Friday 14 November 2014

Is the click mightier than the pen?


 

“We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure,”  John Dryden



I once put pen to paper (literally) and wrote.
Now I click, tap and navigate. What a huge change to the way we all communicate. I can’t even remember when I last received a hand written letter.   I am not a bright, young thing (although I’d like to think I’m still reasonably bright!) but I know many others of a similar age group who are also very au fait with computers and indeed to some degree, social networking.
For me the keypad is quicker than the pen when it comes to getting tumbling thoughts and ideas down on paper. Free writing engages the creative right side of the brain and not the analytical, logical left brain. I believe getting something, anything, down on a blank sheet is the best way to avoid writers block and so I often use free writing to help me think and get going on a project.

Using the keypad rather than the pen gives me a quicker easier way to re-write this stream of consciousness writing and make some sense of it. Whereas editing with pen and paper just leaves me with a confused mess of crossings out and no sense of what I am really trying to say.  Having said that, I have many friends who continue to write in longhand – at least initially. They still cherish the feel of pen on paper and love to fill the blank white pages of a notebook.

Long live writers of all kinds!
So are you a pen pusher or a keyboard clicker?

 

3 comments:

  1. I used to write on paper, but NaNo 2010 prompted me to switch to keyboard. I'm just as slow with both though. At least with the keyboard it's legible.

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  2. I like to do both. I get more written on the computer, but I enjoy the opportunity to get words on paper, too. Novel projects need to be on the computer for me, but short stories flow when I write on paper.

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  3. I can't do the keyboard...Pen and paper is still quicker for me! I just have to type everything up after.

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