Writing Literary writing by hand

There is something weirdly nice about writing with a physical pen. For me, and this might sound weird, it's mostly the smell of ink that I like so much. I guess it's just that smells that I associate with doing certain things I enjoy tend to make me happy.

Back in my senior year of high school, we had these research/writing projects to do. It was mainly to teach us how to create powerpoints and deliver good presentations. I was pretty much the only person who had never made a powerpoint at that point, but my teacher showed me how and said I picked up on it really quickly.

We only had access to the school computers on certain days during this writing class and no one used their own laptops back in high school, so I would do my research in the library (reading actual books for research, gasp!) and I would write everything down by hand before putting it into the powerpoint. I remember every day Pachelbel's Canon in D would play on the radio (the librarian always played piano music) and I would use one of those really nice pens that let out enough ink that the scent of ink was always really strong.

So I would be sitting, every day, in the library, surrounded by books, writing to Pachelbel's Canon and the scent of ink. Most stereotypical "I'm so sophisticated" moments ever, and it was the happiest I ever was doing any sort of assignment. I think I was one of two people who got a perfect score.

Now years later, I do pretty much everything over the computer. I honestly miss writing by hand, but I think there's less of a chance that someone will just stumble on something I've written if I just use a computer. I even do digital art pretty much exclusively now since traditional art supplies are expensive. Every now and then I'll open an old sketchbook and smell the graphite (and whatever colored pencils are made of) and it just makes me sad that I don't really do traditional art anymore because the smell was something I really enjoyed about it. So I have to wonder if I wouldn't get writer's block as much if I still wrote with a physical pen and notebook and could still smell the ink.

 

While I haven't tried to use pen and paper for the longest time, I have noticed a difference between writing at my desktop and when I would write using a stylus on my 3DS XL. I found that I had a more developed approach when I was working on each word just a little longer compared to jotting it down quickly at my computer. I'd take a bit more time to think about how I was constructing the scene and it felt more 'natural' when I'd read it over again later on.

 

To Tell The Truth, I Do Write Upon The Paper Often Before Decided To Change. Now, I Do Not Regularly Write On Paper. Yet Just If I Can't Use Wi-Fi + Computer, I Will Use Paper.

Furthermore Similar To What Wolf Expect Said, There Does Contentment While Writing At Paper With Pen/Pencil.

 

When it comes to taking notes for school, writing by hand works best for me, because it takes more effort and thought, so what I write sticks more. For my stories though, and the creative processes, typing actually works a lot better for me because it's faster and I don't have to worry about smearing my writing. I can just get my creative writing out as it comes to me. Plus, with typing it out, it's a lot easier to go back and change.

 

I usually type. I've grown accustomed to going pretty fast on a keyboard, much faster than what I could usually hand-write. Typing is also a lot easier to edit thanks to the good old backspace key, and I make a LOT of mistakes. During handwriting, this can easily turn into a pain in the butt, especially when I have to write quickly, which is half the time. I've come to find that I can either write quickly or semi-neatly with no in-between, and typing solves all those problems. Easy to edit, actually legible, and digital notes just aren't quite as hard to lose.

 

About the only advantage that writing by hand gives me is that what ever I write down is memorized easier. Other than that, I hate writing with a pen and paper. My hand writing is sloppy, my hand hurts after a few minutes of consecutive writing, and my thoughts always go faster than my writing speed meaning I'm either slowing down or stopping the creative process so my hand can catch up, or I'm writing so fast that its nearly illegible and hurting my hand. All these negative that I have when writing by pen make typing way more comfortable and I never want to be uncomfortable when creating.

 

I enjoy using my PC for the different fonts that it offers, even though I only use AR ESSENCE. When writing for a story on paper, I must write everything really well and that takes quite a bit of patience. The words often become blurry while using pen and paper, so it can be hard to focus. Even with my glasses on, this problem still happens. But with my PC the letters are always neat, and I don't have to try as hard just to write down what I want to. I have so many notebooks however, that I'd feel bad if I didn't fill them up with a few stories. Or at least use them as journals.

The only thing that I cannot replicate on a PC, is the technique of calligraphy. Unless I use a painting program. I can't stand the spiral notebooks to write on, since the paper often gets stuck in the spiral, making things a little more frustrating to deal with. So in the end, the PC wins. But I will always enjoy using a pen that "bleeds" out its ink.