I’ve just returned from two weeks in southern Spain where I
stayed in a villa with no internet. I left my laptop at home but soon invested
in a spiral bound A4 lined pad and a Pilot ‘super grip’ pen to capture those
ideas for my current work in progress. Although I spent a lot of time developing the plot and
characters for my first novel on paper, I’ve always relied on my laptop for
writing and have come to take wireless broadband for granted. I decided to ‘free
write’ some pages every day on holiday, early in the morning before the others
were even out of bed. I’d forgotten how much easier it is to just write when you
can’t keep revising as you go along. On the laptop I tend to keep moving things
around, editing as I write, even though I know it interrupts the flow
and should be done later. There is now the task of typing in twenty odd pages
of handwritten notes but it was worth it. I’ve always thought the technology
helps – and it does but it’s good to go back to basics one in a while. What do you think?
I write better with a pen. When I type I constantly edit. It just seems to flow from head to fingertips with a pen :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Did you find the style / content of your writing different? I tried writing using Dragon speech recognition software and found I was a different author. Then after 20 minutes or so my voice must have changed to my set up voice profile ... getting tired perhaps, and the errors multiplied. I like you usual write on a PC and do rough self editing as I go along. I understand Jeffrey Archer still writes with a pad. I will also be interested to see what others think. Alexander of the Allrighters.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it was the relaxed Spanish atmosphere but I found it easier to write descriptively - and harder to write dialogue than on the laptop. It was also liberating NOT to be able to check my facts on the internet!
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