feel of my pen scratching the paper, the smell of ink and even the cramping of my hand when I haven’t taken a breather. The little callous on my finger tells me if I’ve done a good day’s writing, and I show it off the way a child shows off his cuts and bruises to another child, only I don’t have much sympathy from well meaning relatives. They just nod and say “aha”
But by choosing longhand, I realise that I also start myself off on another impossible task: which pen? shall I use fountain, gel ink, ball point, pencil. This is where budget sets the limit and the old Kilometrico wins the day.