Pen Versus Computer
Deciding Whether to Write a Book by Hand or by Keyboard
Apr 19, 2008 Dulcinea Norton-Smith
It is an age old curiosity of writers in the 21st century. Many writers have their favourite medium to write in and just as many are curious about which method other writers choose. So which is the best method for writing a memoir or biography? Each has unique benefits.
Writing a Book by Hand
For many writers the allure of getting back to pen and paper is undeniable. The sense of being back to writing origins like the great masters inspires great things.
When writing by hand a writer can choose a pen and book they feel inspires them or even a number of books. A small pocket sized book for those moments of lightening strike inspiration, a big book for writing at home, a book for random thoughts and brainstorming and one for writing the memoir or biography. Maybe just one big book to fit everything in or loose sheets which can be put in a folder and rearranged at will.
As writing by hand will inspire a flow of consciousness style of writing the results can sometimes be wonderful and unexpected.
Writing a biography, autobiography or memoir by hand can be a very useful approach as it allows the writer to write where and when they want, sitting on a bus, in a cafe or, most usefully, in a research library where the writer of biographies in particular will often be found.
Writing by hand also allows the benefit of being able to stick into the book newspaper clippings, photos and other mixed media evidence. Writing by hand also allows the luxury of being able to write 24 hours a day which is not always possible when jostling for a computer in a busy household.
If writing a memoir purely for personal reasons then writing by hand is the way to go as future generations will feel closer to the writer as they see the actual paper that the writer touched and what their handwriting was like.
The drawback of writing by hand? Well if the writer is writing with publication in mind at some point all of that handwritten information will have to be put onto a computer.
Writing a Book on the Computer
Writing straight onto a computer also has unique advantages. When writing a book on a computer it is far easier to amend and edit at any point. The writer can also experiment by rearranging sections and cutting and pasting paragraphs to create various versions of the book which can all be saved.
If doing a lot of research via the internet it is a lot easier to be able to cut and paste sections into a research document and to cut and paste the source name than it is to hand write the whole section or print out numerous pieces of information.
For a lot of writers handwriting will take a lot more endurance and stamina than typing, with hands cramping up after about an hour. This makes working at a computer a more productive writing experience. It can also be easy to attach photographs and press cuttings into an existing or new document.
If the book is planned as an ebook it is very user friendly to export the existing document into this format. If planned for print publication it is easy to copy and paste the whole of the book into a new document and from this begin to reduce, reduce , reduce until a detailed and concise synopsis is created.
Authors Who Write by Hand
- Biography and bibliography writer Edna O'Brian
- Novelist Sarah Lovett writes both by computer and long hand
- Children's author JK Rowling writes a lot of her preliminary ideas by hand
- Author Neil Gaiman writes by hand
- Horror writer Stephen King writes a lot of his works by hand
Penmanship
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