I recently did some pre-writing for my next novel by hand, using a lovely notebook and a fountain pen (that’s the image above, excuse the dreadful handwriting and improper pen grip). I had to slow down but it was actually very satisfying. I wrote three full pages in about 40 minutes. I didn’t count how many words, but probably not the 700-800 words I would write on a computer in that time.
An essay in Electric Literature by Deb Werrlein, AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand, just published, and it was an eyeopener. The author wrote the whole thing, including editing, by hand, as a way to reclaim her skills that had been outsourced to technology. The title really doesn’t capture the deep thought process and discovery the writer encounters while handwriting the essay.
If I let an LLM compose my first draft, only to edit and shape it and supposedly make it my own afterward—as I’ve heard some writers suggest—then I would have skipped over that initial composition process, that period of intense intellectual engagement through which we enrich our ideas. I would sacrifice the element of discovery, learning, and creation in favor of the LLM’s regurgitation.
I’ve handwritten entire essays, long, long ago, but once I had a word processor’s help, rarely went back to handwriting. But now I’m thinking it could be an interesting experiment, a way to delve into what I want to say in my writing.
What do you think? Is handwriting too antiquated to go back to? Or are you curious about the journey you could take when you slow down and let the writing take you somewhere unexpected?
