Guardian.UK: Why creative writing is better with a pen.
“Writing on the page stays on the page, with its scribbles and rewrites and long arrows suggesting a sentence or paragraph be moved, and can be looked over and reconsidered. Writing on the screen is far more ephemeral — a sentence deleted can’t be reconsidered.” The illustrations and directions I add to my past writings are, actually, hilarious. Good point.
Comments:
I love this: “we’re forever losing paradise and going to hell.” May I borrow it, with attribution?
That is a loverly line!
Um, two sides split my mind, but I do lots of technical writing:
I type faster than I write, so lose few thoughts when rushing to ride a wave, and unlike previous I like typing enough I just picked up a reconditioned typewriter.
More in keeping with the author’s thoughts, I first learned to strikethrough, then later learned to say whole cloth revisions.
Oddly though I like to run prints double spaced and hand edit.
RE: the quote. I’d be honored. peace, mjh
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I’m writing my response on paper right this minute. I’ll mail it to you tomorrow. When you receive it in a few days, I hope you will scan or transcribe my thoughts so that you can share them with other readers of your blog. You get my point.
I suspect that every activity that started analog and migrated recently to digital involves loss and sacrifice. I’ve wrestled with this very issue for my journals and poetry. But you can’t beat print (digital, not merely typewritten) for ease of reading and sharing with others, which are the primary reasons for writing in the first place. (Yes, I, too, write for myself things I don’t intend to be read by others. Rarely, though, except for shopping and to do lists.)
As for the writers in that article, like all of us, they can defend their choices and they’re welcome to them. I like to type and I greatly appreciate moving text around and cleanly inserting and deleting. I have less trouble organizing my thoughts with a keyboard than with a pen; you’ll have far less trouble reading those thoughts than you would my handwriting. Times change; we’re forever losing paradise and going to hell. peace, mjh