4 ms·

This is interesting to watch. I notice you type something, you delete it, and then type something different quite a bit. When you write on paper, how do you dea

by dcurtis 18y ago

This is interesting to watch. I notice you type something, you delete it, and then type something different quite a bit. When you write on paper, how do you deal with this constant deletion?

bockris 18y ago
I do this too. I basically am a non-functioning writer unless I am on a computer. I guess I'm lucky I was born when I was. Side note. Neal Stephenson wrote the Baroque Cycle out long hand. This post (http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/01/the-entire-terr.html http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/01/the-entire-terr.html) was from last month ago but I also remember 3 other pictures from several years ago. http://www.nealstephenson.com/photos.htm http://www.nealstephenson.com/photos.htm I was completely dumbfounded when I first saw that stack of paper because I can barely manage to write a one line note to my wife without scratching something out. To undertake something as large as the Baroque cycle trilogy is really beyond my comprehension. I don't know if he wrote Cryptonomicon this way also but my first edition is full of typos. Something I imagine could happen if you turn over several hundred hand written pages with edits to a typist.
- swombat 18y ago
  Writing on paper has one advantage: because you can't revise things, you're forced to finish the first draft before you start on the second. So, what you produce may not be as good as it will get later, but at least it's complete. The major disadvantage of writing on paper is of course when you have no idea what you're going to write ahead of time, because then your first draft is going to be very, very low quality.
pg 18y ago
I think more before writing when it's on paper. The medium has more friction. But I haven't written anything for publication on paper since 1991, when I finished writing On Lisp on a stack of legal pads.
- izaidi 18y ago
  That's interesting. I'm the opposite way: I find I think less before writing and edit a lot more when I write on paper. Words on a screen look as flawlessly rendered as words in print, and to me that makes them seem more permanent; I feel like I have to really think hard before I can tell these perfect letters what to do. Stuff written in my own hand feels more tentative and more malleable.
- Xichekolas 18y ago
  You wrote an entire book on legal pads?! I mean, I guess people wrote books before there were computers, so I shouldn't be that surprised, but I just realized I can't imagine writing anything longer than a couple pages on paper. I remember arguing with English teachers in middle school that I thought better while typing. They insisted that I hand write my rough draft anyway, and I hated it.
  - bockris 18y ago
    > You wrote an entire book on legal pads?! How about an entire trilogy of books. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495491 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495491
  - shader 18y ago
    J. K. Rowling did most of her draft work on lined paper: "There is only one thing that annoys me about living in Edinburgh - well, two, but I'm pretty much resigned to the weather now. Why is it so difficult to buy paper in the middle of town? What is a writer who likes to write longhand supposed to do when she hits her stride and then realises, to her horror, that she has covered every bit of blank paper in her bag? Forty-five minutes it took me, this morning, to find somewhere that would sell me some normal, lined paper. And there's a university here! What do the students use? Don't tell me laptops, it makes me feel like something out of the eighteenth century." -J. K. Rowling Source: http://www.writerswrite.com/wblog.php?wblog=410061 http://www.writerswrite.com/wblog.php?wblog=410061 According to Wikipedia, she did the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone on a manual typewriter.
gnaritas 18y ago
What's really interesting, is that you presume anyone actually would write on paper anymore, how old are you?

by dcurtis 18y ago

This is interesting to watch. I notice you type something, you delete it, and then type something different quite a bit. When you write on paper, how do you deal with this constant deletion?

bockris 18y ago

I do this too. I basically am a non-functioning writer unless I am on a computer. I guess I'm lucky I was born when I was. Side note. Neal Stephenson wrote the Baroque Cycle out long hand. This post (http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/01/the-entire-terr.html http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2009/01/the-entire-terr.html) was from last month ago but I also remember 3 other pictures from several years ago. http://www.nealstephenson.com/photos.htm http://www.nealstephenson.com/photos.htm I was completely dumbfounded when I first saw that stack of paper because I can barely manage to write a one line note to my wife without scratching something out. To undertake something as large as the Baroque cycle trilogy is really beyond my comprehension. I don't know if he wrote Cryptonomicon this way also but my first edition is full of typos. Something I imagine could happen if you turn over several hundred hand written pages with edits to a typist.

swombat 18y ago
Writing on paper has one advantage: because you can't revise things, you're forced to finish the first draft before you start on the second. So, what you produce may not be as good as it will get later, but at least it's complete. The major disadvantage of writing on paper is of course when you have no idea what you're going to write ahead of time, because then your first draft is going to be very, very low quality.

pg 18y ago

I think more before writing when it's on paper. The medium has more friction. But I haven't written anything for publication on paper since 1991, when I finished writing On Lisp on a stack of legal pads.

izaidi 18y ago
That's interesting. I'm the opposite way: I find I think less before writing and edit a lot more when I write on paper. Words on a screen look as flawlessly rendered as words in print, and to me that makes them seem more permanent; I feel like I have to really think hard before I can tell these perfect letters what to do. Stuff written in my own hand feels more tentative and more malleable.
Xichekolas 18y ago
You wrote an entire book on legal pads?! I mean, I guess people wrote books before there were computers, so I shouldn't be that surprised, but I just realized I can't imagine writing anything longer than a couple pages on paper. I remember arguing with English teachers in middle school that I thought better while typing. They insisted that I hand write my rough draft anyway, and I hated it.
- bockris 18y ago
  > You wrote an entire book on legal pads?! How about an entire trilogy of books. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495491 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495491
- shader 18y ago
  J. K. Rowling did most of her draft work on lined paper: "There is only one thing that annoys me about living in Edinburgh - well, two, but I'm pretty much resigned to the weather now. Why is it so difficult to buy paper in the middle of town? What is a writer who likes to write longhand supposed to do when she hits her stride and then realises, to her horror, that she has covered every bit of blank paper in her bag? Forty-five minutes it took me, this morning, to find somewhere that would sell me some normal, lined paper. And there's a university here! What do the students use? Don't tell me laptops, it makes me feel like something out of the eighteenth century." -J. K. Rowling Source: http://www.writerswrite.com/wblog.php?wblog=410061 http://www.writerswrite.com/wblog.php?wblog=410061 According to Wikipedia, she did the manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone on a manual typewriter.

gnaritas 18y ago

What's really interesting, is that you presume anyone actually would write on paper anymore, how old are you?