Longhand isn't well suited to my way of writing. I tend to end up with dozens of pages of crossings-out and margin scribbles just to find one good paragraph, and it's easy to lose your train of thought, working like that.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I do a lot of revising on paper. Sometimes I think I should just write longhand - what I type reads very different once I print it out.
The problem is once you've written the opening paragraph and worked out how the rest of the story will go in your head, there's nothing in it for you. I write in longhand using disposable fountain pens on the right-hand side of the notebook for the first draft, then I rewrite some of the sentences and paragraphs on the left-hand side.
By the time I sit down ready to write, I've done a lot of longhand and a lot of note collecting along the way.
I write in longhand and assemble lots of notes, and then I try to collate them into a coherent chronology. It's like groping along in the dark. I like writing and find it challenging, but I don't find it easy.
The first draft of everything, I write longhand. One of the nice things about that is that it makes you keep going. If you write a bad sentence on the computer, then it's very tempting to go back and fidget with it and spend another 20 minutes trying to make it into a good sentence.
I start with an idea that is no more than a paragraph long, and expand it slowly into an outline. But I'm always surprised by the directions things take when I actually start writing.
Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.
Writing is like playing golf - you have to keep working at your swing.
I write in longhand. I am accustomed to that proximity, that feel of writing. Then I sit down and type.
Writing long hand is the last refuge. One needs the time it takes to put pencil to paper and let it run along the ruled line.