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Preference: Handwriting or Typing?

Blackwolf
I.M.Blackwolf
Tyrant of Words
13awards
Joined 31st Mar 2018
Forum Posts: 3572

One other thing...ego is our connection to our lifeline...whether others understand that or not does not change the truth of that statement...

Now , over grown / blown ego , is a different thing and does conduct a possible need for temperment , yet is still not to be considered wrong or unwanted...

If any would be guilty of ego , it would be a declared god , which I dsdain anyway...

AnonymousBystander
Fire of Insight
United Kingdom 3awards
Joined 28th Sep 2018
Forum Posts: 226

Me - pencil and eraser in a pocket note pad that I carry around all the time.

Brimming with ideas but have great difficulty with the execution.  Chiselling out a poem takes a lot longer than I want it to ... I think due to lack of confidence and certainly due to lack of experience.

I also wonder if I'm being over ambitious ... but what's the point, otherwise?

Sartoris
Twisted Dreamer
United States
Joined 4th Mar 2019
Forum Posts: 22

I don't believe anyone here, including myself, was putting down handwriting itself. We're only talking about our personal preferences. Being able to write, or simply draft, pieces does involve skills, advantages which typing doesn't, but what does writing well mean, other than the final result of our labors? That's an entirely different subject.

Even using paper and pen, or pencil, few are guaranteed to strike gold the first time out. And how can anyone know what has, or hasn't, been reworked, edited, or changed while reading it? Even older texts. Excluding and saying that such works shouldn't see the light of day is extremely arbitrary and elitist, in that respect.

I deeply admire anyone who can write and express something with, comparative, ease and hardly am a techo-fiend... still, the typewriter, word processor, computer, etc. exist and both shape the way of things, and are resources in themselves. They aren't eliminating any other method.

Sartoris
Twisted Dreamer
United States
Joined 4th Mar 2019
Forum Posts: 22

AnonymousBystander said:Me - pencil and eraser in a pocket note pad that I carry around all the time.

Brimming with ideas but have great difficulty with the execution.  Chiselling out a poem takes a lot longer than I want it to ... I think due to lack of confidence and certainly due to lack of experience.

I also wonder if I'm being over ambitious ... but what's the point, otherwise?


I've often felt the same way, struggling with execution from inexperience and doubt. But again, these are a part of any writer, or artist's, growth. (Even though it's difficult not to be frustrated, realising this...) Also, a healthy dose of ambition is good for any artist. ;P

Similarly, I've gotten more into the habit of jotting things down which come to me, spontaneously or with reflection and thought, whether I end up working it up into something. How has it worked for you, so far?

I find it quite helpful. At times I'll have written down some lines, a phrase, what have you without any specific idea, only to find that I incorporate it into an existing draft or new piece later on. : D  

poet Anonymous

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DaisyGrace
Dangerous Mind
United States 17awards
Joined 29th Mar 2017
Forum Posts: 1374

i am a hybrid, i guess. i hate typing on my phone, so i constantly carry a notebook and pen/pencil around with me. you never know when you need to write something down, whether inspiration is striking or you run across a quote or poem that you want to keep close. i handwrite my daily journal and tankas as well.

when i'm at home, especially if i am working on a long project, i will type. at home, i have access to multiple devices that include a full size keyboard that doesn't require typing with thumbs. which pleases me greatly.

is short, i write with what is available to me. it really makes no difference to me.

AnonymousBystander
Fire of Insight
United Kingdom 3awards
Joined 28th Sep 2018
Forum Posts: 226

Sartoris said:

I've often felt the same way, struggling with execution from inexperience and doubt. But again, these are a part of any writer, or artist's, growth. (Even though it's difficult not to be frustrated, realising this...) Also, a healthy dose of ambition is good for any artist. ;P

Similarly, I've gotten more into the habit of jotting things down which come to me, spontaneously or with reflection and thought, whether I end up working it up into something. How has it worked for you, so far?

I find it quite helpful. At times I'll have written down some lines, a phrase, what have you without any specific idea, only to find that I incorporate it into an existing draft or new piece later on. : D  


Mixed results ... if I write something in form I can get something out at the other end.  I've also just done a flurry of Haikus but ... although I'm pleased with them I'd like to be able to do something with metre.

The other aspect of the mixed results is the elephant's graveyard of unfinished poems.

inechoingsilence
Thought Provoker
United States 4awards
Joined 17th Apr 2019
Forum Posts: 317

I jot down ideas when they come - I hold onto old envelopes and things like that just for that purpose. So far, I think of one or two words at a shot, then have a googledoc I transfer all the ideas to. From there, I pick whichever is demanding attention and work in it that way. And it takes a lot of refining, which I find best on the computer.

Sartoris
Twisted Dreamer
United States
Joined 4th Mar 2019
Forum Posts: 22

Sky_dancer said:

I've had conversations with people who say, "I've been working on this for 12 hours" and I think, "yep, that's about right".


This is an interesting perspective, if only because it seems I spend much longer trying to develop something. Though if you condense the time, hours actually spent it's probably within that range.

It might be different than what you were getting at, though (Haha.)

DaisyGrace said:i am a hybrid, i guess. i hate typing on my phone, so i constantly carry a notebook and pen/pencil around with me. you never know when you need to write something down, whether inspiration is striking or you run across a quote or poem that you want to keep close. i handwrite my daily journal and tankas as well.

when i'm at home, especially if i am working on a long project, i will type. at home, i have access to multiple devices that include a full size keyboard that doesn't require typing with thumbs. which pleases me greatly.

is short, i write with what is available to me. it really makes no difference to me.


