I am handwriting my Traditional Witchcraft from Scratch manuscript. Handwriting is a powerful way to limit distractions, stay focused and slow down and really think about what you are communicating. Unless you do shorthand, no one writes as fast as they can think, but some folks can type faster than they can think, which means ideas can get rushed over without being fully explained. Tapping away can lead to quantity over quality.
When I got back into handwriting blog posts, I did it because my attention was terrible. Anytime I had to write my patheos article, it was like pulling teeth. I would open google docs, then before I even had an idea of what to write about picked I had tumblr open for “inspiration” an hour or more later I had nothing written, my deadline was looming, and I was progressively more burnt out.
Research shows that multi-taskers work faster, but produce less. Deliberate, steady paced, focused work is more successful. Since I got away from the penultimate multitask tempter, the computer, I have written my best work ever and am just half a dozen pages from a full manuscript now.
Putting things down in a notebook didn’t go perfectly immediately. I had a lot of false starts, pretty often what I start writing is great, but not for the project that’s due. I try to get the jist of stray ideas down and then leave a couple blank pages in the notebook to write them in later. I had to learn how many pages translated into how many words for an article, and relearn it when I ran out of college ruled notebooks and switched to legal or wide ruled. I also had to deal with hand cramps. Sometimes poor posture and using pencil led me to lose days writing my book because I had hurt my hand badly. I got smart and switched to pen and then even smarter and switched to fat pens that are ergonomic.
One of the advantages to having my manuscript in notebooks is that I have an extra back up of the computer version is compromised. When I transcribe I have written it’s another level of review where I can rephrase things, add to what I have down and cut crap.
After the rough draft is typed up, I print it and put it in a binder for marking up. I find several advantages to having a physical print out. First I see a tanglible pile of papers, it’s an early copy of my book. The sense of accomplishment and confidence just tapping my fingers on the pages is wonderful.
Second, editing by hand this way continues to slow down my thinking. I make notes throughout of where I need to expand. When I edit while typing I jump right into filling things in and that means I don’t spend enough time organizing my thoughts.
After I have identified all the ideas I need to unpack, I write them all into a notebook giving a few pages for each. Next I go through and start writing the easiest section first. Next I go about planning what sections will require research and gathering needed resources for them.
My current issues I work through with handwriting my book is that I run out of paper in my little one subject notebooks and have had to fill half a dozen so far. Next book I will buy a five subject college ruled notebook. And my other issue is misplacing my notebooks and ergonomic pens. Next time I will buy a bunch of extra pens, will always keep my notebook in my office, and will transcribe new pages more often.