Writing: Not Drafting on a Computer

A fact about writing on prison: no computers, everything is on paper. I drafted longhand and then used a typewriter to do my final version. That is until money got too short for buying typewriter and correction ribbons. Everyone in my writing group had one overriding dream: a computer having a word processing software with a spell checker. 

Since my PO has yet to approve my new laptop, I still have yet to fulfill my fantasies of a word processor. I have piles of paper awaiting digitizing. New stuff could be written on this phone if I wanted to drive myself back into madness from tediousness. At the same time, I want to get back to finishing what I started at Fort Dix FCI.

But reading Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Drafting Solely on a Computer reminds me there will always be paper.

After a week, I was surprised by the sheer amount of words I’d been able to put on the page. And typing those words up at the end of the week made my work smoother and cleaner in the Word document because I tweaked a little here and there while I typed. And it didn’t occur to me until just this moment that in doing this, I fell back on the way that I learned to write stories in the first place—in a notebook, by hand.

 I agree paper is the place for drafting, computers for finishing.  But -

While hand-writing is certainly an option you can explore, I’ve worked with a lot of authors for whom dictating unlocked their story. There are a ton of programs from Temi to Evernote to Nuance Dragon that allow you to speak directly into your phone, tablet, or computer, and it will translate what you’re saying into a written document, ready for you to dive in and revise. While this may be useful for writers with dyslexia, it’s also just useful for people for whom speaking comes more naturally than typing, especially if you want to give your story a very voice-y narrator who feels like they’re speaking directly to the reader.

Dictation interests me. I read how Winston Churchill dictated and I did use dictation decades ago in my law practice. I installed a recording app which I thought might be useful while I walked to work. I find I am not good walking and dictating at the same time. Maybe I will find the funds for Dragon Dictate after - if ever- my PO approves my laptop.

4/30/22