Daily Timed Writing - Nov 13th 2007 1:00-1:30pm

Ok this is my first random timed writing thingie. I'll do this in blog form so I have some form of accountability.

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My first timed writing will be about analog vs digital writing. They are completely different,its odd to me. Two things identical yet tangibly identical. I employ both methods and will talk about both.

Let me begin by saying I cannot choose a preference they both have ad infinitum uses and various pros/cons. Typically I enjoy writing more when done witih a pen in hand. The inconsistancy of my form generates a sort of personal font. A font not changed with a click of a mouse. This inconsistancy leads to a certan inlegibility of the text, a bad thing. Chicken scratch is the name bestowed it by my abdominable fifth grade teacher Mrs. Coates. The lack of uniformity also lends to the writing a certain character and personality that instills a feeling of creativity. The way I form the letter a for example. I remember disliking the plain shape it took when I wrote it and set about changing it to great effect. Now it resembles the a of this font and has found its way into my heart, my favorite letter to write. Or how I randomly capitolize words not because they are important but beccause I felt like it and thought its lower case bretheren not up to the task. This quirk finds its way into my typing sometimes but is often corrected by the spell checker.

This leads naturally into the discussion of revision and editing. This area my heart heatedly defends both sides of the debate. Technology makes revision a snap. In line auto text and grammar correction. I love this at times and hate it others. My dyslexic friend cannot function in the world without this advent. However as nice as the simplistic revisioning processes is I do enjoy a couple aspects of old school revising. Its unusual to need to rewrite an entire page when editing on a pc. With paper documents you must mark up your first draft with changes to be made then rewrite the whole paper. I like this. Its to easy to make sweeping changes sometimes and lose the flow of your writing. When you rewrite the whole thing its more ingrained in you. You are closer to your work. It is also interesting to look at a draft and see words scribbled out or sentences at the last minute into the margins. This inisght to the creative process is lost the second you use the delete or backspace keys. However speaking on convienence it is annoying to have a final draft marred by some blemish just because your hand had a momentary lapse of focus or you are plain bad at making the humps on your lower case Ms evenly. This category is a tie.

Speed adn efficiency are won hands down by the computer. For htis reason it is my prefered method when volume is my goal not creativity. The slower speed of a hand penned document leaves more time to form thoughts and moments of down time aren't filled with your one hundred and fifteenth email checkings. Instead you spend the time reflecting on the document or ideas contained therein. Organization and searching through records of old writings can be done with a filing system and a good brain but if you have alot of manuscripts you are in need of the robustness of a computer file system.

Sharing a document is far easier with the use of the internet. This lightning speed correspondance tool is a huge part of how the owrld operates today. A hand written paper is difficult to distribute and more often than not will end up digitized. Why hand write if you are going to type it anyway? Portability. While laptops are cheaper, lighter and have much longer battery lives nothings is more portable than pen and pad of paper. You can write on the beach without fear of sand or on a long trip without worry of where you can find an outlet. Coffee spilt merely means your page will look aged not an expensive repair bill.

Being a bit of a technology fetishist myself I really enjoy digitized documentation. But I also have a penchant for parchment and am firm in my belief that the days of hand writing aren't going out of style anytime soon.

Time spent: 30 min
Tyler