So apparently, January 23rd is National Handwriting Day. According to HolidayInsights.com, “National Handwriting Day is an opportunity to reintroduce yourself to a pen or pencil and a piece of paper. In this day of computers, more and more information, notes, and letters are sent back and forth via a keyboard and cyberspace.”
As writers, this is a day we can all celebrate. Even though we may not necessarily write much by hand anymore, we probably have a deep appreciation for paper and pencil.
Personally, I do almost all of my writing on the computer. However, when I write poetry, I always write it by hand first.
What about you?Do you still pull out the notebook and pen or pencil when you sit down to write or are you strictly an electronic writer?
Related posts:
9 Comments until now.
As a primary-grade school teacher, I was a stickler for neat handwriting, but it is becoming a lost art.
If I had a computer as a child, I think I would have been an author sooner. I had arrows and asterisks and numbers all through my notebooks. It was SO time-consuming to rewrite a story, just because I wanted to insert a sentence or take another one. I am very grateful for the invention of “copy ‘n paste.”
Yes, I still hand-write notes. My purse and Bible case are full of slips of paper. The only time I hand-write full length stories are when I am separated from my faithful computer.
As a child my report card was usually all A’s with a C in handwriting. Fortunately, it didn’t count toward GPA. As an adult, it has not improved. There are times, I struggle to read it myself. So no, I don’t generally write by hand. I love my computer. But I do carry a notebook with me where I hand write article ideas as they come to me. I consider it my butterfly net. I need it to capture ideas as they flitter around my head.
As a child I remember doing “circles ans swirls” to exercise control of the hand. Penmenship was a special class. Pages were filled with letters.Capitals and small letters were “practiced”. Both my grandparents were school teachers and had the most beautiful penmanship…it was a MUST in my family to “write” beautifully. I really did work on it. Two years ago I had a stroke and one of the “left-over symptoms” is poor, shaky handwriting. My hand gets very tired very quickly. I, too, Thank God for the computer.
I am so grateful that my children introduced me to the benefits of using a computer. I always use the computer for my creative work but I still use pen and paper for taking notes. I am a firm believer in handwritten thank you notes and notes of sympathy. I remember as a child my mother spending many evenings with me at the kitchen table drawing lines and circles in an attempt to improve my handwriting. My mother had beautiful handwriting.
I DESPISE writing in cursive (which is what I used to call handwriting LOL). Printing is fine. I do more of my writing on the computer, but it’s nice to print every once in a while.
I use my computer to write at home, my AlphaSmart Dana to write when I’m out and a tablet/pen when neither of them are near.
Love my AlphaSmart! It lets me focus purely on writing without internet distractions. It runs 25 hours on one charge and works on AA batteries if I don’t have electricity.
When I come home, I just plug it into my computer, open a Word doc and hit the send button, then watch as the words are “magically” typed into the document. Did I mention that I love it???
Oooh….Jan, I have many author friends who rave about their AlphaSmarts. I am jealous. Sounds heavenly.
I write Christian articles for My Friend Debbie On-line Magazine. Whatever I write is taken from my time in prayer. You might say I write on my knees. I journal everything. It is a running conversation with our Lord. I then fine tune it on the computer.
I am in the process of having a book published from these writings. I am excited and pray it will bless many.
Before computers came to be I always wrote my first draft of any work, with a pen. I used a typewriter to make it neat and readable, then with a pen, I’d begin again.
When I wrote, it felt as though there was a pathway from my brain, down through my arm, then into my hand, holding the pen. My thoughts would just flow! As I finished writing one sentence, the next would be forming in my head, ready to begin its journey, where it would find itself merging with the paper as the ink recorded the inspired words.
I loved to see how the pen would produce each word, and I tried out various ways to form the letters of the alphabet. I fancied it to be almost a work of art!
When I got my first computer in the mid 80’s, I wanted to start writing a novel. I had learned from working as an administrative assistant, how marvelous these new machines could be!
My first computer was a used NEC dinosaur, with WordStar. Someone told me WordStar was the most difficult to learn, but since that was what I had, I learned! I had learned WordPerfect on the job.
My goodness, you could easily correct poor spelling, and move whole sentences, and even paragraphs and pages, to a different part of the manuscript! Wow! You could even copy part of one article and paste it into another! I thought it was simply amazing, and I still do!
So, my dedication to the pen, gave in rapidly to the computer keyboard, but not until I learned that my brain could actually work in the same way as with the pen. My thoughts soon directed my fingers on the keyboard, sometimes racing over the keys, while the computer struggled to keep up!
I was over-joyed then, and I still am today as I write on my up-to-date laptop using Word. I must say, though, I still prefer a regular keyboard. I find writing on the laptop itself, is a little difficult. Mostly due to the pain in my hands and fingers from arthritis. I have a keyboard attached to the laptop and find it more comfortable, as is my roller-ball mouse!
Anyway, over the years I began to think I could only “write” if my fingers were over the key-board. Wrong!
I’ve had several surgeries since 1997, and pain has been physically limiting, since then. I couldn’t sit at the computer much, and my inspiration seemed to have taken a vacation. I just couldn’t write unless I could use a computer! So, I didn’t write.
Then last Mother’s Day, my grand-daughter, Linda, (age 10) gave me a set of colorful gel pens and a nice journal. These gel pens are just GREAT! I soon began to write in that journal, with a different color pen each time. Sometimes, I’d use two or three colors on the same page! Such fun!
My muse has awakened and started sending inspiring thoughts, which happily, are getting more numerous! The pen still records my thoughts! The computer didn’t ruin that ability! I’m so thrilled!
I still can’t use the computer, at times. Thanks to Linda, I‘m not stifled anymore! I’m still able to put the words on paper, thanks to God’s creation: mind, arm, hands and fingers, and their ability to co-exist with pen and keyboard!
I’ve found that if I will take out a green, purple or red inked gel pen and start writing words, or just do some doodling, thoughts will soon start to flow and I can catch them and record them on paper with colorful ink!
Some of these words of wisdom, or musings, will find their way into the hard drive, a CD, or a flash-drive, or just live quietly on the computer somewhere. Other thoughts will forever rest happily on the pages of a journal, filled with colorful words, caught and saved by the pen! Caught in whatever color suited my fancy, that day! Some are scribbled in haste; others are almost works of art! I’m SO glad we were taught cursive writing!
Never give up the mighty pen, and make it a colorful one! It can be used anytime, anywhere, and takes up so little space! Give a shout for, the pen!