Very true, and I often get ideas at random. Usually when I'm completely engaged with something else (being at my job, driving, etc.)

When did you get into writing tankas, and have they proved helpful?

AnonymousBystander said:Mixed results ... if I write something in form I can get something out at the other end.  I've also just done a flurry of Haikus but ... although I'm pleased with them I'd like to be able to do something with metre.

The other aspect of the mixed results is the elephant's graveyard of unfinished poems.


I've actually wanted to make a regular habit, or exercise, in writing short pieces. Whether haiku, another form, or without following any. If only to remain stimulated and flexible with ideas, or imagery.

Have you explored metre previously, or interested in any particular format? It's something I wish to learn also.

Indeed... sometimes it takes time understanding what being said, though, while also giving sufficient attention and patience regardless of how long, or briefly, we spend writing.

I frequently have unfinished drafts, but I've noticed recent ones tend to be further developed than I used to leave them (when writing was hit-or-miss,) and are more likely to be completed eventually.

inechoingsilence said:I jot down ideas when they come - I hold onto old envelopes and things like that just for that purpose. So far, I think of one or two words at a shot, then have a googledoc I transfer all the ideas to. From there, I pick whichever is demanding attention and work in it that way. And it takes a lot of refining, which I find best on the computer.

Another relatable experience, and it's rather freeing to jot down ideas at random. Without any further expectation, unless it happens to fit something being currently worked on.

And keeping everything organized is extremely helpful, if only to avoid the hegemony of writing scattered in ten thousand places (Haha.)

inechoingsilence
Thought Provoker
United States 4awards
Joined 17th Apr 2019
Forum Posts: 317

YES. I learned how to create a googledoc folder for that purpose. I had pages of half-formed ideas and I was getting frustrated having to click on each one to see what I was looking at. It is still not perfect (Evernote was close to perfect imo) but it is at least organized now.

Sartoris
Twisted Dreamer
United States
Joined 4th Mar 2019
Forum Posts: 22

inechoingsilence said:YES. I learned how to create a googledoc folder for that purpose. I had pages of half-formed ideas and I was getting frustrated having to click on each one to see what I was looking at. It is still not perfect (Evernote was close to perfect imo) but it is at least organized now.

I've been going a different route, mainly by relying on the 'Drafts' section of my account, so everything's collected but still separate in a way. I used Word Document alone for the longest time, and it was too much having drafts, scraps on a nearly-endless page... in addition to handwritten material.

What is/was Evernote?

inechoingsilence
Thought Provoker
United States 4awards
Joined 17th Apr 2019
Forum Posts: 317

Evernote was/is an online notebook app and it still exists! In the original and updated versions, you can organize 'notes' into 'notebooks'. I found my old account - it was for work - but I can add my stuff there. And it's free to a certain point, then after it is like $6/month. I am using the free version. There is even evernote for Gmail!

AnonymousBystander
Fire of Insight
United Kingdom 3awards
Joined 28th Sep 2018
Forum Posts: 226

The Swinburne Arms

Drinking beer and thinking of Swinburne's poems.
Watching time slip backwards as beer slips down, and
realising none of his work is present
at The Swinburne Arms.
Written by AnonymousBystander
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"I've actually wanted to make a regular habit, or exercise, in writing short pieces. Whether haiku, another form, or without following any. If only to remain stimulated and flexible with ideas, or imagery.

Have you explored metre previously, or interested in any particular format? It's something I wish to learn also."

Yes.  I've tried sonnets (https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/321736-email-reply/), Pushkin sonnets (https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/322919-lbc---leading-britains-condescension/), terza rima (https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/323937-english-lane/), villanelles (https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/324995-truck-stop-or-the-repeal-of-the-truck/), sapphic ()[/url] ... I didn't realise I've done so many until I wrote this note.  (It still doesn't come easy though: one other point to mention, I've posted poems even though I know that they could or should be better, the sapphic is an example of such).

"Indeed... sometimes it takes time understanding what being said, though, while also giving sufficient attention and patience regardless of how long, or briefly, we spend writing.

I frequently have unfinished drafts, but I've noticed recent ones tend to be further developed than I used to leave them (when writing was hit-or-miss,) and are more likely to be completed eventually. "

I think that my next 'strategy' is to try and write something in iambic pentameter (one of the things I'm working on is a court case from the 1720s) and either leave it in blank verse or put some rhyme in it.  The point is just to practice the meter though.

ps I don't know why the poem appeared in the thread?

Flumen
Strange Creature
Netherlands
Joined 13th May 2019
Forum Posts: 2

I really like handwriting, but for me the downside is that I'm a very chaotic person and I end up forgetting where my journals are, or which things I wrote in which journals...

Miserylives
Dylan Farmer
Lost Thinker
United States
Joined 16th June 2013
Forum Posts: 12

When I used to write regularly I handwrote everything by choice, it somehow made the things I was feeling and talking about seem more tangible. Like when I could see it all put out on paper it made a different connection in my head to where I wouldn't feel so trapped in whatever situation I was in. Typing just never gave me that sense of peace at the end. And if I start writing again it'll probably be on paper. Till I post it here. Which is a great opportunity for quick edits. almost forgot about that haha.

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