Good Afternoon Forum,
First time posting in this particular "branch." Just curious what peoples opinions are of writing on paper.
Obviously we are in this forum cause we put our final ideas in our computers. But for those seasoned writers, can you say a little about how you came to your current workflow and if it includes paper to pen.
Maybe you also struggled with this? Looking for others ideas.
jennybravobooks.com/blog/write-on-paper
thank you
Happy Sunday!
Lately, Iāve been using my notebook and favorite pen more and more. I find that writing comes easier for some reason (without the flashing cursor mocking me). I enjoy writing with a pen (or pencil).
Since swinging back to notebooks, Iāve written more in a few weeks than in the previous year. So, itās working for me. The notebook also has the advantage of being lighter and easier to carry around.
My workflow is now is to scan (using an iphone app) the written pages, download the result and import into the appropriate Scrivener file.
I wrote this elsewhere, two years ago:
"I like to write a first draft in pencil (one with an eraser on the end, naturally). Iāve always done this. I believe the results are better that way.
After handwriting a first draft, hitherto Iāve usually typed up what Iāve handwritten [in Scrivener], editing as I go. But in the interests of speed and reducing muscular aches and pains, Iām now experimenting with speech-to-text dictation technology instead. I wish that handwriting-to-text had reached a level where it was technically as accurate as speech-to-text; if it had, Iād use it in a heartbeat, but so far itās been a disappointment to me (probably partly because, whatever I try to do, my handwriting remains very poor.)"
Two things have changed for me since I wrote that, and one thing has not. Handwriting-to-text technology has not improved enough for daily, long-form use, not for my handwriting at least. But I have handwritten much more on my iPad. I use the Apple Pencil to write, not for conversion to text, but for saving as handwriting. Plastic-on-glass will never be as satisfying for me as pen- or pencil-on-paper. But it has the advantage that my handwritten notes are all filed in one place.
The other thing that has changed for me is that Iāve learnt that a long-held prejudice of mine that handwriting engages deeper levels of the brain than typing has emerged as (probably) scientifically correct (as the reference quoted by the OP suggests). Thinking through the point of a pencil, plastic or lead, turns out to be not only more satisfying for me, but also very likely more effective!
I started out many years ago making notes on index cards and/or a small notebook (after much experimentation, I settled on the cheapish Moleskine Caheers, as being the most durable for the money). And while Iāve tried just about everything since, from a Newton to an iPaq to an iPhone and an iPad, I still find the process of writing with pen on paper better suited to my writing style. And they donāt need batteries or recharging, though they sometimes need a headlamp, when that irreplaceable idea comes to you at midnight in a tent on the tundra.
But every writer is different; thereās no one right way to do it. Until it comes to editing. For serious long-form writing this should always be done on a paper printout with a pencil or pen and a pack of PostIts. After computers entirely took over writing I saw a marked difference in writing quality between writers whoād edited themselves on paper, before submission, and those who did not.
I defer to your experience, Ahab, but for me, editing - or perhaps more correctly, finally revising - my own writing on a larger iPad with an Apple Pencil is more or less a perfect exercise. Especially easier if I happen to be travelling and would otherwise have to lug around a load of paper.
My āessential tremorāāinessential as far as Iām concerned, but I canāt do anything about it! 
āhas made writing more than a shopping list a virtual impossibility for many years. Itās even sadder, because I did enjoy writing with an (italic) fountain pen. So, for me, it all has to be done on computer these days.
However, one thing is for certain, after ācompletingā a document in Scrivener, I always compile to NWP and go through it there. I find the change of interface throws up things requiring editing that I missed in Scrivener. I find it hard to understand those who want to do the whole thing in Scrivener and think that it is too much to expect them to use other software to complete the job including checking page layout, endnote placement, etc.
