At the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is look at a screen.
Unfortunately, that’s not very helpful where part-time noveling is concerned. I try to convince myself that it doesn’t matter as long as I write something. But it does. After structuring tightly scripted logical patterns (read technical documents) for eight hours, I just can’t face the screen anymore. So I made a decision to go retro.
Really retro.
I started writing the story longhand. Once the writing jones passes, I take a break and then come back to transcribe my notes.
Seriously?
Yeah, you heard right. Trust me, it wasn’t a decision I made lightly. I’ve had to practically re-learn the art of longhand because I type almost as fast as I think. Writing longhand is a challenge. Writing longhand is slow. Writing longhand makes my fingers cramp.
Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s good to slow down.
Or maybe I’m just trying to convince myself that I’m doing the right thing. At least I don’t have crappy penmanship like most people so I can actually read my notes.
I don’t know for sure about this experiment but so far, it seems to work. I easily cranked out 2,000 words in about an hour and half this past weekend–much faster than when I’m looking at a screen. And it was a pretty decent 2,000 words, too.
So maybe there’s something to this retro kick. After all, I remember how endless stories flowed out of my head when I was small and all I had to write with was a pencil nub and scrap paper. So maybe it doesn’t matter how I write as long as I write.
Let’s see how this retro weekend goes.
