Pen & paper or laptop?

by Michelle Hurst
24th January 2022

Do you still use pen and paper to write or do you go straight to the laptop to write your works?

Personally, I still use pen and paper and then transfer to my laptop and edit while typing it up.

Replies

Hey Michelle,
Short answer: neither
Long answer: I use two pages of my notebook to jot down an overview of the chapters (like a roadmap) and dedicate additional space/pages to the individual ideas that are expected to go in to each chapter. Then I spend an eternity looking at the overview until I can make the pieces fall into place (this involves scribbling notes and crossing things out and making arrows to move things around).
Once I have a good enough idea what goes where and how, I sit in front of my desk top and start typing the first draft. If I get stuck, it's back to staring into a notebook and playing with a pen.
If this sounds like a headache, you're not wrong. And it's not something I'd recommend... it's merely how I used to work in a rather technical job in the past (figuring out the solution/destination and how to get there - rather than worrying about the path itself...) my physical distaste for lengthier laptop writing may have have something to do with, too...

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17/02/2022

Hi Michelle!

I sort of do both - I write on my laptop, but when I get stuck I tend to go back to my notebook and write until I figure out the sentence/what I want to do.

Clare
W&A

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27/01/2022

There's no contest. My script is so poor nowadays I can barely read it myself, so laptop it must be.

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25/01/2022

I get too distracted while on the laptop, as you can tell I'm here, instead of writing lol.

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In reply to by oldchesn_4270

26/01/2022