Why I Write By Hand
By: Matthew Donnellon
Tags: Productivity, Entrepreneurship, Business, Writing, Art

This article has its genesis not in the digital domain, nor was it originally sprung forth by the tapping of keys, but its creation can be found on an old legal pad with a Pilot G-2 scratching the story into paper and giving it life.

But why would someone want to write by hand when there are so many better options?

Well there are some good reasons.

I could tell you about the productivity aspects.

Even though it takes longer initially, I find that over all I’m able to write more. I think this happens for several reasons.

First, there are no distractions when writing by hand. Legal pads, at least the kind I use, do not have Youtube. This drastically cuts down on the amount of incursions to my concentration.

The paper does not have breaking news nor does have notifications, but I must make a small confession, that doesn’t mean it’s entirely free of distractions.

As I’m prone to doodling in the margins.

Photo by author

Photo by author

Photo by author

Photo by author

As you can see, my attention sometimes waver. I will, from time to time, fill up the margins with doodles and drawings, but I like to defend by saying that it’s still helping release some creative energy and I’m doing it while writing and it doesn’t derail my writing day like an episode of The Witcher would.

Additionally, the words often exist in one’s mind in a sea of chaotic energy. Often, when I sit down at the computer this doesn’t go away and it’s hard to just start typing.

But, with a pencil or pen, the chaos goes away and my thoughts start draining out as if one pulled a plug.

I this happens for a couple reasons. One, as I child we learn to write by hand, at least I did, there are probably kids that start typing right away now. So picking up a pen has that innate familiarity as that I was the first way I put down ideas.

There’s also something to be said that writing by hand just seems to work better, this is established in the article, “5 Psychological Benefits Of Writing By Hand” by Josh Caryle.

Working at the computer overloads our sensory system. The flickering of the screen, movement of the cursor, the temptation to the availability of any information in one click — all this dulls the ability to work. On the contrary, when there is only a sheet of paper and a pen in front of you, the brain does not receive additional stimulation and focuses its resources on a specific task.

These are all good reasons to write by hand.

But, I will make a confession, these are not the only reasons I write be hand.

I think when you write by hand is when you feel the most like a writer.

Give me a notebook and a pen, and suddenly I’m Ernest Hemingway writing a Parisian cafe.

There’s no better feeling.

It speaks to that little iota of pretension that every write has. Too often, writing is relegated to commercial tasks, and writing by hand can help it feel like the art that it is.

When you type other than the click clack there isn’t the same feed back as an artist.

Before I was a writer, I was an artist, and there was nothing better than watching a drawing or painting come to life.

It’s the same when you write by hand. The ink flows and the letters appear and the page slowly fills until you can flip the page and after a few minutes there are pages and pages flipped over as the story grows.

It’s magnificent.

The tactile feedback.

I have a particular affinity for cursive because it’s more fun to write watching lines morph into letters with just subtle shifts of direction is one of my favorite things to behold.

If you haven’t done it.

I encourage you to try it.

Plus it just looks cooler.