Poll: do you write longhand or type it?

[juelz4sure]

I do both especially when the laptop gets sent off which seems like it's all the time now.

 

[James Coote]

Funnily enough, I tried writing longhand and it's fine for a while. However after four or five hours straight I get a terrible ache in my wrist that I don't get from typing.

These days I type just because it is so much easier to edit and do versions of things and not get lost under heaps of paper

 

[subtletylost]

I like to write long hand, something special about having a hard copy of my work available to shove in people's faces when they ask me what I am doing, and if they can read it. But I do type, if only because when I am at school, we use our computers in every class now, even math, which makes typing the better way to get work done while being able to hide it.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I can't write fast enough to keep up with my thoughts so I will write notes, do sketches etc but the actual story is my laptop all the way.

 

[monsterchic]

Typing, most of the time. I also keep a notebook by my desk so I can write down the random plot/character/detail notes that come into my head. Sometimes I go off on a tangent and end up writing notes in my notebook the whole time! But after a nasty bout of tendinitis in my writing hand that left me in a cast for 6 weeks, it's safer for me to use the computer

Ipod also comes in handy for notes

 

[Vertigo]

It's interesting that the main reason given in this thread for typing not writing is speed. I can understand that; I type rather than write and I type faster than I write. Another popular reason given in this thread is for the ease of editing, which I can also understand.

However I was listening to an author talking on the radio the other day (sorry can't remember who but it was a renowned author, just not one that I have read) and he stated that he writes longhand for a couple of reasons:

1. Because it "SLOWS ME DOWN." He finds his writing more considered and better constructed.
2. Because "I can't edit it as I go." He finds that the ability to edit typos, grammar etc. as you go along interrupts his flow and pulls him out of the story.

I can see both of his points. I have tried to discipline myself to just type like I was writing. No looking back and correcting the paragraph that I've just written until sometime (much later) and I fail every time. When typing I just can't resist correcting a spelling mistake if I spot it, putting in a comma over there, moving that sentence to another place, etc.. This author argued that all that is the job of editing and should be done later; maybe when transcribing the written text onto your computer.

From my Essential Guide to Writing:

For drafting... keep going and don't worry about small mistakes. A draft is not the end product; it is tentative and imperfect. Writing becomes impossible if you try to do it one polished sentence at a time. You get lost looking for perfection.

He goes on to suggest writing by hand and then transcribing is a better way of doing it. Though he is also carfeul to say, "But this is advice, not dogma. People vary enormously.... Do what works for you.