Wednesday, 18 February 2026

Prompt of the day

 Still with Romantic Fiction Month. A lot of the prompts have been what you write, but today's is about how - by hand, on computer, dictated to your secretary. Okay, so I don't actually know anyone who does that last one, but apparently the legendary Barbara Cartland wrote that way.

Me, I'm an advocate of handwriting. That's how the first draft gets done. After that I get it into typing by reading it to my Dragon (dictation program) which is also the first round of my own edits.

I can think onto the typewriter for short things, like this blog, but not for a novel. Writing by hand has advantages. corrections and changes of mind are easy, though not always later when I am trying to decide whether that additional paragraph comes before this one. I've always used handwriting in work - as a committee administrator, taking notes, hand writing was the only mean possible, and I am old enough that a large chunk of my working life took place when there was still such a thing as a typing pool. The same applies to my academic career, notes, pages and pages of them. Hand writing is what I am used to. And they say that the connection between hand and brain is greater and better for the creative process when you hand write, which is a nice idea.

And, of course, you can write anywhere. At the moment it is mostly in my posh orthopedic chair, which was actually made to measure - and priced accordingly, but we won't go there. It is very comfortable and it reclines! Trains are also a favourite place for writing too. And in the summer in the garden, but not at the moment. The paper would get too soggy. 

The big thing is that you should write how and where you are most comfortable. A book takes a long time to write - or for me it does - so the process has to be enjoyable. And that, I think, comes through in the words, however they get on the page.  

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