Writing vs. Typing

Normally, I type everything I write. The main reason for this is the simple fact that my fingers on the keyboard work faster than my hand could with a pen.

I started to realize that when I started writing on a computer. I went to a typing course when I was around thirteen, but I wasn’t very good at it. I didn’t practice much and I didn’t like working with those old, mechanic typewriters. My fingers weren’t exactly strong then and typing with one of those requires a certain strength. In addition, I used to make a lot of mistakes (I still do). That’s not a big thing when you work with a computer and a word processor, because then it’s just pressing the right keys to remedy it all. But it was a big thing while I was taking this course.

About one year later, I got my first computer and – as there were no games included – started to use and abuse the only program I’d gotten with it: “Works.” “Works” does have a word processor (today it’s “Word,” as far as I know) and I spent a lot of time with it. After a while, I started typing down small stories I had thought of. And it was great, unlike handwriting (which usually ends after a couple of pages with me having a hurting hand), my typing could keep up with my thinking after a while and I was able to write down things as fast as I thought them up.

I still sometimes used (and still use) other means. I write things down in my notebook – or on any scrap of paper, really –, but I work my things out on my computer, with a word processor.

The idea or a writer sitting down with pen and paper (maybe even quill pen and inkwell) is indeed very romantic. But to be really productive, a keyboard and a word processor will usually get you much further…