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Q&A How do you decide whether to dictate, type out or hand-write a piece of writing?

I oscillate between handwriting and typing. I find handwriting preferable for first drafts or for getting ideas out, as I can simply scribble on the nearest piece of paper or notebook, have arrows ...

posted 13y ago by Lexi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:59:47Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4202
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Lexi‭ · 2019-12-08T01:59:47Z (almost 5 years ago)
I oscillate between handwriting and typing. I find handwriting preferable for first drafts or for getting ideas out, as I can simply scribble on the nearest piece of paper or notebook, have arrows going everywhere - it's beautifully unstructured. I like it for first drafts as well for the same reason as Steven - it slows down my thought processes, which I find gives me greater insight to the scene I'm writing. Not to mention, there's just something _organic_ about the scratching of pen on paper. It's definitely messy, though, and my pages are always full of scratched out sentences, inserted text and arrows everywhere.

However, if I already have a scene in mind and I know pretty much where I want to go, I will type it out. It's faster and I can get feedback more quickly and easily. I also use it when I want to braindump in a stream-of-consciousness fashion. Again, fast and easy to keep up with everything I'm thinking, though you end up with a huge block of text.

I've never dictated because I find it more distracting when it gets scattered words wrong. If we talk about just recording yourself speaking, I can't do that either as I need a visual medium in order to think properly.

As always, your mileage may vary.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-10-13T04:12:57Z (about 13 years ago)
Original score: 3