Nowadays, I write by hand when I’m brainstorming, making notes to myself, or jotting ideas on post-its. In this sense, I don’t write short stories or novels on paper. I have written chapters on paper from time to time, but that’s the extent of my handwriting stories.
I find it indispensable, however, to record my ideas on paper when working on a project. In addition, I draw lines/arrows connecting ideas, create mind maps/diagrams, as well as underline or highlight key ideas.
Typing on the computer is advantageous for many reasons. For one, it’s easy to edit and it doesn’t take up any physical space (in terms of paper, that is). It’s also efficient given all the editing and formatting tools that are available in the writing software, such as changing the font, size, color, etc. In a word, typing is so fast, efficient, and versatile that it has become the primary means of writing.
But let’s not set aside handwriting. It’s useful when we’re writing on the fly (i.e. jotting down a spontaneous idea on, say, a napkin or post-it), writing on the margins of books, and of course, writing when there is no electronic device at hand.
When writing by hand, I put down ideas regardless if I’m making mistakes/errors. Also, when writing on paper, I can fold it or divide it into sections to organize my thoughts. You can be creative with it, even tear it up into pieces and write words on torn bits so that you can organize the ideas hierarchically or linearly or however you want.
Typing is limited in this sense, since typing is on 2 dimensions and can only be utilitzed in terms of the parameters of the software. You can, of course, draw boxes and arrows and make diagrams in the computer if you wanted to make a mind map. But it doesn’t have the same immediacy as you have on paper.
But I digress. So back to the main idea: what are the benefits of handwriting?
Many years ago, I would write essays or stories that would cover the paper(s) front to back. They were full of spelling and grammatical errors, and sometimes, parts of it weren’t even legible.
But the great thing about the process was that I never looked back as I wrote. I kept writing because unlike typing on a computer, you can’t delete what you write unless you erase it. And who has time to erase when the words are pouring out rapidly?
The beauty of handwriting was that I could pen a continuous stream of thoughts without concern for errors or doubling back to edit the piece. After a writing session was done, there’d be a pile of pages to edit, but the point was to get all of the thoughts down.
When we look back at the writers of the past, it’s incredible to think that they had written their stories by hand. How many drafts did they write until they completed their final manuscript? It took dedication and discipline; it was a labor of love.
Typing certainly makes writing easy and convenient. Handwriting can feel like it takes forever as well as tedious to convey one’s thoughts. As aforementioned, I write by hand when I’m brainstorming or jotting down ideas. But I can’t imagine not writing by hand again. Although typing is efficient, it doesn’t allow me to freely write anywhere on the page–to write beyond the confines of the margins/borders.
Fallton Havenstonne 