Do you always use the computer to write?

[LorenaBBooks]

I'm a fast typist so I use the computer so my fingers can keep up with my brain, otherwise, my paper looks like scribbles at the end and I don't know what I wrote.

[moderntimes]

I have other friends such as you, Anna, or at least I did 30-35 years ago, but nobody I know these days eschews the computer but one single friend, a poet who's had about a dozen books of his poetry published, but he's totally unable (or unwilling) to use a computer so he hires someone to type up his poems for submission to a publisher.

He's about my age and I have teased him occasionally, gently of course, about using a computer, asking him whether he still cranks his car with a manual crank in the front to start it.

The thing is, I was typing my stuff since high school, and when I started working for a newspaper, of course everything was typed. So there was zero manuscript use from when I was 15 to 16 years old. And later, in research (biochemical and polymer physics) we all used computers for our notes -- the company required it. If you wrote things manually you had to transcribe it anyway, so it quickly became sensible to enter the notes directly on the computer. (As explanation, I took a degree in chemistry, minor in calculus, then a 2nd major in English lit (specialty James Joyce) so I had both scientific / engineering AND literary jobs most of my life. I'm kinda weird that way, ha ha)

It is also important that you understand the publishing process: you said you "would like to publish a book" but it's not the author who does the publishing -- books are published by firms who pay the author advances and royalties, then they sell the books for you.

But it does seem that you really aren't writing anything other than notes to friends or personal messages to yourself or friends anyway. So for that, there's no need to use a computer at all.

But there will come a day, when perhaps you're older, when you think that you want to write not just for personal letters or notes to friends (or yourself) but maybe an essay or short story or article or a novel. At that point, you'll simply have to start using the computer. Or perhaps like my poet friend, pay a secretary to type it into the computer for you. That can cost.

[dchampagne]

I always write on paper first. It seems to be easy for me and faster. Then later on I type it out on the computer. I have always used pen and paper to write. I don't think I will ever change.

[moderntimes]

Well, as I said, working for a newspaper will quickly change that habit.

[volpe-rossa]

I was switched away from writing on paper at a younger age due to my love for message-board RPGs. So yes, I always use a computer to write.

[Hannaa_Campbell]

Only the computer. I can type very quickly meaning I can get my ideas out before they disappear and also if I write too quickly, I won't be able to read my handwriting or I'll even miss off random words making it very hard to even understand the sentence I'm trying to read/write.

[SidnayC]

I couldn't even fathom just using normal pen and paper. Because I do a a lot of editing like changing things around and adding new scenes, it would be really hard to do this using a pen and paper. But when I'm outside and have an idea I need to just down... I just use my phone.

[Vimtuous]

I've found writing by hand is good for on the go, like when I'm on the bus or waiting for something. Or if i'm just brainstorming ideas in a list format. I type pretty fast so it gives my brain a chance to keep ahead of what I'm writing a little also, which i find makes it easier to write for longer periods of time without hitting a block.

Any kind of formal draft I usually do on the computer. Handwriting does get tiring after a while!

[stoppoppingtheP]

i mean to write on the computer but when i write i'm usually not infront of my computer so now i have tons and tons of notebooks all filled or half filled with work. i actually prefer writing by hand...and for some strange reason i love buying notebooks so i might as well fill them. It's a little difficult when one story idea is spread throughout 4 or 5 different notebooks but it's good to re-read what i wrote previously in an attempt to find something i had written in the past.
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I am exactly the same. Writing by hand is somehow just a more richer experience.

[moderntimes]

Problem being, linda & stopping, is that when your writing is submitted for publication, these days, about 95% of agents and publishers require it to be via electronic / computer. Very few accept typewritten, and nobody accepts manuscript. Nobody.

It's one thing to sit back and admire a stack of physical notebooks, but that's a bit narcissistic. To get published -- which should be the goal of ALL writers -- you will need to transcribe those handwritten notes into MS-Word (usually). Otherwise, you've just got a stack of useless paper. It's one thing to jot down personal notes, but to continue to write into notebooks is equivalent to not writing at all, because if your output is not shared, it's chaff in the wind.

