Comments on: Scribbling.

By: Monica

Monica — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 21:51:22 +0000

I type fast and it’s the only way to keep up with my thoughts as I pound out a first draft. But afterward, I love a red ballpoint pen to edit the hard copy. An edited draft with arrows and underlines, crossed out words, new scenes written in the margins, and notes in a shorthand I’ve developed over the years is a truly beautiful thing.

By: Steve Masover

Steve Masover — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:28:08 +0000

I type fast, and like being able to keep up with the flow of words in my head as I’m composing … but there’s nothing that compares to the feel of ink unspooling onto a page. I feel my way into a character or a story or a chapter with a ballpoint pen and a notebook. I have dozens of spiral-bound notebooks on my shelves, but switched to Moleskine journals a bit over a year ago. I have a favorite pen too: the manufacturer is Zebra, the model is the F402. It’s thick, well balanced, has a grip that’s just right for my hand, and the smoothest flow of any prêt-à-écrire ballpoint I’ve ever used.

By: Laura T

Laura T — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:22:01 +0000

Hi Rachel,

I love this blog. While in college I would write down everything the professor had to say… the borders of the pages would be covered with doodles, flowers, spirals… anything. Words and letters became different sizes, surrounded by whatever came out. Sometimes the art would act out a history lesson, other times, not having anything to do with what the professor was saying at all…

One time I noticed classmate staring at me and my notes. He asked to look at them after class, and wanted to know if I learned anything at all during class. When I beat him (my A to his B) on a paper, he actually stopped talking to me all together.

Another time a friend asked me to borrow notes for another class she missed, and she copied them off, saying they were the pretiest and best notes she had ever seen haha. I used blank white paper only with a black pen.

So I totally get where you are coming from with this blog. When I am working on a manusript I type it, but then I end up printing it out, and it’s covered with the same kind of doodles and notes I’m so used to.

By: Kristin Laughtin

Kristin Laughtin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:32:36 +0000

I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing by hand. The biggest challenge and reason I prefer typing most of the time is not just I can’t keep up with my brain while writing by hand, but that I tend to jump back and forth within a story, even within a scene. I’ll remember some detail I had wanted to put in the preceding paragraph, and it’s easier to go back and figure out how to do that on a computer than to try to squeeze the text into the space left on one line in a journal.

I am finding writing by hand can really help me create outlines (for stories or characters) and story bibles, though. Perhaps it’s because I’m not writing these as solid blocks of text, or because I might arrange ideas more graphically. My preferences aren’t too exact. I like the composition books with the black and white covers, although I recently received a cute journal with cherries on the front and haven’t figured out what to do with it yet. I always write in black pen, though.

By: Susanna

Susanna — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:11:19 +0000

I type faster than I write (not to mention more legibly) — but I tend to be more intuitive when I write, by hand, with a pen. I too have very specific ink and paper preferences, although my favorites are pricey gel pen or cheap Bic ballpoint. I write by hand for deep revision and crafting the details. This is one of those great survey-of-writers questions that I always find interesting.

By: Donn

Donn — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:17:35 +0000

I’d never thought of that – the significance of the physical act of how you transmit your thoughts. There can be something empowering in a sort of meditative sense about writing on paper that doesn’t come about when typing.
Is it just because of those 12-odd years of apprenticeship at school, or is there just something just essentially different about holding a pen, controlling the lettering and doodling and revelation of thought exactly as you want?

Good post.