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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30209
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30209
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Since I type at about ten times the rate I write by hand; and my hand gets sore writing by hand for more than a page or so; I opt for typing.

Writing by hand is a sensory ritual for some writers. It makes them feel good and puts them in the mental zone of writing. In the end I think this is entirely a matter of opinion.

Eventually you are not likely to get published without a typewritten manuscript and a digital file. In the process of writing, searches and backups of alternative versions are crucial to me. I am not afraid to write and discard things, so I often go through a dozen drafts of some scenes or chapters, and cut and rewrite liberally: I can do that because I have a backup of every single day I have worked on a project (sometimes more), and can easily search them and cut and paste from them if I want something, or want to revert to a previous version.

The flexibility of using software and having digital copies of **_everything_** I ever wrote on a project is so useful to me, I would be disabled by trying to write with a pen and paper. In the end I feel nobody knows or would care what process I used, they are only interested in the final version, which will be typed black-ink words on a white background in a generic font like Times Roman or Schoolbook or Sans Serif.

Original score: 2