The pen is mightier than the (key)board
When I first started blogging, which wasn’t too long ago, I would write all my posts off the top of my head straight onto the screen. I didn’t plan them very much and I would have to go back and edit them because I wasn’t happy with the phrasing or the grammar. I would end up with a lot draft posts and published posts that needed further work. I had a list of ideas for new posts that I wanted to write but needed another approach.
One of the practices that I have maintained over the last eight years or so is the morning pages. I write by hand for half an hour every morning in a stream of consciousness fashion. No editing or judgement, just writing. I also like to write letters by hand but to a somewhat lesser extent with the advent of e-mail. Sitting down with a pad of paper and pen comes very naturally to me, perhaps more so than looking at a screen.
I have adopted this same approach to blogging. I have a subject and a title and then work on it away from the computer with paper and pen. Usually a fountain pen with real ink. I can cross things out and make margin notes. Somehow the hand-written scrawls allow me to shape and mould the text in a more inviting or accessible way than what appears to me as finished text on the screen. I am also somehow more relaxed. My hand moves as I think. I can do it anywhere rather than sitting at my desktop.
Couldn’t I simply use a laptop and save myself the trouble of writing and then copying it? Yes I could, but it would be much the same as sitting at the desktop computer but on the sofa or in bed instead. It’s all about the process and being away from the machine which I tend to think of (in this context) as a glorified typewriter, allows me to think without being under pressure. I don’t have to make it perfect: I’m allowed to make mistakes. Seeing the characters on the screen makes them appear so polished and finished that I feel I have to match the perfection of the font with my writing. On paper I am free of those restrictions.
A few iterations later it’s on my blog. Another blog amongst many that populate the web. Why do I go to all this trouble? The process. I really like the process. The end result can sometimes appear far less than perfect, but I know better myself and I feel happy with it.