Writers, a question

  • Thread starter Thread starter tomarin
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Depends on situation, but these days computer. The ability to grab paragraphs and move them around is really helpful for my style of writing.
 
tomarin said:
If you write as a hobby, whether it be fiction or essays, how do you go about it? That is, do you write longhand on a pad of paper or do you use a computer? Do you have a preference?
Click to expand...
For leisure and personal edification, I write longhand. For anything with a short submission period and which requires multiple revisions, then I use a computer. I sometimes use a typewriter when I retreat to the country and go electric-less.

In most cases I prefer writing longhand. Less distractions, and I’m unable to delete whole sections of wobbly verse (so I can read it to myself later for a laugh).
 
Yes, but I also just type. Even back in the day I went back and forth from writing to typing. In the same work. My first drafts were a jumble of the two and then I would cut things up and move them around. There’s a reason they’re called rough drafts!
 
Longhand. I have a couple of folders of works-in-progress; rejects from the printer (a stack of sheets of paper, that is); a pad of yellow lined paper on a clipboard, and I have just discovered that purple ink helps.

I’m learning to write anywhere, too. Mostly at my place at the table, but also my place on the couch. I have a dedicated workspace in the bedroom, as well. That’s where the laptop lives.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
 
I dable a little at writing. What I use depends on the type of writing. Poems I like to draft on paper first and then type up (if entering a competition say). Short stories I’d usually type straight away.
 
Longhand. I can keyboard much faster than I can write by hand, but writing by hand allows me to think in circles while I write, rather like a dog running around and sniffing at things while his human walks at a much slower pace.

D
 
tomarin said:
Ah but unless you have a closet full of typewriter ribbons, where will you get those?
Click to expand...
They’re still available.

My husband collects typewriters (he got his 90th last weekend). He loves tinkering with the ones in need of care.
 
I write as a hobby and because I enjoy it.

Computer, definitely. My handwriting is so bad that I have trouble reading it. And even though my husband has 90 typewriters, I prefer to just “stream” my thoughts onto the computer and clean everything up later.
 
Amazon has them. I looked for them for a vintage typewriter I bought at Goodwill.
 
I use my computer for writing stories, essays, anything I’m planning to post or publish. I do my personal journaling in longhand. My step work for my 12 step program in longhand, and if I am writing prayers or poems I do longhand in a notebook as well.
 
I always use a computer. If I write by hand, my hand gets tired. Typings is much easier. 🙂
 
tomarin said:
Don’t younger people sometimes fetishize old technology though, such as vinyl records? Although I’m a Gen Xer I remember when electric typewriters came around and made manuals obsolete; there was something satisfying about pounding out the keys of a manual though.
Click to expand...
There is a certain sound that you get from a vinyl record, particularly if it was something recorded on analog equipment that is warmer and more satisfying than modern digital recordings streamed.

Also, with MP3s and WAVs, you don’t have the tangible album or record, with the art and liner notes that used to be part of a record’s appeal.

Technology like typewriters however, are not as appealing because it takes so much more to make edits and corrections.

I bet there are people who still prefer typewriters, but there is an actual sound to records, or to even things recorded in past eras with vacuum tube powered microphones or in mono (rather than stereo) to magnetic tape .

But actually recording to magnetic tape is kind of like using a typewriter vs MS Word 2019, because it is harder to edit. However, you have to work harder to get a good performance, because it is harder to manually splice tape from multiple takes than to do it digitally.
 
Last edited:
I write most, as in 99.9%, of my poetry in a notebook and then type them onto my computer. Only a very few have been written directly on my computer.
 
Being a teen in the age of technology has allowed me to type way faster than I can write. If I have an interesting stream of thoughts it works best for me to get it out right away on a word doc.
 
Right now, with my work of fiction, I jot ideas in my journals, and write the actual story on the computer.

Since my work is a comicbook, its more of a script/screenplay than like working on a novel. Also, I tend to color code things in my more polished work in order to map out climbing points in my plot, important scenes, etc in order to create a “rhythm” in my plot, if that makes sense.
 
Computer… and not an iPad or the like as the keyboards are not keyboards.

Never longhand because it’s too slow and very painful after a while.

I wrote professionally (for my union when I was still working).
 
I used to write longhand, in spiral notebooks, back when I only had a desktop computer and I would take time to go to a local coffee shop to write (less distractions than at home where dishes, laundry, and a misplaced bill would feed my procrastination), then revise as I typed everything into my computer. Now that I have a laptop, I no longer use longhand for creating my work. There are prose and cons – when I wrote in longhand, I just wrote, no distractions by social media or the ability to edit as I went, but with a laptop, I don’t have to agonize over reading my sloppy handwriting! I wrote and published three mystery novels with my first method and three the second, so I only keep a notebook handy in the event of a sudden inspiration!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top