Weapon of Choice

[cuppajoe_9]

What does everybody like to write with, when you're writing your short stories or novels or poems or political treatises or sermons or what have you?

I'm a manual typewriter man, myself; but the final drafts always pass through a computer.

[AimusSage]

Computer all the way, although on occassion, when not near a computer, and I have some form of inspiration, I write with a pen or pencil. I never owned a typewriter, so I never used it.

[Jay]

Computer. When not available, pen/pencil and paper. I did try the feather quill but it was very slow writing with it and I forgot what I was writing before I got to the end of the sentece :p

[grace86]

I have tried writing with a feather quill...not exactly the easiest thing to keep up with as I am left handed.

I have to write with pen. It feels more authentic to me for some reason, oh, and I also have to be handwriting...cursive...if I print my words as opposed to handwriting them, it just doesn't feel right.

[Virgil]

I'm finally at a point where I use the computer right off the bat on a first draft. I used to start things by hand and then move to machine.

[Virgil]

What does everybody like to write with, when you're writing your short stories or novels or poems or political treatises or sermons or what have you?

I'm a manual typewriter man, myself; but the final drafts always pass through a computer.

Wow. You still have a manual typewriter. Somewhere in my basement is my old one. That goes back to the 1970's. :lol:

[lavendar1]

I used to start things by hand and then move to machine.

I still do. I don't know why, but the feel of pen in hand as it presses into paper still works best for me.

[cuppajoe_9]

Wow. You still have a manual typewriter. Somewhere in my basement is my old one. That goes back to the 1970's. :lol:

So does mine, I would imagine. I had to haunt the second-stores for a quite a few months to get a hold of it. I was hoping for a Remington (a la Hunter S. Thompson) but I eventually found a Webster that wasn't completely broken.

[tiny explorer]

pen for me!!!it's the best pal i can grab whenever an idea pops in my mind!

[tiny explorer]

i wonder if feather quill is still used nowadays!!!i wish to have one,though.

[RobinHood3000]

I usually use a computer, although writing by hand has its benefits. It guarantees the hand is slower than the mind, which means it doesn't break my flow as I write. I also have to do editing by hand -- go through the printed pages and mark it up before changing it in the computer.

[TEND]

Always pencil for first draft/notes and than computer from than on, just for speed and comfort, my hand doesn't cramp up typing as compared to writing a lot, not to mention I can type much much faster than I can write.

[SleepyWitch]

pen for the first draft (coz I often write on the bus or in other situations where I haven't got access to a computer), computer later on

[TEND]

I always write in pencil first, even if a computer is readily available just because ideas come to me better, I don't know why, theres just something about a pencil in my hand, scribbled notes and the scratching that makes me feel more like a writer than tap tap tapping on a keyboard.

[cuppajoe_9]

Kurt Vonneugt - Manual typewriter
Stephen King - Longhand on big yellow legal pads
Henry David Thoreau - Pencil (one time occupation: pencil maker)
William Shakespeare - Feather quill (presumeably)
Douglas Adams - Apple Macintosh (invariably)
Hunter S. Thompson - Remington manual typewriter
Earnest Hemingway - Longhand, standing up, using his icebox as a writing desk
Truman Capote - Longhand

Feel free to add any you've heard about.

[RobinHood3000]

Though not exactly a writer, John Williams still does all of his scores by longhand. The man is an artistic genius.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Computer... All the time. Many years have passed since I last touched a typewriter (when I translated a couple of aeroplane manuals in the late 70's), and I use pens only when there is no computer nearby: My handwriting is abysmal...

/Claes

[cuppajoe_9]

Though not exactly a writer, John Williams still does all of his scores by longhand. The man is an artistic genius.
I've written music both by hand and with a computer, and frankly, wow. I can hardly copy four bars of a score without screwing up, much less translate from sound to little dots, and I've been playing music for 8 years.

[subterranean]

Pencil; mostly to save up paper. And other than at work, I try to avoid computer screen.

[Nick Rubashov]

A computer is too distracting, I usually write down ideas and stories in a plain old composition notebook with a plain old pencil.

[Bookworm89]

Feather quill is definitely my choice. I suppose it seems very Shakespearean, but I don't know why I like it, really.

