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I have heard Neil Gaiman say something similar. Writing by hand is slower and you end up having to type it which pushes you toward cutting things down and strea

I have heard Neil Gaiman say something similar. Writing by hand is slower and you end up having to type it which pushes you toward cutting things down and streamlining the prose.

foota 4y ago
Neal Stephenson must have exceptional handwriting endurance then.
- beambot 4y ago
  Looks like average productivity for major authors is roughly 2000 words per day -- or 6-7 pages. https://wordcounter.net/blog/2017/12/04/103207_the-daily-word-counts-of-19-famous-writers.html https://wordcounter.net/blog/2017/12/04/103207_the-daily-wor... Michael Crichton at 10,000 words is a crazy outlier.
  - em-bee 4y ago
    i can't write more than half a page without my handwriting getting sloppy. especially because it is slow, i am tempted to write faster, and soon the result becomes unreadable. so yes, anyone doing this must have good discipline in handwriting
    - unnah 4y ago
      Did you do your schoolwork on a computer? It's not that many years ago that a school exam could mean writing multiple half-page answers by hand, and you would also write multi-page essays by hand.
      - em-bee 4y ago
        no i didn't. but i never had good handwriting. and once i got out of school i was working with computers all day, so somehow it must have gotten worse since then. i think the main problem is some kind of impatience getting something written down, which i guess i developed after getting used to writing on a computer. in other words i am simply out of practice
- lproven 4y ago
  I remember him saying in an interview long ago that he wrote with a fountain pen. I changed countries and career paths about 8 years ago, and for a while, over the next 3 roles, it involved large amounts of note-taking. Tens of pages of notes per day, every day, for weeks at a time. I switched to using fountain pens too, and found it hugely increased what you call "handwriting endurance". I can write for an hour or more with a fountain pen, without pain or difficulty or cramping. (I am in my mid-50s now, and this was in my late 40s. That means that part of the time at school we had to use fountain pens. So it was a switch back for me.) With ballpoint pens, be they cheap and nasty or premium high-quality ones, you can press hard. This tires the hands and causes cramps. You can't do that with a fountain pen. It damages the nib. You have to press lightly on the paper and that makes you write better. It also encourages good cursive letter forms, which evolved for a sharp nib on paper, which snags in certain directions, also less of a problem for ballpoints. I mostly use Pilot V-Pen disposable fountain pens. They are exceptionally reliable, the whole barrel is full of ink so they last much longer than a cartridge or reservoir pen, and they don't leak even in a backpack that's treated roughly. I recommend trying them. It's worth the effort. It works. Ballpoints, however fancy, are only for scribbling quick notes. A proper pen results in better writing, and writing better.
lawlorino 4y ago
This is pretty interesting, I've noticed I find it easier to recall information if I've written it down by hand instead of typing it on a computer. I wonder if it's a similar mechanism to what Neil and Neal find with writing - it means the thing you want to express spends longer in the brain's buffer and this leads to several benefits at the cost of it being slower. Probably goes without saying I might be talking out of my arse here but it's interesting to think about.

I have heard Neil Gaiman say something similar. Writing by hand is slower and you end up having to type it which pushes you toward cutting things down and streamlining the prose.

foota 4y ago

Neal Stephenson must have exceptional handwriting endurance then.

beambot 4y ago
Looks like average productivity for major authors is roughly 2000 words per day -- or 6-7 pages. https://wordcounter.net/blog/2017/12/04/103207_the-daily-word-counts-of-19-famous-writers.html https://wordcounter.net/blog/2017/12/04/103207_the-daily-wor... Michael Crichton at 10,000 words is a crazy outlier.
- em-bee 4y ago
  i can't write more than half a page without my handwriting getting sloppy. especially because it is slow, i am tempted to write faster, and soon the result becomes unreadable. so yes, anyone doing this must have good discipline in handwriting
  - unnah 4y ago
    Did you do your schoolwork on a computer? It's not that many years ago that a school exam could mean writing multiple half-page answers by hand, and you would also write multi-page essays by hand.
    - em-bee 4y ago
      no i didn't. but i never had good handwriting. and once i got out of school i was working with computers all day, so somehow it must have gotten worse since then. i think the main problem is some kind of impatience getting something written down, which i guess i developed after getting used to writing on a computer. in other words i am simply out of practice
lproven 4y ago
I remember him saying in an interview long ago that he wrote with a fountain pen. I changed countries and career paths about 8 years ago, and for a while, over the next 3 roles, it involved large amounts of note-taking. Tens of pages of notes per day, every day, for weeks at a time. I switched to using fountain pens too, and found it hugely increased what you call "handwriting endurance". I can write for an hour or more with a fountain pen, without pain or difficulty or cramping. (I am in my mid-50s now, and this was in my late 40s. That means that part of the time at school we had to use fountain pens. So it was a switch back for me.) With ballpoint pens, be they cheap and nasty or premium high-quality ones, you can press hard. This tires the hands and causes cramps. You can't do that with a fountain pen. It damages the nib. You have to press lightly on the paper and that makes you write better. It also encourages good cursive letter forms, which evolved for a sharp nib on paper, which snags in certain directions, also less of a problem for ballpoints. I mostly use Pilot V-Pen disposable fountain pens. They are exceptionally reliable, the whole barrel is full of ink so they last much longer than a cartridge or reservoir pen, and they don't leak even in a backpack that's treated roughly. I recommend trying them. It's worth the effort. It works. Ballpoints, however fancy, are only for scribbling quick notes. A proper pen results in better writing, and writing better.

lawlorino 4y ago

This is pretty interesting, I've noticed I find it easier to recall information if I've written it down by hand instead of typing it on a computer. I wonder if it's a similar mechanism to what Neil and Neal find with writing - it means the thing you want to express spends longer in the brain's buffer and this leads to several benefits at the cost of it being slower. Probably goes without saying I might be talking out of my arse here but it's interesting to think about.