A couple of weeks ago on Facebook, Harper Impulse asked if we writers prefer the pen or the keyboard.
My day had been spent with a notebook and biro, first at my local writing group, Off The Cuff, and then later, during a quiet half an hour sitting in the car. I had things I wanted to get down on paper, thoughts, ideas, a moment in time, for a 500 word story I’d been formulating the night before. The most immediate way for me to do this was to write it down.
This was my reply to the question from Harper Impulse:
“I mix and match, depending on my mood. Today has been a notebook and pen day – it’s a more intimate means of writing. It reminds me of something a musician, possibly Sir Paul McCartney, said regarding the difference between creating a song with a guitar and producing one using a piano. A guitar is hugged to the body, creating an intimate song, whereas he feels he is pushing away the piano, producing a distant feel to the music.”
Harper Impulse asked if I found using a computer to write, a more distant exercise. Giving it more thought, I replied I did.
Typing, at my slow speed, and with my errant fingers, is a stilted affair, and can have the effect of clipping my thought process. With the immediacy of writing, regardless of the illegibility, I can get my thoughts down as they appear, ready for later editing. That’s not to say I’m incapable of this when at the PC, but my words are more considered then.
Subject matter makes a difference too. I’m more likely to hand write an intense, emotional scene, allowing the thoughts and the pen to flow. The words are raw and straight from the heart of the character. In some respects, it’s similar to writing a diary, which for most, is a private and personal activity, not often emblazoned across the household PC monitor.
Having said all that, I edit at the PC. Perhaps that’s because I need perspective, and the distance a keyboard provides allows for that.
Pen or keyboard? Both methods complement my way of working.
What an interesting question posed by Harper Impulse. Thank you.
So, what are you using to write with this minute?
Laura x
In a previous life I used to work in a typing pool so speed on they keyboard was a must. It’s probably because of this I’m perfectly at home slamming out the words on the laptop. Having said that, when I’m stuck, I quite often revert to pen and paper because (a) a change in approach is sometimes all it needs to get going again and (b) the pen does give a feeling of freedom which is conducive to get the words down, they do need massive editing afterwards but it’s worth it.
*Makes mental note that Sue can type*
The pen is hard to resist 🙂
xx
Hi Laura
I write mostly on my laptop. I find it faster and my handwriting is pretty shocking so my typing is easier on the eye! Having said that, when it comes to editing I write my changes by hand and tend to use lots of arrows and *
Elle. 🙂 xx
Ah – the opposite way to me. Goes to show we all find ways that work 🙂 Thank you for commenting, Elle 🙂 x
Laura, I am used to typing and I find it easier to type and get my ideas down fast, plus these day my hand-writing has deteriorated since the computer arrived in our lives.
Paul McCartney is right about guitars and writing songs on it rather than a piano, but of course it depends on the genre of the song. Writing a rock song works better on a guitar as the melody and tune often come first so the lyrics would be added afterwards and the rhythm and feel of the song needs to fit the music. Piano works better for ballads and picking out the main melody is easier – the words are more important in many ways for a ballad as the voice is usually higher in the recorded mix, being the focus of the song, whereas in a rock song for example, the instrumental mix is more important, and is more complex and the vocal then sits in a different place in the mix.
Most songwriters scribble on bits of paper and often the writing is done with the guitarist or keyboard player tinkering along at the same time humming and messing with the way the words cry out for a beat, rhythm or fit the 4 beats to the bar rule…..it is a fascinating experience which after 40 odd years of working with songwriters still moves, excites and amazes me.
So the death of pen and paper is not imminent I think. It has its place.
If any of your readers are interested in songwriting and how it is done, then I wrote a piece for Morgen Bailey a week or so again and links can be found on my blog.
J xx
Hi Jane – what an interesting comment – thank you. This is Jane’s website:
Many years ago, I was the singer in a LOCAL band called Strangely B’Zar. We spent Sundays in a rehearsal studio, practising and writing new songs. It was a wonderful process, starting with nothing and ending with a song. I loved it.
I’m still a big music lover, as you know 🙂 X
Wow, did you record anything and have you still got it? Tape, DAT or CD back then? I know what you mean about starting with nothing and working on it until suddenly there it is, lyrics and melody and with arrangement and production, it is such a satisfying process. What genre did you fall into, if any that can be described? I wrote a piece for Morgen Bailey recently about Songwriting on her Short Story section and was so surprised at the interest it aroused. You’d never think so many people are interested in the hows and wherefores of the craft. A couple of the interviews I’ve done of late, especially for Joanna Lambert and Nicky Wells, have gone into the whole recording and writing side a bit more because of their interest in the process for their romances about rock stars and music….so many questions needed answering there. Did you write lyrics and music or just the lyrics (singers tend to do the lyrics) and do you play any instruments? Just wonderful to know that you have done this…want to know more. J xx
We did some ‘live’ recordings in the rehearsal studio, but they were rough cuts. I have them on a CD, and many others on tape. I recorded a couple of covers a few years ago, but only for my personal listening to help with improving my technique. I took lessons for a number of years, some in my twenties, lots in my early forties, but I developed colitis, which made me quite ill, and, completely separate from that, my vocal chords became fatigued, as a result of my rheumatoid arthritis.
I wrote the lyrics and produced the vocal melody. I’m rubbish at coming up with tunes. It was always about the words – about the stories I could tell in three minutes, and I loved our songs to have double-meanings, or at least, the potential to mean different things to different people.
I think I may have to write a post about this…
Thank you, Jane 🙂
xx
Hi Laura
I love the idea of sitting scribbling away in a secluded, leafy glade somewhere or maybe on a deserted beach but I’ve got a big problem – my writing is so awful that I can’t read what I’ve written after a few sentences. It might be because I’m left handed, or just because I try and write too quickly, but it gets more and more strangled looking with every word. I can just about manage to mark children’s books but am always embarrassed if they are very messy too and I have to say something about neatness!
Celia xx
My hand writing isn’t good, Ce, but it’s only me that needs to decipher it. I know Jill Mansell hand writes all her books, and her daughter types them up. I have a very nice digital dictaphone from Gajitman that I will use, but for now, I’m enjoying owning lots of notebooks and purple pens 🙂 xx