Requiem for Methuselah

[Forbin]

Well, I was surprised to see that my writer friend Phil Giunta writes on paper, when he posted a shot of the pages he wrote while sitting at his table at a con. I've just assumed that everybody writes on keyboards of one form or another for the last couple of decades.

 

[aridas sofia]

I still occasionally write with a fountain pen. It most definitely influences the way thought is committed to word. There's no way around it- punching a keyboard is more like dumping ideas out of your head, while using a pen - and particularly a fountain pen - slows the process and gives it a fluidity that the stacatto rat tat tat of punching keys cannot match.

 

[geotrek]

I think the ease and simplicity and human-ness of just grabbing a piece of paper and writing something down will be favored by some writers, composers and artists, and just people in general.

Yes. I love my mechanical pencil and will almost always use it to develop ideas before I start typing.

There is a different mental experience with writing on paper using a hand held instrument. Your recording pace is slower and more deliberate. You know that correction is messy, so you think things through more before writing. It affects your creative drive.

Exactly, sir. The difference between the physical connection when forming letters by hand rather than simply pushing a button has an impact on the result, for me at least. Plus, since (I think) this concerns written music; while Noteflight and other tools make composition easier, the same rule applies. You feel the music better when handwriting it, IMHO.

 

[Doug Otte]

I still occasionally write with a fountain pen. It most definitely influences the way thought is committed to word. There's no way around it- punching a keyboard is more like dumping ideas out of your head, while using a pen - and particularly a fountain pen - slows the process and gives it a fluidity that the stacatto rat tat tat of punching keys cannot match.

Yes. I love my mechanical pencil and will almost always use it to develop ideas before I start typing.



Exactly, sir. The difference between the physical connection when forming letters by hand rather than simply pushing a button has an impact on the result, for me at least. Plus, since (I think) this concerns written music; while Noteflight and other tools make composition easier, the same rule applies. You feel the music better when handwriting it, IMHO.

It's gratifying to read about the physical experience of writing and correlating it to the rhythm of the words.

Interestingly, I recently read Murakami's Absolutely On Music, in which he documented many discussions with Ozawa. In one passage, Murakami mentioned the rhythm of his prose and likened it to music. Strangely, Ozawa was completely bemused by the concept, as if he never considered that the spoken or written word has a rhythm.