I’m a nerd. I have two engineering degrees, I work with industrial control systems, I know six programming languages. I also know 4 markup languages. It would have been 3, but that bastard Markdown got me curious, thankyouverymuch.

I’m a bona fide technofile. So why did I decide to write my first novel longhand?

The same reasons Hemingway did.

When you start to write you get all the kick and the reader gets none. So you might as well use a typewriter because it is that much easier and you enjoy it that much more. After you learn to write your whole object is to convey everything, every sensation, sight, feeling, place and emotion to the reader. To do this you have to work over what you write. If you write with a pencil you get three different sights at it to see if the reader is getting what you want him to. First when you read it over; then when it is typed you get another chance to improve it, and again in the proof. Writing it first in pencil gives you one-third more chance to improve it. That is .333 which is a damned good average for a hitter. It also keeps it fluid longer so you can better it easier.

You Get All the Kick

No matter what the novel becomes, no matter how well it sells (or doesn’t sell) no one will ever see the first draft. It’s crap. I’m spewing words out on a blank page and hoping to end up with something resembling a story.

You won’t ever see the rough draft, it’s all for me. It’s a pure act of creation and I want to get everything out of it I can. That means writing with a pencil (in my case a nice fountain pen). There’s something about writing longhand that puts me closer to the work. I can FEEL the words.

On top of that, writing longhand slows me down. When I type my thoughts come faster, faster than my typing can match. I’ve been known to skip entire sentences while typing. My thoughts have already moved on. But when I write by hand my thoughts slow down. I have to think about that ONE word. Then, when I write that word, I have to think about the next ONE word.

Overall it makes for better sentence structure because I have to take the time to think about each word I write.

You Get Three Different Sights At It

We live in a digital age. As much as I’d love to cloister myself in a monastery and hand scribe each edition of my final novel, it just ain’t in the cards.

At some point it has to go digital.

I’m either going to publish the thing myself, in which case I need a digital format to upload to Amazon and other outlets, or I’m going to submit it to a publisher in which case they’re going to want a computer printout of a manuscript with a submission.

That conversion from hand writing to digital gives me a free, built in edit. I’m pantsing the hell out of my rough draft. I barely know how the thing ends, let alone the plot points I need to hit along the way. I need all the help I can get.

When I type it into the computer I get a free chance to edit the entire draft, sentence by sentence.

A lot of authors who write longhand will write their day’s work then go back and immediately put those pages into the computer. I’m not doing that. I know me. That’s a recipe for never finishing the damn thing.

Nope. I’m going to finish the ENTIRE rough draft longhand, then transcribe it into the PC.

It Also Keeps it Fluid Longer

The biggest step in writing a novel is just freaking writing it. Finishing a draft. Calling it a story.

But, as another Hemingway quote suggests, the first draft of anything is shit. You can write it on a PC and it will be shit. You can write it with a fountain pen and it will be shit. You can chisel it onto stone tablets and it will be shit.

Your first draft will be shit.

I know mine is. I’m relying heavily on the editing phase of the novel writing process. In that case it’s best to keep the manuscript as easy to edit as possible for as long as possible.

It’s a principle that I KNOW works in the engineering world.

If I need to change a widget to make it easier to assemble it’s a non-issue when the widget only exists on paper.

The price goes up exponentially if I need a change and a widget assembly line is already being built.

Changes are damn near impossible once widget production has reached full swing.

Trust me, keep you draft as “soft” as possible for as long as possible.

photo credit: Toronto History via photopin cc