My wife and I still can't afford a laptop. So, while I'm away for five days in Denver, I'll probably spend some time writing longhand. During some of the little spare time I'll have during the conference, I plan to work on my thesis, as well as (hopefully) my novel.
It's amazing how quickly we've lost our "ability" to write in longhand. All of those notes that were passed around in high school and junior high were written in longhand. Back then we were happy to do it, even eager to do it, daily.
Last month, I had to use longhand to write four pages of essays for my linguistics final. It was almost excruciating -- literally -- because I was also writing in pencil. PENCIL??!! I had four of them onhand because there is little worse than writing page after page of single-space with a dull pencil. Actually, over the past year, I've kept several sharp pencils on my desk. There's just something refreshing about pencils.
I used to have pretty nice handwriting. But when I became a reporter, that was all shot to heck. I developed my own shorthand and myriad symbols, which eventually led to some whacked-out mess of ink that only reporters could (amazingly) decipher.
I think I'm going to try to write longhand more often. Books are being published lately dealing with letters that people have written to each other (I'm thinking specifically of books that feature letters between John and Abigail Adams and one that centers on an amazing amount of correspondence to and from Henry James). There was an art to that type of writing. There's something personal, individual, about longhand letter writing. You can almost "see" how the people were feeling when they were writing.
Now we're deluged with sterile emails, that if it wern't for those stupid smiley faces, we'd never be able to tell how the person was feeling -- whether they're being sarcastic, etc.
I've saved many letters that were written to me over the years. They're fun to go back and read. I've saved very few emails.
I think there's an exercise in all of this. I'd like to begin writing more letters to my wife -- something aside from the little notes I jot down in her birthday and anniversary cards. I think she'll appreciate that.
But...that's letter writing. When you want to write a book, there's no better method than typing. I'll probably end up with a hand cramp. But, as they say, no pain, no novel.
It's amazing how quickly we've lost our "ability" to write in longhand. All of those notes that were passed around in high school and junior high were written in longhand. Back then we were happy to do it, even eager to do it, daily.
Last month, I had to use longhand to write four pages of essays for my linguistics final. It was almost excruciating -- literally -- because I was also writing in pencil. PENCIL??!! I had four of them onhand because there is little worse than writing page after page of single-space with a dull pencil. Actually, over the past year, I've kept several sharp pencils on my desk. There's just something refreshing about pencils.
I used to have pretty nice handwriting. But when I became a reporter, that was all shot to heck. I developed my own shorthand and myriad symbols, which eventually led to some whacked-out mess of ink that only reporters could (amazingly) decipher.
I think I'm going to try to write longhand more often. Books are being published lately dealing with letters that people have written to each other (I'm thinking specifically of books that feature letters between John and Abigail Adams and one that centers on an amazing amount of correspondence to and from Henry James). There was an art to that type of writing. There's something personal, individual, about longhand letter writing. You can almost "see" how the people were feeling when they were writing.
Now we're deluged with sterile emails, that if it wern't for those stupid smiley faces, we'd never be able to tell how the person was feeling -- whether they're being sarcastic, etc.
I've saved many letters that were written to me over the years. They're fun to go back and read. I've saved very few emails.
I think there's an exercise in all of this. I'd like to begin writing more letters to my wife -- something aside from the little notes I jot down in her birthday and anniversary cards. I think she'll appreciate that.
But...that's letter writing. When you want to write a book, there's no better method than typing. I'll probably end up with a hand cramp. But, as they say, no pain, no novel.
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