The dark, dark days before the word processor

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I've been thinking about writing and the way that I write.

I never get anything right first time - and I don't just mean typos, but the whole sense of what I'm trying to say. I constantly chop and change, cut and paste, delete and rewrite; Sometimes words, sometimes sentences, sometimes whole paragraphs. I reread everything, review it, revise it, sometimes just bin it! The fact is, my mind is a real flibbertigibbet, running in circles all around whatever I'm writing and constantly suggesting improvements.

Before the invention of the word processor, I was convinced that I couldn't write at all (many of you may be still of that opinion, but I beg you to hear me out ;)). I'd get so far, realise that what I'd produced didn't convey my thoughts as I'd intended them to be conveyed, and start crossing out, ripping out pages, even abandonning the whole thing and starting again. This led to my writing 5 times as much as I needed to, longhand, and the inevitable onset of writer's cramp. Typewriters were even worse. I was getting through a bottle of tippex per page! Thus I gave up writing as a bad job.

But the WP has changed all that. My mind can go off at it's usual tangents, dragging back it's gobbets of ideas, and I can accommodate them with ease. I can correct typos, errors in punctuation, grammatical errors and am even able to simply correct split-infinitives when they sneak into my prose. I can move a paragraph to where it will do more good. I can remove a sentence from the middle of a paragraph and insert it into the middle of a different one. And it's amazing how much I take this for granted.

So what I really want to know is; are there any of you that are of the same opinion? Or do some of you still prefer to write longhand? Or with a traditional typewriter? And most of all, how the hell did all those writers of the past manage to produce such outstanding works without this tool?

Any opinions out there?

[jessezzel]

I think paper is for ideas and sketching out what you want to do. Get the real work done on WP for sure!!!

[Unspar]

I don't know if I have an opinion on the value of either or even a definite preference (when I write poetry, I always use paper; when I write fiction, I almost always use the WP). One thing I love to defend paper for is historical benefit. When it comes to studying a work or an author, the manuscripts are infinitely important for showing the progression of ideas. The WP does away with that almost entirely. I'm not sure it's a bad thing, but it's kind of disappointing for the scholar in me.

[beer good]

I recognize what Xamonas says: that's EXACTLY what usually happens when I write something. I wonder though, if for me it's originally a case of "because I can": back when I used a typewriter, the end result was usually pretty good - yet when I switched to the computer, I started writing in a different way, in long bursts which then have to be edited rather than thinking carefully about each sentence before typing it in. The computer lets me work more spontaneously, write 10 pages and keep 4 rather than plan those four pages carefully in advance and then type them. Does that mean I prefer the computer because I'm lazy and don't want to do the boring bits before I get to write? Possibly. But laziness is a virtue, right?

[RobinHood3000]

I know exactly what you mean, Xamonas. The word processor makes the editing process so much easier and more freeform.

Still, I sometimes do rough drafts on paper when a computer's not around or if the ideas are coming with so much energy that just typing them out is insufficient to bleed it out. Once I even felt like writing text on a dry erase board so I could write as manically as I needed to. Outlining on paper is a huge help for when I'm writing my computer game, for example, because the stringent formatting of many word processors doesn't lend itself to jotting down ideas as they come. Plus, many errors do not reveal themselves as readily on a computer screen as they do in tangible print.

But indeed, word processors are by far the most efficient (although for some, not the most effective) means of editing.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I must admit that I've got a little notebook that I scribble stuff down in. But often, by the time I get it onto the screen, it's changed, or there's something that works better.

I can't seem to get things straight in my head before I commit them. I never really know what I'm going to write until I start - then it makes its own mind up as it goes along. Unfortunately, that's how I talk too - but I can't rewrite spoken words! (sigh...)

[kilted exile]

I have stopped using pen & paper for writing altogether. It normally ends up just one great scribble.

For my work however I am required to do engineering drawings from time to time, and I always draw these out with a scale and pencil before putting them into AutoCAD. In fact most of the time I think my hand-drawn sketches are better than what I get from the computer (one of the few things I am actually quite good at.)

[jessezzel]

ugh I'm learning autocad in school right now. Personally I like SolidWorks better for 3d modeling. Autocad is cool tho for 2d, I dig it when you use it for that.
Sorry off topic.

[IrishCanadian]

I am so very impressed wit hthe great thinkers and story tellers of ye olden days before the WP. Emagine Aristotle wondering and knowing for days his intence thoughts about ethics and love and eudiamonia etc ... and then taking ALL that TIME and ENERGY to write it down!
As for me it depends. When I write poetry I want it to be longhand on a peice of paper because its easier to make side notes and marks along the print for meter and rhyme. When I write down thoughts that were inspired from an interesting lecture or passage that I read then I like it to be on paper too, because then i can mark it up to my will's content. However, when I write essays -- the WP becomes my best friend ... I suppose because all that is planned ahead of time (usually in longhand).
By the way my Dad worked for 30 years in the local Catholic school board without using a computer.

[RobinHood3000]

Indeed, it is truly impressive for those who do without and produce great things. John Williams, for example, still writes all of his scores by hand...

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Indeed, it is truly impressive for those who do without and produce great things. John Williams, for example, still writes all of his scores by hand...

But he only needs to draw blobs and sticks onto lines on MS paper - hardly as much effort as War and Peace. ;)

[RobinHood3000]

But he only needs to draw blobs and sticks onto lines on MS paper - hardly as much effort as War and Peace. ;)
Sez you. War and Peace didn't get any Oscars. Nyeh. John Williams is writing orchestral works, mind you--multiple parts that must fit together and unite as a single piece. War and Peace is childishly linear by comparison :p.

[Evergreenleaf]

I would much prefer to write on paper. Somehow it feels more personal, if that makes sense. A glowing screen does not inspire me very much. I kind of like the way my handwriting subtly changes to fit the mood of the story, and when seeing the blue lines fill up and being able to turn pages I always feel more accomplished.

Just a week or so ago I started to write the next draft of my novel, and this one is on the computer. It is much easier to do word count and to keep it saved in different places to ease my paranoia about computer crashes, but I still prefer paper and pencil.

[Pensive]

I prefer computer. I can't write on paper. It is easy for me to use MS Word for my novels/stories rather than using pencil or a paper.