Mark
So, I sometimes āwriteā on my iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil in GoodNotes4 - the App converts my writing to text that I can paste into Scrivener. Itās a different take ā¦ I sometimes like toiling with the written text, but canāt stand the thought of re-typing (or even dictating) as a second step into Scrivener.
I occasionally use the WritePad iOS handwriting keyboard (some folks prefer MyScript Stylus, but I dislike how wonky it can get in its correction buffer). Thus, I can handwrite directly into iOS Scrivener, and do if the words arenāt coming easily on the physical keyboard. No transcription, nor copy-and-paste needed.
I learned how to touch-type when I was 9. I never looked back. For the next five years of home-schooling, I typed every assignment I could instead of writing, and my mother agreed because my handwriting was barely legible at the best of times. Itās SO SLOW. I can do 120wpm typing, there is no way my hands can keep up trying to drag a pen or pencil across paper.
Even today, I hate to write things out by hand. I feel trapped.
When I hear advice like this, I smile pleasantly and nod whilst mentally plonking the advice into my killfile. There may be One True Way to do things, but my One True Way isnāt going to be the same as yours. 
I agree with you, Devin, that there is no One True Way. I move to handwriting when the words arenāt flowing, but I prefer the brisk pace of typing when Iām in the groove. Back in the 19th century when typewriters were introduced, there were some studies done: the fastest longhand a skilled clerk could manage was 30 wpm. Even crude typewriting easily outpaced it. Whether I transcribe handwriting via re-typing or I let my iPad transcribe as I write, productivity for a first draft is best for me when typing. Handwriting wins only when Iām so blocked that any wpm is better than zeroā¦ 
I tried dictation, too. Many writers swear by it as faster and more creative than either typing or handwriting, I donāt disbelieve them, but I find it incredibly frustrating. Perhaps thereās a correlation with my natural learning modes being either reading or doing;trying to learn from a lecture/discussion/podcast /video (speaking) turns my brain to cold oatmeal.
Problem is, I keep trying any One True Way presented to me that sounds plausible. I should follow your example and make more use of a mental Round File.
One thing Iād like to add is that Scrivener allows for some of the advantages of paper that the Jenny Bravo article touts. I can handle marginal notes by in-line annotations, inspector annotations, or document notes. I can strikethrough words or put them into an inline annotation to avoid deletions and have a visual history of my text.
I often resort to physical paper in the planning stages of story building. I scan that into Evernote so itās searchable. But when Iām writing words that I expect to be part of the actual story, I just canāt bear to not produce direct electronic copy, whether typed or via a handwriting keyboard.
Part of my bargain with myself for having that mental Round File is that I will occasionally try something again, or at least a variation of it, to see if Present Me is sufficiently different enough from past Me that The Technique I Hated Beyond All Reason is now suddenly The Technique I Cannot Live Without (or at least The Technique That Is Good Enough To Get Stuff Done). Iām stopped trying to look for complete solutions and instead focus on incremental improvement.
The other part of my bargain with myself is that trying something new/modified means giving it enough time/reps to give an equitable shot at separating the discomfort of the change from the true ill fit. For example, a while back my wife moved to using bullet journals. I didnāt take up the bullet journal myself ā I know that if it involves handwriting I wonāt do it, the act of hand writing is too uncomfortable (I despise writing checks for Peteās sake, thatās too much handwriting!) and too much of a barrier for entry. But I was able to take some of the principles behind the bullet journal and adapt them to an electronic workflow that has been working quite well for me.
Little change, give it time, then another little change. That seems to be the key for me, which should not be a surprise as I have been told that water is my elemental affiliation so many times from so many different people that I take it for granted. Water does occasionally inundate and wash away, but most of the time it is small and gentle and oh-so-patient.
Everyone elseās mileage, of course, may vary, and probably should! 
I gave dictation a good long try recently, despite the one-woman study I did about three years back that showed it was less productiveāfor meāthan typing. This was a variation (record and use software transcription rather than live on-screen) that, yeah, sounded plausible. But either Mac dictation hasnāt significantly improved, no matter how you do it, or my audible word processing hasnāt (I suspect the latter.) Iāll likely pick it up again in a few years just in case dictationās changed or I have.
