19 Responses so far

1. 1. Adam Heine on Jan 30th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

   I got a moleskine as a gift. I love it. If you’re going to write on paper, you might as well have a notebook that feels good to write on.

   I rarely ever write prose – usually just outlines and brainstorms – in my notebook. The speed you mention is the main reason why. But I really like your last comment. That temptation to jump to something else is a killer.

2. 2. Shannon on Jan 31st, 2009 at 2:31 am

   I love writing on paper. I’ve taken to writing most of my current work (academic paper) as typed material, but I do all of my planning, copying-out of quotes, and scheduling on paper. There’s something so lovely about it; some sensual experience that’s entirely missing with computers. I use fountain pens when I can get away with it, so I’m picky about notebooks (moleskine paper is of inconsistent quality), but I’m okay with it because the special pen adds yet another touch to the experience.

   I’ve been encountering a lot of beautiful quotes of late, and I find a special kind of joy in copying them out by hand into my notebook. It puts them deeper in my mind than typing them us could ever do.

3. 3. Cat Rambo on Jan 31st, 2009 at 2:29 pm

   I love writing on paper. I buy sketchbooks to do it in, because I like the space that provides.

4. 4. Steve Buchheit on Jan 31st, 2009 at 8:30 pm

   I like to jot notes and quick sketches on paper. Poems also work better on paper for me. I’ll like to write more that way, but with all the damage to my hands and wrists I can’t write for very long before I’m in too much pain.

5. 5. Samuel Tinianow on Feb 1st, 2009 at 8:29 am

   Paper is all I write with anymore, for much the same version that you prefer digital: because I’m afraid of hard drive crashes. I’ve lost at least one book’s worth of chapters to such catastrophes over the years.

6. 6. AndyJ on Feb 14th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

   Perhaps you will find that missing suitcase filled with Hemmingways lost tales… Don’t pay attention to your handwriting. Don’t self analyze the scrolls, swirls and spaces… Ignore the slant and size differences… One can no more analyze their own handwriting than their own personality.

   Handwriting like singing, dancing and walking are actions that produce their own rhythm and feedback. Using a machine change us. In ways not always for the better.

7. 7. Tombo on Feb 14th, 2009 at 1:22 pm

   Ugh, I’m a lefty so writing on paper is more of a chore of nuisance than anything. If it’s ink, it smudges as I go across the line. If it has any type of center binder, I have to adjust my angle to accommodate for it.

   I like my symmetrically neutral keyboard.

8. 8. Constant on Feb 14th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

   “My main fear with paper is the losing of it”

   I sometimes write on paper. Being paranoid about losing the notes, as a backup I use a digital camera to take photographs of them. Anything with at least 5 megapixels and the ability to focus at that distance should do fine for the medium-sized moleskine.

9. 9. Stephen Macklin on Feb 14th, 2009 at 1:49 pm

   I love to have multiple levels I can step back too for writing. A full featured word processor, to a basic text editor, to a simple lined pad and a pen.

   With a printer, a scanner and an external hard drive I always manage to have at least 2 two, but usually 3, copies of everything!

10. 10. Stephen Macklin on Feb 14th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

    I also find that when I’m writing on paper I tend to not do things like put too many Os in to!

11. 11. Rob C on Feb 14th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    I always try to start on paper and then transfer it on to my computer; I seem to have trouble getting any kind of flow going if I start at a keyboard. It also makes revising easier, at least for myself. Taking it from paper to a hard drive gives me the opportunity to do my first revision right then and there and it has helped enormously.

12. 12. Micha Elyi on Feb 14th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

    Never mind trying to find writing paper and a decent pen in a greeting card store. Try this challenge: find a serious greeting card suitable for a man to send in one of those fully feminized mall stores stocked with pens that glide on purple ink and frilly, scented writing pads. Neither Hallmark nor American Greetings want men for customers and the stores that carry their products reflect their inhospitality to men.

13. 13. anonrobt on Feb 14th, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    I am one of those artists who does not have as such a sketchbook, but instead verbalize my ideas into journals – which now go back some 40 years or so of all manner of themes and so forth… it is easier doing this than sketching, because – for me at any rate – the act of writing it down keeps the imaging in my mind, such that whenever peruse the back pages, as I do every so often, what is written pops into mind as clear as when the idea first arose [indeed, often even clearer, having had the period of subconscious mulling over]… and tho for the most part, these being written in my evening time, they’re not beyond the Bic and legal paper level, whenever do go out to such as Panera, to be sure a good pen goes with me, and the writing pleasure is enhanced by the sense of fellowship, spiritually, with earlier writers back into time…

14. 14. Johnny Y on Feb 14th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

    I got a similar buzz from drawing that is being discussed in writing by hand. For example, recently a leak developed in the faucet of my kitchen’s sink. The plumber’s visit was a couple of days off, so I had to improvise a solution. I drew my idea on a napkin during that night’s sushi outing. The next day I set to work on this idea, then found I couldn’t focus without keeping that drawing close at hand. It worked out, though, and even after the professional repair was done I kept that drawing.

15. 15. Gail Perry on Feb 14th, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    I’m a pen and paper writer whenever possible. I agree with Shannon, there is a sensuousness to writing on paper that doesn’t translate to the computer. I’m completely perverse about the type of pen and paper I use. If I can’t have the right equipment, the experience isn’t the same. I’ve authored 28 books and many of them were written longhand. Interestingly, the ones I wrote longhand were the best ones. There’s an opportunity to “feel” the style of the writing when you write longhand. Much more of my personality went into the handwritten manuscripts than into the ones I’ve done on the computer. As Rob C points out, the first edit occurs when you transfer the material to the computer – an added bonus. Also, looking back, I have strong memories of where I was and what I was thinking with the books i wrote longhand – there’s very little of that with the typewritten books.

16. 16. David Finke on Feb 18th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    I’m a printer. (Yes, that’s a profession, not just a machine.) We always have LOTS of odd-sized bits of paper and card-stock around, usually cut-offs. When I see fellow-Quakers I always have something (often bright, colored, and with interesting textures) to share with them for craft and/or youth programs.

    Ever since I started around 1974, I’ve carried scraps and cards of paper with me, so that when an idea or insight hits, whereever I am, I can jot down key elements of it. Later, when at a computer, these can form up in to essays, sermons, letters, quizzical observations on life, whatever.

    The point is, paper and pen (or pencil in a pinch) is a wonderful gift to mankind. What if we only had cuneform clay tablets, or slates? At this point, most folks aren’t carrying iPhones or Blackberries around with them. And texting on a cellphone with my thumbs is not very satisfying.

    Let’s hear it, once more!, for paper and old-fashioned writing implements.

    -DHF

17. 17. Roy Jacobsen on Feb 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 pm

    When it comes to saving something like handwritten notes, I’m partial to Evernote. You can insert a scanned image or a photo of a note page into a note, and Evernote will recognize the text in the image, making them searchable.

    Not connected to the company, just a very satisfied customer.

    (By the way, I mentioned your post in my blog: http://rmjacobsen.squarespace.com/notebook/2009/2/24/paper-and-pen.html.)

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