Read the blog!

http://jim-murdoch.blogspot.com/2008/05/ar...-or-typist.html

Enjoy!

Interesting. I've thought about such topics before but never read anything that expressed my thoughts so clearly before.

Good stuff. I find I do my best writing when I write the first draft longhand, then type the second draft on the computer. It gives me a chance to totally rethink what I've written and do the rewriting and editing separate from the "poetry attack" as the blogger's friend said.

The latest post on my blog, Morning in the East Bay was written that way. If I showed you the original you'd see paragraphs in different order, entire sentences rewritten, new sentences added, others removed. Still the same snippet of life, but refined. I sure couldn't have written that at the gas station, even with my laptop.

I am a two finger typist at best. But, I can really move those two fingers quickly and pretty accurately. I write most of my drafts longhand and then have them re-typed by a professional (my wife types over 100 wpm). My handwriting is becoming more fluid and much more readable since I started using fountain pens exclusively. /Craig

Very interesting blog thank you for posting!

I think there is a very big difference between writing and typing, though I think it is subjective. I personally feel that writing is much more in touch with the finished piece, I find typing to be a sterile task and a chore at the best of times. I recently had to compose a timed essay under supervision and we were told to do it on computers, how I hated that, my ideas could not flow properly, is it me or is that an unfair variable that disadvantages those who don't like computers and advantages those that do? As I have said writing by hand seems to get me closer to what it is I am writing, going back to basics allows my mind to think more clearly and without the interference of a headache inducing screen and buzzing noise...

I do both. Of course, right along with my fountain pen interest, I also use the Dvorak keyboard layout. I can't be trusted to do ANYTHING right.

I alternate between writing and typing. Sometimes I type what I write and other times I write what I type.

Best part of that blog: Get a notebook and put your thoughts into it to make room for new ones. Brilliant.

I used to type my work most of the time, but since starting to use FP's I've begun writing out first drafts. I find that writing longhand really helps me. It forces me to order my thoughts and just finish the darn work. On a computer, it's too easy to succumb to the temptation of going back to revise when the momentum of the story is more important.

Plus, I get to use all my wonderful pens, which is a benefit in itself.

Best,
Summer

I have been getting American Poetry Review for more than a decade and there are many poet typist with noncomputer based for working with poems, could be an electric one or a manual one. When you write poetry one has to rewrite it to get the thing in shape one can't just insert the words one needs or erase some, though you do that to. BUT SINGING IT OUT ON THE TYPER, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. It is like a musical performance. I happen to use a manual typer for this reason, as Donald Revell does. My first draft is longhand or italic. Rilke was told to use italic so he adopted that style. The greatest fun is the fountain pen, the rest of the stuff is just work. I use a laptop to write stories but do them long hand 90% of the time first.

Actually, I am both a typist and a writer. If I have a burst of inspiration, bubbling to get free, I type it on my computer. If not, if I am in fact "pursuing the muse", I do so with a fountain pen. Besides, there are many situations where it is not convenient to haul out my laptop to commence typing. That is why I carry a Moelskine knockoff with a two-pen carrier velcro'd to the front, with my two daily rotation pens inside. One screw-cap (a Danitrio Classic right now) and one push-cap (a Hero 616 right now). That way, depending upon how quick on the draw I need to be, I am prepared. Although, if I need a really fine line, I have to use the Hero, as the Dani is a medium nib.

Donnie

Very interesting; thanks for the link.

I can't say what I am.

A typist; well yes, but then I key for a
living on a 10 key pad so that should be
a given.

I've also been a computer user
since the early 90's so any hesitation
I've ever had about that medium is
long gone.

I think I tend to refine too much with pen
and pad.

Hardly anything I write longhand gets transcribed into a computer. Nearly all of it gets posted into one journal or other. The writing I do on a computer I consider "throw-away stuff". Eventually, that is what it will be -- thrown away when the technology changes again. In ten or twenty years, you won't be able to find a computer that can read a CD. Remember the eight-inch floppy disk? How about the 5 1/4-inch floppy disk?

Paddler

I am definately both depending on mood

I agree with the comment on the blog from one poster who said that the mental process for typing and longhand are different.

Sometimes my mental process requires the speed of typing and I dont edit as I go or mull over the sentances but get everything as quickly as possible out of me and onto that screen pausing only every now and then to save. I wait until everything is out and I'm all dried up before going back to spellcheck.

Other times the process is less of a torrent and more of an ambled flow and the actual forming of the letters and the words flowing from the pen directly onto empty paper in glorious technicolour is part of the creative process and adds a new dimension of life to what ever I am working on. The words themselves are an artform and are usually accompanied with various doodles and arty insertions that add flavour and depth of meaning. Some of these things are transcribed and others are not.

Great post - thanks for the link

My typing speed is glacial at best. I much prefer to write and pay someone to type my homework!

I tend to do the same thing.

Writer for me.

Thanks for the link to the blog. GREAT post!

I am both. I love writing long hand. Sometimes my pen cannot keep up with my thoughts, hence the typing thing.

All writers are different.
To each her or his own.

--Julie

I'm a writer, I don't care for typing it disrupts my creative process. I dread when the time comes to type something so I can share it with friends, I find it pure drudgery and I make a lot of mistakes the spell check misses.

I'm both. Given a chance, I'd probably be more of a writer, though. Although my typewriting isn't bad. I can average about 60 wpm.

I've found that when I'm writing something from scratch on the computer, the software and easy availability of internet access gets in the way of my thought process.

These days I try to write longhand then touch-type into email/document. Works so much better than getting frustrated by fonts, formatting, etc before the content has been finalised.

I'm a typist. If I need to get something done fast I usually type it. Typing at >80wpm average, then running to the closest laser printer available (all over the school; our T640/T644s can read PDFs, so I just need to convert my documents and copy them onto my flash drive) is much much faster and looks way better than my writing. (Plus, it also seems to others that I actually put effort into it )

Certain things ARE done better with hand though, an example being math of any sort. Still, I have my laptop with me wherever I go; therefore, unless it's something I have to hand in within the next 2 minutes, I will usually type it.

I'm definitely a typist. I can type faster than I can write longhand. I can type faster than I can write shorthand too! Writing stories is done at the computer where I can get the words onto the screen as fast as they come. I have no problem at all with editing on-screen, although my style of writing is quite disciplined, telling the story from start to finish, as opposed to the free-form style of pouring it all out then going back and making sense of it. As far as the format goes, it seems quite natural to me to see my words appearing in typed format because pretty much every book I've ever read has been typeset and printed.

Journalling is often handwritten, simply because I can't find any journalling software that I really enjoy using.

Yet I take dictation at work using a fountain pen and A4 Black & Red notebook, mainly because I want to keep a connection with the person who's dictating to me and when I turn to the screen to type that connection is lost. It's akin to turning your back on someone in the middle of a conversation. I also like to minute meetings directly onto a laptop computer, but often I handwrite minutes instead because I'm aware that many people find the computer an intrusion into the meeting and are distracted by someone 'tapping away at a keyboard'. So perhaps what I'm saying is that for me typing on a computer is quite a creative experience, but handwriting is a more sociable one.

Everything is first written longhand then as Splicer said they are transcripted on the computer. I think I have written 2 or 3 poems straight at the keyboard.



Nothing like chasing a muse with a fancy nib

Same here. Plus I find it easier to develop an outline on paper for essays and stuff.