By Hand is a monthly prompt that focuses on freeing our words by using our hands. This month, we’re exploring writing longhand.
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Earlier this month Ann Kroeker, writing coach, podcast host and co-author of On Being a Writer, took a Twitter poll: “This #writingcoach is curious: What’s your favorite word processing tool?” Although the sample size was small, the results came back with Microsoft Word at 63 percent, Scrivener at 38 percent, Google Docs at 0 percent, and pen and paper also at 0.
If Ann had asked about pencil and paper, it would have won my vote. Because that’s where my writing always starts. Later I move on to Word or Scrivener, depending on the project.
Writing by hand is slower. It’s clumsier (as my handwriting degrades). But its limitations somehow release words. I’m not the only Tweetspeak person who finds writing longhand liberating; Glynn Young wrote about the same subject this week at Christian Poets and Writers.
My writing day starts with drinking tea, reading a poem, and then putting pencil to paper. Maybe something good emerges, and maybe it doesn’t. But I have never written anything good that did not first start as something written longhand.
Prompt Guidelines and Options
1. To write longhand does not require a Moleskine and a Montblanc; you can just as easily use a number 2 pencil and a $1 composition notebook. Try writing a journal entry, a book review, or a letter you’ll never send.
2. If the summer sunshine has fried your brain, start by writing a list: grocery list, menu list, to-do list, list of routes walked with your dog, list of places you’d like to visit on vacation. While your fingers are writing a longhand list, a quiet, shy thought might emerge. Your pencil is already there, so write it down.
3. When Maurice Sendak was having trouble with the story that would become Where the Wild Things Are, he wrote several versions of the story—one every few days—in a spiral notebook. Try writing your own wild thing in longhand and in multiple ways.
4. Try writing a tanka using our new infographic. Tanka only has five lines and starts with a haiku, so it’s a poem that’s easier on your hands than, say, a ballad.
That’s it! We look forward to what you create when you do it By Hand.
Photo by Nina G, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Megan Willome, author of The Joy of Poetry.
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Laura Lynn Brown says
Pencil and paper for me too. I often use laptop just because it’s much quicker, and my handwriting is messy (even I can’t always read it), but I think different stuff comes out sometimes when we write by hand. And speckled notebooks don’t have an Internet connection.
I also just enjoy using a pencil. Usually Dixon Ticonderoga Black. If I want a souvenir from somewhere, I always look for a pencil, and most places have one.
One poem. Every Day Poems? Other sources? I know you used to read the Writer’s Almanac poems.
Megan Willome says
Hello, fellow pencil pusher! I use a Papermate Sharpwriter no. 2.
Which poem I read first varies. It may be Every Day Poems. The Writers’ Almanac’s archive is back online. Or I may start with a poem from a collection I’m working my way through. When I take a break from writing and come back, I’ll read whatever poem source I skipped initially.
Glynn says
Megan – thanks for the mention of the article!
When I “discovered” that I wrote differently by hand than by keyboard, I began to adapt how I wrote. Whenever I run into difficulty with an article, a scene, or even a paragraph or line, I turn to writing by hand. Or if something I’m writing needs some extended emotion, I take my journal and starting writing it by hand first.
Why that makes a difference is still a mystery to me. But it does.
Megan Willome says
Glynn, I do the same thing when I’m stuck. It always works.
I think you’re right, that somehow it helps us tap into emotion.
Maureen says
The Difference a Hand Makes
Writing by hand is not the same
as handwriting. One is a preference;
the other, a test of deciphering
every mark you’ve made after
that first jolt of darkest caffeine.
I’m thinking of switching to tea.
*
Nobody has exactly twenty-nine
major and minor bones
in their hands. Some people
have an extra finger,
which means they have more
muscles, too. I’ve got thirty-four:
seventeen in each of my palms,
eighteen in both my forearms,
and, let’s not forget, dozens
of joints and ligaments and nerves —
together, the biomechanics we use
remotely with a quarter of our motor
cortex. Now, add a pencil to this
mix — oh, ok: that old fountain pen —
and, using your opposable thumb,
write down your daily word count
on a clean sheet of recycled paper.
No grading on a curve. Fingers are
never perfectly straight. Eating
gelatin won’t change the number,
and a good crack of the knuckles
is nothing but a familiar warm-up.
It takes practice, the anonymous say,
a circular file, a whole lot of lead, eyes
too disciplined to watch the rotating
pointer on your watch and, if lucky,
a round of applause to keep you going.
Physical assistance is suggested only
if you need a new keyboard and splints.
(With thanks for Hand Facts and Trivia)
Megan Willome says
Thanks to you, Maureen, for both of those poems. I love what you did with incorporating the facts into the second one, something I often find myself doing. And in the first one, I love this line: “I’m thinking of switching to tea.”
Happy poeming!
Ann Kroeker says
What a difference one word makes. Pencil was pivotal for you. Thanks for including my little Twitter poll in this post. I hope it gets people writing!
Megan Willome says
Me too, Ann. Thanks for the inspiration!
Will Willingham says
The difference is not all in our heads, either. 🙂 Actually, it sort of is. The research shows that using our hands (vs. other parts of our bodies) actually activates larger parts of the brain’s cortex, and also that, because of the different use of our hands when writing longhand vs typing (it’s all about the sequential strokes, I guess), students write “more words, faster, and expressed more ideas” because writing longhand engages the brain in a different way.
Appreciate the conversation on this. 🙂
Megan Willome says
That’s fascinating, LW. Thanks!
Debbie says
I definitely am a pen and pencil woman! My handwriting is not that pretty but a pen in my hand flows quicker than my hands at a keyboard.
Megan Willome says
Debbie, for me typing is much faster, but that’s also its limitation. Writing longhand is slower, therefore more deliberative.
Sally Albright-Green says
I teach 8th graders. I would love more info on the brain research and writing longhand. My crude studies return complex results based on how, when, and which students move from pen to keyboard. I am constantly adjusting my ideas about this as the learners who show up each year for the last few, have been markedly different in this regard as well.
I know for me, I return to the pen when needing to tap the core. It is, indeed, a different experience, and often a challenge to help learners acknowledge it.
Megan Willome says
Sally, I like the idea of tapping the core.
And I’d love to hear more about your students in this regard.