Why I prefer typing vs. writing by hand
My attempt at an explanation. But I'm curious . . . what do you prefer and why?
No. 107: Why I prefer typing vs. writing by hand
I’m always surprised to learn about writers who draft their work by hand.
Should I be? Probably not. There are lots of them. Chuck Palahniuk is one. Barbara Tuchman, that great writer of history, is another. Stephen King wrote all 800-something pages of his novel Dreamcatcher in longhand. Susan Sontag said she loved writing first drafts with a felt tip pen.
Then there are all those long-dead writers to whom writing by hand was all writing was, people like Chekhov, Kafka, Cervantes, Dumas. Whenever I think my output is impressive, I like to imagine the towering sheaf of paper that must have been Don Quixote, every page lined with cursive inked by quill.
Regrettably, I’m not part of the handwriting gang. The laptop is my favorite writing device. I’m aware of the pitfalls of sole laptop usage — breakage, price, collapse of the American powergrid at the hand of an insidious foreign actor. There’s always pencil and paper as an emergency exit, but when it comes to writing a full-bodied piece, I prefer hammering keys.
But if the old fashioned way is clearly sufficient, why?