At long last, I finally have my own laptop back again. It’s been three weeks — a week to get a firm diagnosis of the problem (hard drive failure), another week to figure out how best to fix the problem, and then a week waiting for the repair shop to make the repair.
It felt strange to not have a computer of my own at home. I came to realize that I now organize my writing inside my computer. I keep outlines and drafts filed on the computer, and I have different folders in my computer filing system for different writing projects. Over the past three weeks I wrote a good deal by hand, far more than I usually do, and I enjoyed spending more time in the physical act of writing. But I no longer have the elaborate physical apparatus of writing that I used to have — three-ring binders and Pendaflex folders in file cabinets, and even note cards. Separated from my new computer-based organizational system, I wrote less and my writing was choppier than it should have been.
I also noticed that writing by hand produces somewhat different results than writing on a computer. Two weeks ago, I wrote my sermon by hand. Even though it was slower to write it by hand, the sermon needed far less rewriting. In the end, it took no longer to write a complete sermon by hand than on the computer. Yet although I found it harder to read my own handwriting when in the pulpit, in some ways it was easier to preach from that handwritten sermon because the sermon seemed to stick in my memory better. As for my non-professional writing, I think my prose might be better when I write by hand.
In any case, my computer has returned to its accustomed place on my desk at home. Now all I have to do is spend several hours re-establishing my file system and reinstalling all the software I used to have on it.
It’s nice to hear that you found writing by hand a different, perhaps better, writing experience than computer writing. There’s a more direct connection between the brain and the words on the page, I think, when you write by hand. Slowing down, too, makes word choices more deliberate, maybe intuitive. Not sure how it all works, but handwritten work is a different beast than computer generated.
Writing by hand totally taps into the kinesthetic as well as the visual — I’ve found, too, that though my auditory processing kinda stinks, if I write copious notes while listening to a lecture, then the lecture not only sticks in my brain, it also makes more sense.
And I agree that a hand-done piece of writing flows better and needs less revision. There are some major downsides to computers and fast typing.