Why I Write Fiction By Hand

    Sometimes a slower pace allows for higher quality and less editing

    

    Six months ago, I started writing fiction by hand. Up until that point, I used a laptop like many other writers. 

    In fact, most writers use a laptop for their writing. And it's easy to see why. You have access to word documents that can auto-correct typos, save their work to clouds to view on other devices, use AI to auto-generate ideas, and even email their finished works to others for review. It's obviously the most efficient way too, right?

    Now, I can type 105-110 words per minute. I can't even come close to that same amount by hand. But that's not always a good thing. Because I've noticed that when I allow myself to fall into the beautiful, mesmerizing flow state that we all love, while in auto-pilot mode, some of the descriptions don't come out in the best way possible, or maybe I haven't chosen the best words for that particular scene or dialogue snippet. 

    Of course, that's the exact point of editing afterwards. To clean up your mistakes, tighten up the dialogue, and ensure that you've done your best to make the scene as memorable as possible. 

    However, I believe that writing by hand eliminates most of the need for the heavier lifting parts of editing and multiple drafts. (You still have to read it over and make improvements, but the actual amount will be far less compared to using a laptop.)

    Here's why. When you write by hand, your eyes observe each letter that your pen/pencil puts onto the page. If you begin writing a word that you instinctively know isn't the best choice, your brain will start presenting alternatives in the middle of the word. Then, you just cross out the word, or erase it, and continue the thought you were on.

    With a laptop, I always skipped over this part, since I was typing too fast for my brain to build the list. Thus, when it came to editing, the process would always take far longer than I felt it should. 

    In addition, I've noticed the overall quality has improved when writing by hand. This is due in part because of better word choices, as stated above. But I also have more time to imagine/visualize the scene in real time since my hand can continue writing the words on its own. 

    What I mean is, if I'm writing dialogue, I can imagine how the characters would appear if this conversation was happening in front of me. How their body language would change, for instance, or even how their facial expressions might shift based on what they're hearing. It's easier to envision all of this when you allow yourself a little more time to do so. 

    To be completely honest, if you're not the fastest at typing, you may already have a nice balance. My opinion comes from a place of typing too fast and creating scenes that need a lot of work in editing. I've learned to offset this hinderance by using a pen instead of a laptop. (And I own a typewriter, which I'll try out soon enough.)

    In short, writing by hand is an amazing way to write. It forces you to take your time, be sure of your word choices, and doesn't allow for as many errors. (The latter is especially true for me. I once sent a friend a "finished" short story that had four basic spelling/grammar errors in one sentence. Yikes.)

    For full disclosure, I wrote this blog post on a laptop. When it comes to blogging, my goal is to share an opinion for others to think about, provide (hopefully) useful tips on other skills such as a SEO and sales copywriting, and even throw out random ideas of what crazy things might be invented over the course of our lifetimes. As such, there's no dialogue to correct except my own, so I can edit these posts much faster than I can when editing fiction. 

    Anyway, if you've ever wanted to try writing your stuff by hand, definitely give it a try. Maybe you'll love it and switch your method, or maybe you'll decide you prefer using a word document. The choice is yours! Either way, just focus on being consistent with your writing. If you can do that, you can write anything.