Word After Word

Write By Hand

When I was at a writer’s conference last week, I talked to three other professional writers at length and it was interesting what emerged. Each of us writes by hand.  D., one of the writers, a screenplay guy, said, “Yeah if I’m on the computer I just start editing.”   

 

You can’t write and edit at the same time. You’ll drive yourself nuts. You may never get to your best stuff.

 

At this same writer’s conference, I talked with forty students. Each of them wrote on the computer. Every single one.

 

1 Comment so far

  1. ally November 8th, 2007 2:12 pm

    Yikes. Maybe it’s different with poetry, but I find I absolutely CANNOT start writing a poem on a computer. I have to longhand it. In black ink. On a big blank sheet of lined paper. How else am I going to break my delete-key habit and just let the words go?

Leave a reply