How do you get your writing out there? How do you submit what's in your notebooks?

I've got a friend who eschews computers. He's my age -- we're both in our 70s -- and a professor emeritus at a university. He's a poet -- a good one -- and has had about a dozen small books of his poems published. But he has to pay a student to transcribe them for submission to his publisher. Otherwise his poems will just gather dust.

If I can create my own website and do all the necessary programming for that, if I can maintain a complete set of organized MS-Word (and other) files on a laptop, do all my writing straight into the computer right from the brain to screen, edit my novels, write numerous book reviews and other items (essays, articles, etc) and maintain an online system for this, at age 72, anybody can.

If I didn't use the computer, my writing would be just so much junk sitting on the shelf. How could that be "more richer"?

[Tseve87]

I do both. When I first started getting into writing when I was in eighth grade I started out writing in a notepad which was fine and I even finished my first story when I was 15 but the bad thing about writing on paper is that it can be lost or even thrown away which is what happen to me. Another thing is that due to how much I actually write I found that it was cheaper to use a computer instead. I had stopped using paper and switched to a computer. There are flaws in using a computer as well mostly they can crash and brake on you again know from experience. Recently I have started to do both. I have started to write on paper then transfer it to the computer and then send it to my zip drive so I always have it safe.

[moderntimes]

I still find manual writing takes too long and is a needless interregnum to simply putting it onto a computer first.

Yes, computers can fail but a modern laptop is very reliable, and of course I religiously back up onto thumbdrive (daily) and burn a DVD (occasionally, monthly). btw it's "break" (as in be damaged) not "brake" (as in slowing down your car). I've owned my latest HP Pavilion laptop for several years and it's never failed to waamaana--kvankakzzzzzzzzzz pffftttttt (just kidding!)

One recommendation -- use a specialized computer-grade electrical power protector for all your electronics ("APC" brand is the best) and it will greatly extend the life of your goodies -- not just computers but TV and stereo, etc.

Were I to manually write first, I simply wouldn't be able to keep up. I've written 3 novels, working on the 4th, numerous short stories, articles, and many book reviews. Manuscript would easily take me 3x or 4x the time, for zero gain and for much more effort.

And I've said this before... working on deadline will quickly "cure" someone of reliance on manuscript. For years I was an engineering and tech consultant to "big oil" firms, specializing in engineering safety and environmental specifications for deepwater offshore drilling and exploration. Everything is on the computer and there's zero time for manual notes. Even in meetings, people haul around their laptops or other electronic devices to take notes.

[Tseve87]

Thanks for the tip for the computer grade electrical power protector I will have to look into that. I prefer to use my computer just because of how much I write and how many stories I going at once it is easier on my writing hand to type instead. my last laptop I had which just recently died I had for about three years but towards the last of its life it started crashing and the first time it did I lost almost all of my stories luckily I had printed some of them off however not the one I had over 100 pages but after that first crash I started to back them onto my email and got good drive so that I was able to have them for when it finally died. It was then that I went back to doing both manually writing and using the computer. I am on hold on getting my new laptop and hoping to get one soon and having one that is specialized in writing because that is what I am going to collage for.

[Eternallyjaded]

I do both as well. I started writing in middle school so I started out on paper and then I got a computer and my very first completed story on it was deleted when we moved so I sort of stayed away from computers after that. However, now I save my stories on multiple flash drives and I usually forget which one's have the recent additions so I stick to paper when writing out ideas or scenes before adding them to the complete story on my computer. To be honest I also have a compulsion to buy notebooks so it's always best to fill them up with random ideas when I'm too lazy to turn my computer on.

[clara7733]

No I use both. When I am free-writing just writing in a notebook allows creativity to flow.When I am ready to revise what is written I use the computer to it helps with editing.