Do you always use the computer to write?

[JordanKSmith]

I go back and forth a bit. I like the tactile sensation of writing on paper, but I'm a bit too slow at handwriting.

I typically use my desktop when I want to make progress. If I want to relax with some free-form writing, I'll grab my notebook and head to a body of water.

[Louanne Piccolo]

Computer here! It makes everything neat and easy to read. My writing hand can't keep up with the speed of my brain as well as my typing hand can.
That said, I'd love to be good at the "old- fashioned" way, but I'm not.

[Riptide]

I've always wondered if the typing/handwriting debate is somewhat age related. I spent a lot of my first 18 or so years writing by hand because this was before kids got their own laptops and writing where people could randomly pass by didn't seem like a great writing environment. Now, I like writing by hand then typing it out, but sometimes it's incredibly depressing to see how little I've written when it's typed out instead of ten written pages, especially when so much is crossed out.

[Khrysalis]

You know, the question puts me in mind of the first word processor I ever had. I was fifteen years old, and my mother took on an odd job to gather the money to buy me a Brother desktop publisher. I adored it. It had a simple green-yellow line display, a built-in ink jet printer with seven different colors and paper feeder, and a 1.44MB disk drive. To this day, I've never received a finer gift. My mother always had difficulty expressing her affection verbally, but she would find a way of showing me just how much she loved and understood me. That gift and the extra job she worked to scrape up the funds to purchase it...well, thinking of it still brings a lump to my throat, all these years later.

The Brother's little display could only show a few lines of text at once. You could scroll through your entire document, of course, but there were times when I wanted to see a large amount of information at once. Such as when I was brainstorming or studying over character notes or large sections of dialogue. So I did such scribblings in notebooks or binders and only booted up the word processor when I was ready to buckle down and actually do the writing.

I still have these writing habits today, even though I've long since upgraded to a standard PC with a large, flat monitor. I can't help but feel that a clean sheet of paper and a simple 2B pencil gives me the freedom that a computer can't entirely match. Freedom of chaos, anyway. I like to make little notes or exclamations in the margins of my notes and sketch characters or designs between the paragraphs. My outlines are always such a glorious, pleasing mess. Being organized is overrated.

[Letora]

I will start off by jotting down notes on paper and then writing the actual scenes out on the computer. If I'm having difficulty with a scene, I will switch back to paper and write it all down. I learned in school that when we write, our brain can keep up with our train of thought because it is slower than typing.

[Jksawari572]

I also have the same habit. Actually I'm a physics teacher plus Section Incharge of the school where I've to make notices, Announcements and time table, notes for my students but i write all of them by computer because i can't write on hands, in fact i get tired

[Top1]

I personally write on a computer, it's more convenient to me.

[Zora C Penter]

I prefer first drafts by hand and everything after that on the computer. I just have a problem turning off my inner editor, and get more work done without a backspace that first time around.

[Denv12]

I am a big fan of using the computer to write anything. I use the word processor software.I write lists,write ideas,letters,topics to post in forums,etc. And,I use the computer to write my book on dating,which I'm still working on.
As I've got a little Arthritis in my fingers I dont do a lot of hand writing. I can edit anything and change things.I can go back and read what I've typed.Its a major bonus.

[chibiparty]

I handwrite and then type it on the computer.
I find it easier to get my ideas down that way, I won't be distracted by everything online, and I can still write if I have a headache (staring at screens make it worse).

[Karen Crumley]

I've learned to adapt when technology is not an option.
About 2 years ago my laptop went into a technological coma, and I wrote mostly in a journal my Aunt bought for me the last time she went to Ireland. Then, when my computer was finally revived (about 9 months later) I rewrote everything in MSWord on the laptop. This started a new habit with me of writing all first drafts by hand. It makes the revision and rewriting process even easier for me.

[rosemarie72]

I like typing rather than writing.I can compose a song, poem,and even a story

[Diana Lowery]

I like writing in a composition book. It seems that typing slows me down because I am such a perfectionist that I stop to correct errors when I type, but not when I write. However, sometimes when I write, I get so carried away that my handwriting is poor and later I have trouble reading it.

[Tessa23Darling]

I'm an old school, pen and paper kinda girl. I write everything out in my notebook. Then, to save time (and neck pain from twisting up and down and side to side) I talk text all my notes into the PushBullet app on my phone. PushBullet is an app that transfers notes and data from phone to pc and visa versa. After I'm done talk texting, I transfer it over to the computer and edit anything that didn't transcribe correctly. Talk text isn't perfect. After I edit it, I print it out and have my husband read it and edit it. I haven't finished a book to the point of having a friend edit it yet.

[jahagen]

I like the idea of hand writing my stories because I think it looks really nice, but I'm so much faster at typing that I'm able to get my ideas out as I'm coming up with them. When I write, it takes a while to get through a scene that I sometimes forget where I was going because it took a while to get to that thought. On the other hand, I feel like I come to stops and get stuck far more frequently when I'm typing, so it's a sort of a weird system.