[toni]

Pen and paper, most definitely. There's something special and romantic when a story or poem was written manually, because everything just flows smoothly. Pen for stories- pencil with poems.

A Creative Writing University Professor I know was once told that his most heartfelt novels were written in longhand.

I still haven't gotten the hang of writng in the computer- so old school of me, I know.

[SummerSolstice]

If I'm writing essays, I outline very extensively in the appropriate academic wire spiral notebook with a pen (pencil smudges), then transpose it onto my dad's sleek new laptop he's letting me use. If I'm writing a story, I outline roughly in one of my many, many, MANY personal wire spiral notebooks, then lay it out bit by bit, word by word, in my head, and then transpose it onto my baby, Bessie.

Bessie is a Toshiba Pro laptop computer from 1995 at the latest, with a big crack across her lid lumpily smothered, in a fit of half-crazed desperation, with some plastic epoxy. She runs Windows 3.1 (and not even very well), has no internet capabilities unless I were to subscribe to Netscape and find the dial-up cord, and has an exterior A drive that plugs into the side. She sometimes makes grinding noises if she's left on too long, which drives me frantic with worry, so I back up every month or so and save important work on a floppy every ten minutes. Bessie is as sleek, lightweight, and portable as a slab of concrete, but I love her so very dearly and will be virtually incapacitated by grief if she should ever give up the electronic ghost. :bawling:

[Jolly McJollyso]

I typically handwrite first and second drafts in pen, then type them up.

[Misscaroline]

I tend to write in whatever's handy, but I greatly prefer my quill if it's around. It was once white, but I like different colored inks, so it's become rather tye-dyed...:blush:

[grace86]

If I'm writing essays, I outline very extensively in the appropriate academic wire spiral notebook with a pen (pencil smudges)

Are you left handed Summer?

[SummerSolstice]

Sure am, but that's not as much the problem. Wire-spiral notebooks give the paper a lot of wiggle room, and after hauling a notebook around for a few weeks, all the pencil-written pages end up as gray blobs from pages rubbing against one another. :(

[Lily Adams]

A feather quill! I adore feather quills. My second choice would probably have to be a manual typewriter, but I don't own one. I used to, though. But of course, those "weapons" are obsolete nowadays, so I usually use the computer because
1) My English teacher requires it.
and
2) It's easy and fast.

[Pendragon]

Actually, for stories, I either pencil down outlines and then go to the computer, or dictate into a hand-held recorder and play it back as I edit and expound on it at the computer. Most poetry is, however, composed here at the computer. You can tell I'm writing poetry or a song, because my fingers begin to move like they are on a piano keyboard, instead if typing! :lol:

[SummerSolstice]

Something I can't help wondering about this quill stuff is what kind of paper you use. I somehow can't see using a feather quill in one of my wire spiral notebooks, or a yellow legal pad, or somesuch thing. Do you buy nice paper for your pen? :confused:

[Misscaroline]

I personally use organic paper or some sort of parchment, but that's just me. One of my favorite notebooks for the purpose is all pressed paper with basil or something like it wrapped over the cover. It looks gorgeous and smells great!:D

[SummerSolstice]

Okay, see, I wouldn't be able to do that. I don't feel like I can write in nice notebooks... I feel like I ought to have prettier ideas. A dumb looking notebook I can handle. I feel like I can mess up in those.

[Misscaroline]

Nah, I keep both. And I never let my teachers get to the nice ones- my marks and the people whose opinions matter's marks ought to grace them. But I definitely have the trashed out notebooks as well- the ones where you can write anything from your next novel to a rant on how your ink is slowly changing color when it shouldn't be...And from the sounds of it, your thoughts are beautiful and certainly fit to put in a nice notebook!:)

[AnnaJuan]

I use pen, pencil, and computer ...

don't know how it is like using a feather quill !!! no such thing here in China :D

[Redzeppelin]

Pen (usually a fountain pen - I like the way they glide) on college-lined yellow legal pads. Typing is faster than writing, but I end up paying too much attention to the mechanics of my writing and I end up going back to correct as I'm typing. As well, writing allows me to use the margins, to revise on the fly and stuff like that. There's something about the physical act of writing on paper that makes me feel more creative - more "in touch" with the writing process - but that's kind of an old fashioned idea I guess. Computer processing feels more like producing "product" while handwriting feels like "creation."

