I’m in a poetry circle called the Wyverns. Each month, we write a piece and share it with the rest of the group, inviting constructive feedback from the others.
This month, the prompt was Cartoon characters. With only four days until the next meeting and a hazy idea about what to write, I churned out a piece and an introduction directly into an email. After checking it over for any obvious errors, it was then sent to the other members.
When I told the group about how I’d composed the poem, it started off a discussion about the writing process, primarily whether we used paper to start, or entered it straight into a computer.
Typically, my pieces do start on paper. I make sure to buy a diary with plenty of note pages because these double as my notebook. It was a habit I developed a few years ago because I was typing all day at work, and it was a relief to pick up a pencil instead.
As I’m a touch-typist, writing by hand is considerably slower, but it can also allow more time to think about the text while composing. Paper also affords a less linear approach, freely allowing the addition of words with a carat mark or margin notes. A word processor, by contrast, typically likes to restrict the user to one line. There are odd exceptions like Microsoft OneNote, which can be used as a digital scrapbook.
I find writing by hand works best for prose and poetry. These blog entries are composed much more quickly, often in reaction to something that’s happened the same week, so these are entered straight into WordPress. I run a writing group every Tuesday and I often use that time to polish them off.
While we’re here, if you do a lot of writing on a computer in a public place, my advice is to buy a privacy screen immediately.
You can see the image straight on, or slightly to the left or right, while anyone looking at too steep an angle won’t be able to make anything out. Mine attaches with unobtrusive clear pads and stays permanently in place, but some other designs are removable.
Gavin Cameron 
It’s interesting to read your thoughts about the written word versus word processed over time and notepads over paper and digital. I too tend to lean towards writing things down by pen and paper before digitalising my ideas. I once worked out my typing speed was x2 over writing speed so I do pretty much word process half of my letters these days beyond what I knock out handwritten from the US each year. Not that I even send many letters out, really but it can be faster. Ive enjoyed our handwritten experience exchange, though.
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It’s likely I’ll stick to hand writing when exchanging letters, even if I can’t keep up neat writing for long periods and forget what I say once I’ve sent it.
However, it also reads less like a utility bill if it isn’t typed.
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