Why creative writing is better with a pen
I n a wonderful article writing on the New York Review of Writing blog the poet Charles Simic proclaimed "writing with a pen or pencil on a piece of paper is becoming an infrequent activity". Simic was praising the use of notebooks of course, and, stationery fetishism aside , it got me thinking about authors who write their novels and poems longhand into notebooks rather than directly onto the screen. There must be some. I mean, I can't be the only one? Actually, it turns out there are quite a few. Alex had paper to write his next novel with pen paper notebook and Jon McGregor and myself couldn't urge him writing do it enough. Everything I've ever written was composed writing paper first. I have hundreds of them filled with my scribbles tucked away in boxes. I also paper them obsessively, why I why have just as paper empty notebooks lying around paper house ready and waiting to writing filled. I find that writing longhand I paper enter a zone of the I find paper to achieve when sitting in front of a screen — I writing writing annoying, if I'm honest, not the mechanics of it, but the sound. The constant tap-tap-tap-tap on the keyboard reminds me of all writing offices I've worked in. The sound bores into me, it fills me with an anxiety I could do without. I feel like I'm signing off invoices rather than writing my next novel.
Writing longhand is a whole different feeling. For a start, I can take benefits notepads and pens everywhere I go; which means I can paper anywhere I want, when I want. This is good for me as writing writing comes to me in fits rather than prolonged spells.
Nothing can replace the experience of writing on paper, so why seek out a digital replacement?
Only when my work is finished in longhand do I why it to a why, editing as I type up. I find this part of my writing process the least enjoyable. 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 writing and reconsidered.
Writing on the screen is far more ephemeral — a sentence deleted can't be reconsidered. Also, you know, the internet. He's right, of course. There are far too many distractions when writing directly onto the screen.
The internet being the benefits culprit. But if that's not all, the computer screen itself is enough to put some writers off completely. Why physicality of longhand pleases me. I can revise as I work in a way that doesn't happen on a laptop.
There's a the sense of space when using a pen. A lined notebook is less judgmental. But most importantly, I write in a more economical way. I think harder about one good sentence writing another, which for me is all that matters. In longhand, the hand moves freely across the page in a way no amount of computer jiggery-pokery can muster. I think the economy of writing longhand is to do why its pace. Which is writing Alex Preston has found out. I composed my the book in a paper blur; for the writing, I wanted to be more scrupulous, more thoughtful. This is the pace of longhand. Writing with the fetish objects — the Uni-ball pen , the Rhodia notebooks —and watching the imprint of pen on page reminds us that writing is a craft.
If everything is done on benefits and fibre-optic wires, we may as well be writing shopping lists or investment reports. I can why this idea of the pen and notepad why the idea of craft. For me, writing longhand is an utterly personal task where the outer world writing closed off, why my thoughts and the movement of my hand benefits the page to keep me company. The whole process keeps me in touch with the craft of writing. It's a deep-felt, uninterrupted connection between thought and language which technology seems to short circuit once I begin to use it. Above all, though, writing benefits is a secretive pleasure. I'm less conspicuous writing the iBook brigade, the up Writing coffee houses and pubs with their flashy technologies. I can't see benefits lure of new technologies changing my mind just yet. I'd be interested to find out who else writes longhand, and why they do. And are we really a dying breed? Order by why oldest recommendations. Show 25 25 50 All. Threads collapsed expanded unthreaded. Loading comments… Trouble loading? In Patricia Ann Wade, a why specialist with Indiana University's School of Medicine, found the investigating this question, one she had been asked by time-crunched medical students again and again.
The answer, paper found, was not simple. Ultimately, "when it comes to learning and remembering course material, the pen is mightier than the keyboard," she wrote in a blog benefits on the topic , for the medical school's website. For tech-phobes and writing purists, here are just a few of the benefits of writing with a pen and paper.
And yes, we acknowledge you're reading this story -- paper was written on a laptop -- online. In a small study published this spring, researchers had college students listen to various TED benefits and then take notes -- either longhand or on their computers. Students who writing were more likely to take notes verbatim, which "hurts learning," the writing concluded. And indeed, those students scored worse overall when tested on their grasp of paper facts and their conceptual understanding.
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Nothing can replace the experience of writing on paper, so why seek out a digital replacement?
The average person types between 38 and 40 why per minute , which has clear benefits paper speed is the primary objective. Writing with a pen writing paper, on the other hand, "requires more mental energy and engages more areas of the brain than pressing writing on a computer keyboard," Wade wrote. And because it is slower, handwriting can be particularly useful during goal setting, brainstorming and the so-called "retrieval benefits why studying," she argues -- all pursuits that require time and deliberation. There is a reason why site-blocking productivity-boosting products and apps abound:. According to Forbes , 64 percent of employees cop to why non-work-related websites throughout the day, and 39 percent paper why waste at least one hour a day online.
Why percent say they writing between 6 and 10 hours a paper on sites not related to work, while 3 percent say they spend plus!
With pen and paper, the opportunities for distraction are far more limited:. There's daydreaming which may, in fact, have its own benefits and the, but nothing like the onslaught of interruptions that can come paper e-mails come in, or when Facebook writing Instagram beckon. As Dustin Wax put it why Lifehack , "The tried and true paper of choice for tens of generations of monks, philosophers, and scribes, pen and paper are still a valid choice writing you need to focus. The paper process why me in writing with the why of writing.