[Lily Adams]

I only use my parchment paper when I write with my feather quill, but I plan to get a black leather journal so I can use my feather quill to write with in that, too.

Oh, yes. I like those rolling ball pens with silky smooth ink as well.

[mir]

shruiken?

:lol: just kidding! i would love to use a feather quill, and have made a few from turkey feathers, but they just don't work well enough . . . i also made a new grip-thing for a pencil so i use that a lot too, it's a really nice pencil . . . but i mostly use a computer to write. Forming all the lines in letters takes much longer than hitting a single key. still, i will always love paper most . . . :(

[Zimmerman]

Usually a pencil at first, but mostly with a computer.

[Shadowsarin]

Computer for serious stuff, pen for random stuff. I refuse to even go near a type-writer though, they scare me!

[Bysshe]

Most of ideas start out in in notebooks, scribbled down in biro. Nothing makes me happier than a drawer full of biros and empty notebooks. My "secret santa" present at school this year was a stripey notebook. They know me too well...

However, my handwriting is practically illegible so I like to type it up on the computer. I find it easier to review what I've written once it's type up neatly on Microsoft Word.

[cuppajoe_9]

Wow, four for feather quill. I was actually just kidding when I made that an option.

Am I seriously the only person on here who uses a typewriter on a regular basis?

[Bysshe]

I'd love to use a typewriter, but I don't have one. And every time I find one in a charity shop my mother quickly drags me away before I can buy it.

It's sad.

[Redzeppelin]

Wow, four for feather quill. I was actually just kidding when I made that an option.

Am I seriously the only person on here who uses a typewriter on a regular basis?

Wow - a real typewriter. Thinking about those reminds me of learning to type in high school. We had the old manual typewriters - no electric! Every time I sat at one I felt like Hemingway.

[cuppajoe_9]

Yep, mine's completely manual too, and not often in good working order, either. It's more fun that way, I think. You have to write good, because tomorrow you might not be able to write anything. ;)

[Rogers_68]

Am I seriously the only person on here who uses a typewriter on a regular basis?

i recently picked up a manual typewriter, an olivetti lettera 22, off of craigslist for $20. i bought it so i could transfer a story to a small notebook as a gift for a friend. so far i love it and am just about finished with an essay that i'm using it to write with. i think it may be my new favorite weapon, at least for a first draft or two. for some reason i think more before i write. i think it's because with a computer i just type really fast, edit, type really fast, edit some more. with the manual typewriter it takes more time to physically put the ink to paper and therefore i have time to really feel what i want to say. i also love the sound of it and the feeling that i'm making something with my hands as well as with words.

i've spent two evenings in a coffee shop using it and several have some up to me and said, "i thought i heard the sound of a typewriter. man, it's been a long time since i've heard that sound."

have you seen these sites?:

http://staff.xu.edu/~polt/typewriters/mcgowin.html

http://staff.xu.edu/~polt/typewriters/index.html

[JackShea]

I like to write with my head and my heart. The instrument is unimportant.

[Rathe StoneHart]

Deffinetly a PC or computer of any kind. They are very convenient and easy to use. When thats not available (School or anyplace else) I just use my lyric/poetry notebook that I keep. So, I guess that would be pencil and paper.

[*Classic*Charm*]

Pen!! I find it makes my writing so much more personal than when I use a computer.

[Domer121]

I cannot use a computer for too long, my eyes hurt after awhile...

[Rogers_68]

I just started writing with pen and paper after using a manual typewriter for a long time. I love my typewriter and the clack-clack-clack-bing! but it limits me to only writing at home. While this is my preferred set up, I realized that if I really want to get a lot of writing done, I should be writing on the bus ride to work, at lunch breaks, et cetera. I guess after debating and being stubborn for a long time about only wanting to use my typewriter, I am now serious enough about writing that I'd rather be able to do it wherever and whenever.

I still use my typewriter some but pen and paper is working for me.