The Writing Process: Computer or Longhand?

There is an interesting article from yesterday's Slate by Jan Swafford called Bold Prediction Why E-books Will Never Replace Real Books.

In this article, Mr. Swafford discusses the what the late Marshall McLuhan had to say about media and its effect on society.

Later in this same article, Mr. Swafford tells about his experience as a teacher of college writing classes, and his own writing process.  He contrasts writing first drafts on a computer screen and longhand drafts, and the benefits of the latter.

It was this part of the article that particularly interested me because, while I like the speed of writing on a computer, I find that onscreen editing, even after using spell check and grammar check, is a challenge.  There is always something I miss.  The cut and paste feature of word processing has saved me much time, and has helped me to organize my thoughts, but I much prefer to write out lengthy pieces in longhand.

The longhand process slows me down and helps me to order my thoughts better on paper.  I find that there are more picturesque turns of phrase in my longhand drafts than in those processed on the computer.  I find, as does Mr. Swafford, that punctuation is more easily applied in longhand.  But at some point, my handwriting has to be deciphered for my target audience.

There are times when, in my writing process, I use a combination of both.  Word processing is for the more technical aspects of what I'm writing.  It is good for sequencing events in a plot outline.  It is also good for moving phrases, entire sentences and paragraphs to a different place on the page. 

Wherever I begin, there always ends up being an editing draft, word processed and printed out in hard copy.  Final edits are best done on a hard copy and not onscreen, at least for me.

The creative part is best done in longhand.  The clean up is best done on the computer.  The fine tuning is best done on a hard copy and then fixed on the computer.

No matter how many times I edit my blog posts onscreen, I still have to go back and fix someting.

I don't know how writers did it before the advent of word processors.  Typewriters were so unforgiving.

If any of you are still out there reading, I'll be interested to know which you prefer in your writing process.

HT:  Katie