Looking for the Right Way to Write: Back to Pen and Paper

I wrote this by hand. Well, not this exactly, but a different version of this which I then typed out for all to see. I guess I could have scanned my original and uploaded it as a PDF or something. Actually, that wouldn't work, no one would be able to read a word of it. Even I struggle to read my own handwriting. How sad is that?

We are slowly losing the ability to write. Not in theory, but in practice. Sure, everyone can still "write" in the way that putting thoughts into words into sentences into paragraphs is "writing". But no one actually puts pen to paper anymore. It is popular, though, to praise the counter culture trend which boasts of the benefits and intimacy of the long hand letter writing process. "Nothing is better than getting a handwritten note in the mail", explains the every-person who just wrote a letter and felt good about it. You know what else feels good? Getting the information in said letter to its recipient in less than a couple of days. Yes, the USPS does a great job, but the system of tubes that we have named the internet crushes our loyal mail-people. Split second vs few days: it is no contest. There is no Romanticism about an email, however, so people will continue to wax poetically about the methods of the past.

Will email ever be looked at in a similar nostalgic way? We are headed towards a world where email becomes the slow dinosaur. Connections are even faster now. Why send an email when you can text or tweet or SMS or Facebook message or use any of the other countless instant gratification methods of communication? When I am aging into my autumn years will I set my grandchild upon my knee and say "Son, in my day any man worth his grain would take the time to sit down and craft a thoughtful email. Nothing is more rewarding that opening up a new message which just hit your inbox. Those were the days". 

I guess one of the qualities that people still point to when listing the benefits of actual writing is the personal aspect. Everyone has their own style of handwriting. On the other hand, your Times New Roman looks exactly like my Times New Roman. I will not take the stance that maybe this is better as it then becomes more important that the words define the writing rather than the look of the words defining the writing. There should never be a case where a good essay is punished because the handwriting is sloppy (still holding a grudge). Strip away the noise and the words have to speak for themselves. Interestingly, I heard a story on a podcast the other day detailing a study which concluded that a person's typing style was almost as unique as their handwriting. These guys could, after studying a person for a bit of time, tell their typing apart from others simply based on their keystroke pattern. This meant that passwords could have an added level of security. Not only would a criminal have to know the password but they would have to mirror the typing style. It's like a forged signature. Anyone could write my name on a form, it would be much more difficult to forge my signature. I would say this would be impossible as I can't even forge my own signature. If I actively think about signing my name the follow through ends up being very different than my normal signature. My true signature comes from the unconscious. 

A couple of sentences back I wrote about listening to a story on a podcast. I settled on this phrasing only after originally writing and crossing out "listening to a story on the radio". This phenomenon is strange to me. We still say radio even when clearly talking about other distribution methods. We still tape record things even if we use a TiVo. The Grammy's award a "Record of the Year" despite the fact that only a handful of top artists release vinyl anymore. I mean this entire rant is about writing when no one writes anymore. 

I am clearly out of shape. Not in a physical fitness type of way, but in a handwriting kind of way. This is only two and a half page mark and my writing muscles are starting to work against me. The words are somehow getting sloppier as my fingers are trying to move as little as possible. I never noticed how closely I hold my writing utensil to the tip. I am almost writing with my fingers as opposed to the pen. Trying to pull my fingers back but this only increases the in-legibility. These are the trade-offs I face as I hand write. 

I bet people years ago had huge hands. Bill Shakespeare must have been able to punch out a bear with his bare hands. No one can put that many words onto a page without developing Incredible Hulk smashing hands. Bill Shakespeare would totally kick my ass. The other day, a friend of mine showed me a picture of two action figures. One was of our hero Billy Shakes and the other was of Ed Poe. They even came with accessories like detachable ink quills. This immediately got me thinking, who would prevail in a bracket style tournament between literary figures? Now I wouldn't base the winners on writing ability, fame or overall popularity, but more in a pure gut-feeling "who is more awesome" eye test kind of way. I feel like both Shakespeare and Poe would be number one seeds in their regions. I would favor Twain as another one seed if not for any other reason than the remarkable amount of quotes attributed to him. The last number one seed would be a close call. Would it need to be a philosopher? If so then who? Plato, Thoreau, Nietzsche? Or maybe a woman would need to grab the final seed. Angelou, Morrison or a more contemporary choice like Rowling or Meyer? I have a strange feeling that Roald Dahl would do well. I can see him as a punchy mid major who upsets a powerhouse, someone like Steve King. King would go down and he would go down hard. My elite eight would be Poe, Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Dahl, Angelou, Twain, Herman Melville and Sun Tzu. But I digress.

I have to admit, I don't think that last tangent would have made it into this piece if it was typed. I would have either started a new piece solely focused on the hypothetical tournament or I would have scrapped it as a passing thought. There is an added focus of handwriting. There is nothing to click on or take attention away. My focus is entirely on each consecutive word. Well, almost all, I keep noticing the girl in the coffee shop who is wearing the same hat as me. The only difference is that mine has two metal button-like things on the side and she has metal loops in their place. Most of my thoughts about this are along the lines of hoping she doesn't notice this little similarity that I have. But is she wearing a guy's hat or am I wearing a girl's hat? Should I ask the other patrons at the coffee shop what they think? This would be the only fair way to settle this. I'll have to be content with knowing deep down who would prevail if our case was brought before a jury of our coffee shop peers.

I cannot spell in this form. We are all so spoiled by spell check. Is this bad, though? Or is this progress? As long as our failed attempts at spelling "parenthesis" or "soliloquy" are close enough, we can survive. Sometimes I am so far away, poor spell check simply comes back with "No Suggestions". None? Really? I was so far off that your computer analysis had no idea as to how I could even form a word from the jumbled mess I had attempted to pass off? Wow. So now without the aide of spellchecker the true speller comes out. I'm tempted to simply retype this word for word, letter for letter without spell checking and publishing the unrated version. But I'll come to my scentses. 

I can't decide whether writing on paper is more or less confining than typing. If I was typing, I would have an infinite amount of space to compile my thoughts, but the physical representation would remain only the size of my screen. Paper has it's physical limits but I can chose to write this sentence beyond the margins or I could write in the white space on the top of the page. But as the end of each sheet closes in the same dilemma is presented. Write smaller and squeeze in this word or that phrase or move on to the next page. This is a bigger decision than it seems. The sullying of a new, pristine page of paper is a major deal.

It was not my plan but this is the first sentence I wrote on a new sheet. I could have ended it on the previous page but now my writing will expand to fill the white space. It's not as if I'm going to stop after a few sentences. I made the leap to write on this page so I will make the most of it. The page would want it this way. 

I'm glad I wrote this by hand. I came away with a few observations. 1.) I separate my thoughts much more easily on the typed page. After some alterations, I ended up with many short little thoughts as they appear here but on the written page it was just one long paragraph, no blocked thoughts. 2.) For some reason writing by hand truly is more personal. I can feel that my style of thinking is different. My words are coming out more naturally. Perhaps because I take longer to write than to type, this allows for me to craft thoughts in a more personal way rather than dumping words onto the screen. 3.) Overall, I don't think the end product is better or worse. Each method has clear benefits and downsides.

I hope to write more of these rambling stream of consciousness pieces every few weeks. They help to open up the mind and I found it to be rather therapeutic. So, to all you typists out there, try writing ever once in awhile. Oh no, I sound like one of those aging romantics already! Time to put the pen down.

GRM

Looking for the Right Way to Write: Back to Pen and Paper