Pink Think: “You are just in the middle of a struggle with words which are really very stubborn things, with a blank page, with the (darn) thing that you use to write with, a pen or a typewriter, and you forget all about the reader when you are doing that.” – Guillermo Cabrera Infante
photo: my laptop computer
Today, for a few minutes, the power went out. I was on the computer in the middle of my revision, and decided to stop writing so I won’t drain my laptop’s battery. I could have written longhand or on my Alphasmart, but I couldn’t get myself to do it.
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I’ve tried it all: long-hand, typing, writing on an Alphasmart, and writing on a computer.
Long-hand on pink paper gets me unstuck from writer’s block. Though I feel productive, I usually change what I’ve written when I transfer the story onto my computer. But it’s a great way to get back into writing.
Typing is cool (I grew up with a typewriter in my bedroom). Brian Jacques types his novels on a typewriter in his garden. Ernest Hemingway wrote his novels this way. I typed out a fun first chapter on an electric typewriter and could have kept going until I discovered that a) the ribbon is expensive and b) it’s a lot of work to re-type onto the computer.
An Alphasmart is great to use camping, or in a truck when I am picking up kids. But it’s hard to see the “big picture” with such a little window.
Hands down, I prefer the computer. Seeing the entire page helps me see the pacing of my story. The downside: the delete button and a wireless internet connection.
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How do YOU write best?
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