BTW, Devin, my son has had about the same experience as you with handwriting v. typing. I might have had, but I grew up in the Dark Ages before personal computers; I was first introduced to typing when I was 16 and didnāt have a keyboard of my own (a nifty Royal manual typewriter with all the latest goodies ) until I was 18. I envy you young whippersnappersā¦ 
My first computer was a Timex/Sinclair 1000; I picked up a manual typewriter at a garage sale when I was 8. When I turned 9 I started home-schooling and the first thing my mom did was take my typewriter, put black electrical tape over the keys, and teach my sister and I how to touch-type. I didnāt get my first computer with a real keyboard (a Commodore 64) until I was 10-11. I didnāt have an IBM PC AT compatible until just before I graduated high school. Iām back there in the Darkish Ages with you!
Iām going to āthrow downā a challenge to the non-handwriting types (Iām one of you BTW)ā¦ This is not a competition but a cognitive evaluation.
Take ONE DAY and go to a different place. By different I mean unfamiliar in a significant context. Take only cash for a coffee/beer/cocktail, a note pad and a PEN (not a pencil). Find a place to sit for 30 minutes and plant your backside in that location. Do not relocate (if a train is about to run you overā¦ should have planned better). Now, for 30min simply hand write observations about the area. Donāt try to get poetic or write a story. Just observe and be descriptive in your writing. EX: āI see a tree. It is not spring.ā is not right, āI see a barren tree which could be dead or alive given the time of yearā.
Next, maybe a week later, find a similar unfamiliar spot and take a laptop/tablet/whatever-electronic-device and do the same exercise. Avoid editing as you go, go for āstream of consciousnessā. Use the same style of observation recording. Save your work and let it sit a FULL week.
Now go an compare the two documents. Compare for quality of observation, quality of description and "is this readable within a larger context. Have others do the comparison as well. Give them the raw data with no editing. Weigh their observations with more credibility than your own (you wouldnāt disregard an editor would you?).
This was a challenge I was given by someone else. I found it an interesting exercise regardless of the outcome.
Good Afternoon Forum,
I had stepped away for a few days and decided to revisit this post. Thank you all for the recent feedback. I have not gone through the responses, but im very grateful that it struck enough of a "nerve" you would contribute.
thank you.
.
No.
Um, er, that is, not again.
Why not?
Well, um, er, They said I didnāt have to.
Who is They, you ask?
I just found it an interesting exercise. I also did not expect the results to pan out the way they did for me (or the rest of the group). The nice thing about things like this is that you are free to attempt as the whim strikes you.
Sometimes I just wish my whims werenāt driving busses.
This seems to be the driving principle behind the $500 USD Freewite device, which is a small E-Ink screen tacked onto a nice mechanical keyboard. The Freewrite supports only two capabilities: a basic text editor and a wifi connection that saves your work to the cloud. Its key featureāpun intendedāis that it is missing arrow keys. No editing allowed.
ETA On Topic Point: Back in the day, I hand wrote first drafts of stories, and would then type up the ahem good ones on an electric typewriter. Then I bought a PC XT and WordPerfect and have rarely drafted by hand since.
That said, I still edit later drafts by printing out the complete story and marking it up by hand. But for me that is more about reading it in a different mediumāsomething about seeing the story on paper in double-spaced Courier makes it seem more realāthen it is about the feel/mechanics of using a pencil to strike through and replace words and sentences.
I waver on this point. Iām more likely to do this for short stories, but not for longer pieces. I got out of this habit due to my day job and doing technical/IT writing ā I often donāt have the luxury of waiting for a printout, managing the papers, etc. to review/edit the pieces I need to. I am now less likely to print for revision now because of that.
Maybe electronic revision is a learned skill?