Do you always use the computer to write?

shinjiblue · Post by **shinjiblue** » 02 Apr 2014, 01:09

I'll jot ideas and make notes or outlines on paper but when I sit down to write, it's always on a computer. I type much faster than I can write by hand; it's the only way I've found to keep up with the flow of words when the story is ready to come out.

True_Reader4Life · Post by **True_Reader4Life** » 02 Apr 2014, 22:20

Generally I write by computer... I type super fast! But there are times where I just need to get a pen and some paper and have at it. Sometimes it just makes me feel a little better to write things out; but after it's written I type it up.

hopeingod · Post by **hopeingod** » 03 Apr 2014, 19:32

Almost everything I write is typed these days. Ideas, however, are often handwritten in one of the two small tablets I carry in my top pocket every day.

nadansheryl · Post by **nadansheryl** » 03 Apr 2014, 20:49

I use a computer after I have made a draft on paper first, I go the real old-fashioned way!

moderntimes · Post by **moderntimes** » 05 Apr 2014, 20:01

I'm an old timer, learned to type in high school on manual Underwoods (only male in the class), this was in the 50s, when females all took typing so they could become secretaries. But learning to type was one of the few helpful things I did learn in HS.

Later of course I did all my writing on a portable that served me through college. And then, working for a newspaper, back to the big old Underwood.

I however worked on computers early, in chemical research (I was a chem major and English lit major, go figure), and began to use computers for writing pretty quickly.

Boy, do I love my laptop!! When I write a chapter of my novels (2 published, 3rd in progress) I'll write "Ch 4a" and save it, then if I want to make revisions, it gets saved as "Ch 4b" then "Ch 4c" and so on. That way I'll have maybe 3-4 versions of a dialogue or plot sequence, all similar but different, and later I can pick and choose among them to create the "final" version, ha ha. I laugh at "final" because I'm never finished making revisions until the book goes to print.

Anyway, I'm a fast typist and write so much more freely with a computer. Plus I've got a badly warped manuscript style, so awful that sometimes I can't decipher what I've written down on a notepad!

avatarofrozein · Post by **avatarofrozein** » 07 Apr 2014, 20:34

I like to do a rough draft on paper then type it up so I always have two copies of it, and since my laptop always stays home ( I lose things very easily) it's nice to have something I can take with me. I have a whole drawer full of writing notebooks, with each one dedicated to a different story idea.

moderntimes · Post by **moderntimes** » 07 Apr 2014, 21:53

I used to keep notebooks as you do, avatar, but eventually I got away from that and transitioned to all digital. Now, everything is in folders and files on my laptop (and, of course, backed up regularly).

Consider the publishing business. Everything's on computers now. Agents and editors for the most part don't even accept manuscripts. So I think it's probably best to move to computers for everything.

WriterBLAlley · Post by **WriterBLAlley** » 11 Apr 2014, 11:22

I always write on the computer, but will take notes by hand or with a voice recorder app on my phone. I write too poorly and slow (and cramp easily) to write by hand. My first novel, Arbor Day, ended up at 130k for the first draft. My hand would have fallen off! Sometimes I can't even read my own notes and have to start again.

dina77 · Post by **dina77** » 11 Apr 2014, 12:24

If I have the computer to hand then I will use that as my writing is shockingly bad but I always have a notepad in my bag so if I feel the compulsion to jot anything down I can

agaffke000 · Post by **agaffke000** » 28 Apr 2014, 13:28

I like typing.

kio · Post by **kio** » 28 Apr 2014, 21:44

Mostly yes, I type faster.

book_pig · Post by **book_pig** » 30 Apr 2014, 09:02

Hi:) I type fast as well so I like writing on a computer, but something about sitting down in front of a screen feels to official to me, like there's more pressure? Maybe that's stupid, but I feel a lot less pressured when I write in a notebook, and more creative!

casper · Post by **casper** » 30 Apr 2014, 09:34

I always use my laptop to write. I love the way I can change things and move stuff around - much easier than writing it out by hand each time. However, I do use pen and paper to make notes and jot down ideas when I'm not near a computer. Trouble is my handwriting's getting so bad I often have problems deciphering it.

subzerowon · Post by **subzerowon** » 30 Apr 2014, 11:11

I use paper until I can get to my computer, I like to write poetry and I'm usually not at home when I think of one.

judysh · Post by **judysh** » 30 Apr 2014, 11:17

I do use the computer for writing, but in a recent TV news interview about computers in the classroom, the journalist asked a girl in Grade 8 if she can write (with a pen on paper), and she replied that her mother was teaching her at home. I think that there may be future brain-development, hand-eye-coordination problems if children do not print and write by hand any more. Maybe we older folks should set an example and become luddites, and go back to pen and paper.