Longhand vs. Everything Else!
Longhand vs. Everything Else!
I write in longhand, as many of you know. My brain and heart are somehow mystically connected to both my hand and the portal to where my stories live! Trust me, I’ve tried it on computers and any intervening electronic device just screws up the magic.
Of course, this works for me because I’ve been blessed by knowing the best typist on earth, one who not only can read my incomprehensible scrawl but can keep a million pieces of text and several simultaneous books in order so that whatever’s needed can be found. It’s a task that would daunt Dumbledore.
Diana types what I’ve scribbled, so I can edit and rewrite on the computer generated page, God bless her amazing talents and good heartedness!
Process
We all have our quirks and our “process” as the creative kids call it
now. Whereas the writers of Hemingway and Fitzgerald’s generation couldn’t put a comma on the page without a stiff tot of gin, I’m lucky the only libation that fuels my muse is good old Irish Black Tea with milk and honey. A fireplace also helps, or a garden, now that I think about it. But for me, the very act of writing in longhand seems to be the way to open the portal to where my stories reside waiting to be set free.
I pity the poor wee ones of the next generation, whose creative impulses will have to be captured in electronics and plastic from cradle to eternity!
So here’s to tea, an inspiring garden or fireplace, a pad and a writing instrument (aka pen)… and to whatever magic they may hold for the future.
Who knows…maybe one of those computer-reared kiddies will be inspired to re-invent the fountain pen!