Doubts on Writing

[Anthony Ravenscroft]

Piers also is a big devotee of the Dvorak keyboard, so go figure.

I don't have much trouble with pounding the PC, but then I started out on typewriter. The problem that I see with many newish writers is that it's too goshdarned easy to do two things: (1) endlessly tweak rather than write, & (2) splat out facile drivel.

I'm a crap touch-typist, but I've learned to not watch the screen, because when I'm actually writing (like at this very moment) I simply dump the stuff into the sieve & see what survives the trip. I only look at the keyboard in a sort of half-focussed way, & I've actually experimented with taking off my glasses during a session -- my focus is like 3", so that's pretty radical.

It's a different experience entirely to write in a fashion that requires re-keying most of the stuff. Sure, I've got blue pencils (which dates me) but many of the aforementioned newish writers have never actually taken a draft & retyped it from scratch. Let me tell ya, it changes things. Most times, you run off a hard copy, mark it up, then go in & incorporate your markups... but that's editing, not writing.

But when I rekey, I find myself questioning (in a good way) the choices I'd made on the previous draft. What's up with the dialogue? Who's that dummy standing in the corner? Shouldn't this subplot be in a different story?

More than a few newish writers just end up endlessly turd-polishing because it's so easy, rather than doing actual drafts. For all their delighted crowing about "organic writing," they sit down & grunt out the half-baked idea with which they began, no "organic" evolution allowed, just adjusting the pig's makeup.

[MichaelP1989]

I have a difficult time writing on the computer; the blank screen and the flashing cursor intimidate me.

My rough drafts are done by hand and then typed out on the computer, with little edits as I go. Not only am I more comfortable this way, but the end product seems more concise.

[reddragon70]

I much prefer to write on a computer. For several reasons.

1. My spelling isn't great and a computer will highlight errors that can be corrected.

2. I dont actually own a typewriter and even if I did, I hear that getting ribbons is a bit of a bugger these days.

3. I dont think the machine used to create matters. HR Giger paints using an airbrush not with oils and a brush. So why not a computer to write?

4. My friend Robert Rankin writes with a pen. Yeah. Pen and paper, in school exercise jotters. Roughly 30 jotters equals a novel. So the first draft is in his own hand writing. And he has had more than 30 novels printed.

Work with whatever you are comfortable with. If the story is a good one, then it has as much worth as anyone's work.