Don't spare the parchment

Interesting article up on themillions.com about writing by hand. This is generally how I write my Harrekh stories, though not for the same reasons.

I don't have any particular hate for Word (or any other word processing software), and I don't think my ratio of good ideas to bad is any different if I write it out longhand or type it into a computer. The reason my first drafts are almost always in my note book is very simple: editing. No matter how good the "Track Changes" software gets, it can only display so many changes before the text is lost in a sea of underlines, strikeouts, and red text. It makes it hard to see what's the most recent thing, especially when you have multiple edits. With a simple scratch-out on paper, I can easily see which edits I made, and a little bit of how my choices changed over time. That's usually lost if I write on the computer first.

When I do type up my work, I'm forced to do another round of edits while I'm typing. I often find myself asking if I really want to use this word, or have that sentence where it is. It forces me to slow down, think about what I've written, and filter out any of the really bad ideas. That's a lot harder to do when you're writing in something close to real-time. Like this blog.

... I'm suddenly struck by the urge to do about six rounds of edits before clicking the "Publish Post" button.