~Pens, Paper and Computers

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I know that it’s Wednesday, which means I should be posting a book review. Since, however, my last post was a book review, I think I’ll wait until next week.

Blogging. I used to be able to blog very easily. I had more post ideas than I could ever keep up with. If I had stuck to it, I could have posted every day, probably more than once a day. Now, I get ideas, but when I sit down to type them up, I freeze and go blank. I can’t think of anything to write. One word may pop up, then I have nothing to follow up with.

It took me awhile, but I finally figured out what I changed, and why things got a bit difficult. (Because I really do enjoy blogging!) It has to do with one little word I wrote in the last paragraph; “type”.

When I write my books, poems, etc. I almost always do them by hand. When I participated in Perry’s scribble fest, I actually typed for ten minutes, but when I went to finish the story that I began, I printed it out and wrote it in my notebook. I’ve tried working on my books in a Word document, but I almost never get very far. It’s not because I don’t type fast enough either – I can type very fast! Something about looking at the screen though, just seems to send my brain into the desert!

When I’m writing often, I go through tons of paper! In fact, I probably use twice as much lined paper, as all of my family combined. That and pens. I love pens. Pencils are good for journaling and timelines (that way I can erase, instead of start over!) but pens are my favorite to write with! I like the look of the ink on the paper, the smooth glide of the pen as I form my letters, the smell of the paper and the ink combined, as well as the feel as my hand slides across the sheet.

All of this is lacking when I type, so maybe it has something to do with it. I don’t know. Maybe it has to do with the bright light in my face whenever I’m looking at the computer screen. Maybe it’s the little blinking line at the end of every sentence or word, that seems to be saying, “Come on, come on! Hurry up and finish! Do something! I don’t like waiting around!” I’m fine when it comes to editing as I type out my first draft. I can add or remove as I go, with no problems. It’s the first draft that I have problems with, unless I write it by hand.

What does all of this have to do with blogging? I realized that I used to treat my posts like all of my other writing. I wrote them by hand a day or two ahead of time, then I typed them out and posted them. I don’t know exactly when I stopped, but now, I tend to try typing them up on the day of the post, with no handwritten draft. So, with the exception of my book reviews, I’m going to get out my notebook and try handwriting my posts again. I think this will be fun…

To the KING be all the glory!

4 comments

  1. Jamie T says:

    I have the exact problem, but reversed. I TYPE EVERYTHING… even some homework assignments. And probably because that’s how I started out. When I was eight, nine, ten and was writing short stories that didn’t even fill a single page, I typed them all on our computer. So, I’m very used to typing everything. I go into cardiac arrest when I need to hand write something. My writing hand can’t keep up with my thinking mind like my fingers can on a keyboard, so I mess up and end up having to slow down. Yeah, it’s so sad but that’s how it works. :P

    Jamie

    • Rebekah says:

      Sometimes I WISH I was that way… Really. But then, I think of all the times I don’t have a computer available to me and I wonder what in the world I would do without being able to quickly handwrite! I’d love to say that writing my books is good practice for my handwriting – but it’s not really. I have too many different styles and “hurry up, I’m writing a book!” is one of them! :p

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