Low tech

I'm writing a manuscript for a (hopefully) journal article.

I've gone back to doing things the way I used to do: instead of composing at the computer, typing on the blank screen, I'm using a legal pad and a pencil.

This is the way I used to work, years ago. I had kind of gotten away from it but I think it is a better method for me. It's slower; it moves more at a pace I can think to. There's also something satisfying to me about seeing the page slowly fill up with my (admittedly messy) handwriting; I suppose it is that it seems more personal to me, more like something I've crafted than those words made of an anonymous typescript on the screen.

I also think the slower pace works better for me. I've noticed sometimes with the computer screen, there's almost an insistence there; I feel like I can "hear" it yelling at me: "FEED ME. FILL ME UP. I NEED WORDS, MORE WORDS! DON'T WORRY ABOUT QUALITY, DON'T STOP AND THINK, JUST TYPE!"

Whereas, with the page, I feel more like it's sitting there, waiting on me. Waiting if I need to go and look something up, waiting for when I have to stop and consult my note cards, waiting while I choose the right word. It seems more patient, somehow, than the computer - which sits, sulking and rejected, over on my other desk. (Oh, I'll type the paper eventually. But I prefer to handwrite it longhand for now).

This is one of those "the same solution does not work for everyone" things. I know people who can write really well at the computer. Or for whom a legal pad presents a blank taunting challenge similar to what the computer screen does for me.

But for me, the legal pad and pencil work best. They are comfortable, they seem to be the pace at which I like to think for this kind of writing. I can actually seem to use two parts of my brain at once, writing this way: part of my brain is composing what I am writing as I write the words on the paper, but another part is silently organizing the upcoming sections, getting lined up what I am going to say next, where I am going to take the paper after this paragraph.

It works at the same pace that my brain seems to work when I am writing, and that helps (I think) to make me write better.

I also find it sort of comforting to work slowly and carefully, to take the time to choose my words, to refer to things, to stop and contemplate what I'm going to say next and how. Oh, I know, I could do all of that at the computer, but somehow, it's more comfortable with the legal pad and pencil.

Some of my friends and colleagues are mildly aghast that I still write this way.