What We Leave Behind II
June 15, 2018

One of the interesting side-effects of returning to longhand writing after many
years away is that I can now see all the "extra" work that goes into
writing--the crossed out words, the arrows and inserted sentences, the
paragraphs that died on the vine and will never make it into the next draft.
When I used to write everything on my laptop, all that work was more or less
invisible. I could go back and change a word, leaving no trace of my earlier
choice. A flex or two of my fingers put new words exactly where I thought they
should go; the same for paragraphs, which could be cut or repositioned with
equal ease.

But being able to actually see the amount of work I put into a draft has had an
interesting effect on my writing. As I mentioned back in February, the act of
observing something (ex. calories eaten, sodium intake) often causes the decline
in the amount of that which is observed. The same has been true, in a sense,
with my writing. My first drafts are getting tighter, my word choices more
exact. I've become a much more concise, and hopefully precise, writer.

Returning to longhand writing has had both benefits and costs. I've found I get
more actual writing done with pen and paper. In the past, I scribbled notes to
type up later. Now I can get first-draft words on paper, saving time and
skipping an intermediate step. It's also been good for getting in "stolen
writing" while waiting in doctor's offices or in odd moments. But I've also had
to spend time improving my previous near-illegible handwriting, and the speed
and volume of my writing has decreased (temporarily, I hope) as I adapt to a new
way of doing things.

Writing is a highly personal act and as writers, we all have a favorite method
of composition. As I've found, though, giving up the "usual" way of doing things
and changing a writing process that I'd used for over a decade has been
beneficial to my writing. I've been pleasantly surprised by the results, and can
offer this bit of advice: whatever your writing process, it may be good to break
with your current routine and try something new.

(c) 2018 by Andrew Gudgel 
email: contact [at] andrewgudgel.com