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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46365
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46365
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In my experience, writing by hand is better for brainstorming and first drafts, and typing is better for editing later drafts.

I usually work out new ideas on paper - I tend to have a _lot_ of questions for myself right at the beginning. On paper, it's easy to quick scribble a question or note next to the relevant text. (If I type them up, I tend to leave them in by accident.) Or, if all you have is a small piece of something - a line of dialogue you'd like to use, for instance - you can just write it down then and decide if it's something you can use later.

You've already mentioned fewer distractions - it's easier to ignore the call of the Internet if I pick up a notebook and go outside. I find notebooks to be more portable (they're good at surviving being squashed, dropped, etc.).

Once I feel like I have enough to work with, I type it up. What's written in the notebook is going to need plenty of editing: this sentence moved to a different paragraph, this paragraph moved to a different location, this one into a completely different chapter. It's much easier to do this in a word processor than on paper. (You also have access to spelling and grammar checking tools.)

If you want someone to read over your work, I'd definitely recommend **against** giving them a handwritten copy. (I have terrible handwriting, too.)

It's really up to you to decide what process works best. If you find that handwriting isn't helping you in any way, you should probably just stick to typing.

Original score: 11