I was thinking about writing the next thing I write with a pen and paper. This is a massively inefficient habit I have struggled to break over my life (hence the obsession with nifty organizational word processors like Scrivener). When I was younger, the stuff I would write was neat for a twerp (ah to be 17 and grammatically correct) but I just wouldn't ever put it down to word processor. The pages would permanently occupy a three-ring binder in their sloppy entirety. One of my teachers (art teacher, though he had much more faith in my written work than paintings... and he was right, as it turns out) always asked why I never bothered to type things up. Since my handwriting was so bad, he would never read it unless I typed it up. So, anyway, the point is that this is, perhaps, a backwards step for me but I want to give it a try. Something about the pacing of handwriting that could maybe allow thoughts to form more fully in the space of a sentence.
I have decent notebooks, I have a nice pen (I'm a big fan of Lamy fountain pens)... it's probably worth a shot. So many writers I respect do things in this method, after all. And, there's a possibly unintended benefit: In the transcription process, taking the sloppily written hash from pad to screen I tend to do a little self editing to correct the flow and pace and terminology. In that way, the first draft that lives in a computer tends to be a bit more polished, which is nice.
Some strategies to make the handwriting thing work out:
- Must must MUST break things into planned chapter spacing, ie determining what will happen within the space of a chapter and restricting myself to those topics (otherwise it could get out of hand and out of control).
- Must keep things well organized
- Must do my best to spell and write not-sloppy... because sometimes even I can't decipher my "chicken scratch."
