Paper or typing?

[louiselux]

My writing output for the past few months has been mostly fragments. It's partly to do with RL intruding but also something to do with the way I write: how I physically get the words down. I often write by hand somewhere where there's no pc. If I don't get something typed up, then I never finish it.

I often (nearly always) start on paper, because I'm often on the train or in the garden when I'm thinking about a story, not at my pc. I don't have a laptop - if I did perhaps that would change things.

Writing on paper is slower and there's always the feeling that when I type it up, I'm going to polish it up and finish it off - very much the feeling that this is a rough copy. It's a guide, and I often find that by the time I'm at the pc, things change quite drastically. I vastly prefer to read my typed rather than handwritten stories. Its simply easier to read a nice neat typed page, rather than a mess of crossings out and inserted, scribbled lines.

The again, I love having that copy, and I find that for short things like drabbles, I can write pretty much the finished thing by hand. Writing things down by hand means there's a paper copy written in a nice coloured pen and more than that, it's a record of my thought processes- you don't get that with typing. I get an obscure pleasure from looking over a handwritten story and seeing the final version peeping out from around the edges of furious crossings out. But then, if I read something on screen, I find it harder to spot errors. I always have to beta on a paper copy, for example, and that's not just because I like to do it in the bath. Only joking. Er.

But the end result is, if I don't get it typed up then it's going to sit unfinished. Physical resources matter too. I simply don’t have enough paper in my small travel notebook to rewrite whole stories. And of course, writing by hand takes longer than typing something, or it does for me at least.

[Poll #300178]

***

I'm off until Wednesday now. Long weekend here I come! After the chores. The house needs cleaning, we seem to have spread every item of clothing we own over the bedroom, the bills need sorting out so goodbye sweet monthly salary. I've eaten too much bread this week so I'm uncomfortably bloated and podgy and my waistband is too tight. But on the upside, I have a party to go to, a pile of postcards to write and send and a birthday present to get, which pretty much means slavering over DVDs in the bowels of HMV. Maybe today is the day to finally get Firefly?

Comments

[enigel]

I'm not the best example, though, because I have finished very few things, and I have both scribbled pages and text files in progress, waiting - possibly for the Judgment Day.
I would have chosen option three, but sometimes I start in the text processor directly.
seeing as my only publishing method is through the web, the editor is an unavoidable step, but sometimes I can think better with the paper in front of me.
(also, the lure of LJ is too big when I'm at the computer...)

even when I'm typing, I still keep previous versions of the drivel scribblings, so you'll find things like "ouch.txt", "ouch_v1.txt" till "ouch_v5.txt" (I actually give weird names to the files with a purpose - a "serious" name would jinx them; I have the superstitions, I have the oddness, all I need now is the talent) in the same folder, and a lot of stuff in square brackets inside the files, such as three versions of the same phrase.

...I'm beginning to understand why I don't finish stuff.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

(I actually give weird names to the files with a purpose - a "serious" name would jinx them; I have the superstitions, I have the oddness, all I need now is the talent)

*giggles* That's a fascinating superstition. What counts as a serious name, the eventual title, or just a word that is serious?

I tend to keep all my versions of stories in the same document, so I'll have all the false starts and cut scenes and general junk either at the beginning or at the end. It helps, somehow. And I get easily confused if I have more than one version of a story.

[enigel]

both, but especially a potential title. as I still need to know what it is about (I have a dozen fragments) I have to give initials of the pairing or a sort of keyword - one that would only make sense to me :D

I can't even keep the written fragments in one contiguous place, and now I have to hunt them in the whole notebook... to complete the weird tableau, and probably give you serious reason to doubt my sanity, I have to confess I prefer to write in the dark or very faint light, so I can avoid that annoying self-consciousness of reading while writing.

(tangent: I'm proud that I can actually make readable squiggles when I write in the dark. I'm reminded of a Chinese tale where a man had to prove he had learned, really learned, by writing in the dark; I thought it was a piece of cake -- until I tried it myself :D)

[canthlian.livejournal.com]

*Cough*

Thief 3 demo comes out tomorrow/today. Prepare your hardware upgrade.

Also, if you don't get Firefly, I may do something drastic.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Thief 3 *whimpers* Is it good?

But I promise I will buy Firefly!

[canthlian.livejournal.com]

Thief 3 is good. There are, admittedly, some design decisions I don't agree with. (Ah, I'm gonna miss rope arrows) But the SOUNDS, the STORY, the ATMOSPHERE is ALL THERE! And this enthusiasm is only from playing the demo. Once I get my hands on the full version, I'll probably explode.

Hooray!

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

I used to be a paper-first writer for everything, which is why I still turn up bits of a longhand, fountain pen first draft of my thesis from time to time. Then I became a computer-only writer, in the name of saving time. This had the effect of making my handwriting incredibly bad from sheer lack of practice. During the Great Virus Infestation of last summer, I became a pen and paper writer once more, and now I alternate (it's a lot lighter to carry a little notebook around after all).

One tip I picked up - from derryderrydown, I think, although it may have been cicerothewriter - is to switch from typing to writing or v.v. as a way of breaking writer's block. It works most of the time which is very nice.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

It's rather sad that so many people are losing the ability to write by hand well - mine is pretty bad appalling, and it was even worse before I began handwriting every day. Someone in the poll mentioned that they'd sometimes write by hand if they had a nice pen. I like having a pretty notebook and writing in it with a good pen. That sounds a bit ridiculous, I know, but it's definitely a pleasure.

That's an interesting tip about breaking writer's block - it definitely works, I think.

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

I write on paper if it's hard and it's not flowing well, or if I have a pretty pen or nice paper I want to use. For some reason, writing on paper, although a lot slower, helps me with embarrassing things like sex scenes.

I type at 120 wpm, though, so for speed I write on the PC. Also, if I'm doing something that needs frequent edits, like poetry or drabbles, then I'll use the PC.

I'll write on paper if I only have a note pad handy when an idea hits, or on the computer at work when I'm trying to look busy.

I'm bi-textural.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

120 wpm? Wow. Is that where it looks like you have about 50 fingers, they're moving so fast?

For some reason, writing on paper, although a lot slower, helps me with embarrassing things like sex scenes.


Maybe it's because it's slower, it helps?

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I find it incredibly difficult to write by hand. My handwriting sucks, too. If I get ideas while away from keyboard, I just run them over in my head.

I have tried to write down scenes but they really end up bad because I'm such a self-editor that I constantly cross out bits and rewrite them, which is annoying and exhausting on paper.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I have tried to write down scenes but they really end up bad because I'm such a self-editor that I constantly cross out bits and rewrite them, which is annoying and exhausting on paper.


Yes, I have exactly the same problem. It's very hard to get the shape of the story in my head if I'm writing on paper, as I obsessively tweak things, sometimes even until it becomes a completely different story. And that's kind of bad, I think.

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

I do the bulk of my writing in wordpad, but usually the initial idea exists on paper, as well as some central lines of dialogue and/or Moments of Emotional Insight *snicker* and for longer stories, I end up with lots of little pieces of paper as I scribble down whatever occurs to me when I'm not at the computer, whether it's a few paragraphs of solid narrative or just a lot of sketchy three-word possibilities for the next scene.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

... whether it's a few paragraphs of solid narrative or just a lot of sketchy three-word possibilities for the next scene.


Ah, yes. Those three word scenes that you go back to a week later and think, 'so, brain, explain to me exactly what you meant by 'bicycle nail-polish death probe?'

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I have a lot of notes along the lines of Character A does it, not character B! where I have no clue any more what "it" refers to. One day I will learn. One day.