Freewriting (5)
Topic: Don’t Open Your Laptop Yet!
I will freewrite for 20 minutes… [shackle Inner Critic]
Don’t Open Your Laptop Yet!
What might happen to your writing life, and your output of words, if you stop opening your laptop or PC as soon as you want to write?
I’m sitting in my study using a pencil on a lined notebook page. My aim is to practise freewriting in longhand (the draft version appears in this photograph).
Usually I freewrite on my laptop, tapping the keys for the statutory 20 minutes.
How Does It Feel to Write Longhand?
My hand is more used to
- scribbling notes
- writing greetings cards
- filling in forms
- completing crossword puzzles…
My fingers are accustomed to roaming the internet via the virtual keypad on my mobile phone screen:
- searching
- shopping
- banking
- logging Covid lateral flow test results
- meal menu writing
- calorie counting
- texting
- emails
- tweeting…
These are the results of my time spent online via a small device.
Why Leave the Laptop Closed?
If you also usually write via a keyboard, are you certain all your thoughts, your memories, your creativity, are being accessed? Is your own Inner Critic getting in the way – if it tries to stop me right this minute, I can easily continue making pencil marks on the virginal page. There is no Delete or Backspace key to erase bits the critic decides I should lose.
What Will I Do Next?
When the 20-minute alarm trills (13 so far) I will close this notebook, sharpen my pencil for the next time and do something else. Tomorrow (now today) is a Blog Post day in my writing diary. I will reread and then copy every word onto Later Writer via my laptop keys. I will be my own secretary – or copy typist as many office workers were years ago. The typing pool was the place many began a secretarial or administrative career.
Has Computing Changed the Writer’s Life?
For:
- no need to outsource your work, thesis or novel to a copy typist
- no paying a printer to produce copied pages for editorial submissions
- everyone can now be published at the click of an Upload link
Against:
- the skill of handwriting is human
- the feel of shaping words is special
- there’s a connection between the brain and the pen
Don’t lose what you don’t use!
Try this for Yourself
- save any files currently open on your computer device and back them up
- bookmark your current web positions
- close down your computer
- make a cup of tea or coffee, pour a glass of your choice
- select your own topic for discussion or a heading for a short piece of fiction
- using paper and pencil, write freely for 20 minutes
I have typed up my draft copy but I’ve been able to format headings and lists – long live word processing!
