On Notebooks
May. 25th, 2005 09:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranAfter going from spiral bound notebooks to my Palm to my ibook, I've been finding myself using the spiral bound notebooks more and more again. Apart from the obvious advantages (portability, quick startup time, lack of game and internet support), there are some surprising ones that I've noticed, that at first looked like disadvantages...
*) Limited legibility - this was one of my big reason for switching to the Palm in the first place, but it turns to be a big plus. I like being able to write without people being able to read over my shoulder. I can get a lot more done when I'm not self-conscious about what other people are seeing.
*) Inability to erase - when you've spent an hour trying to write two sentences on a word processor, what you get at the end is two sentences - which will probably get deleted again the very next time you sit down. When you do it in a paper notebook, what you get is two or three pages of corrections, crossed-out sentences, comments, epiphanies, etc. All of which make you feel like you actually were doing something during that hour. Inability to erase is also helpful because it encourages you to keep on going, rather than going back to tweak words all the time.
*) Slow input speed - for some reason, this seems to help. Even though my brain naturally wants to move much faster than I can type, my best writing seems to come when I'm writing deliberately slowly, allowing time for any inspirations to hit between each word.
*) Need to retype - if there's one thing I hate, it's having to turn on the computer to hammer out some wordcount when I'm tired and worn out. Having a notebook full of copy ready to be retyped makes it a lot easier - I can just switch off my brain and type it in and I'm usually back in the mood for writing by the time I've finished, plus I'm up-to-speed with the story again.
*) Limited legibility - this was one of my big reason for switching to the Palm in the first place, but it turns to be a big plus. I like being able to write without people being able to read over my shoulder. I can get a lot more done when I'm not self-conscious about what other people are seeing.
*) Inability to erase - when you've spent an hour trying to write two sentences on a word processor, what you get at the end is two sentences - which will probably get deleted again the very next time you sit down. When you do it in a paper notebook, what you get is two or three pages of corrections, crossed-out sentences, comments, epiphanies, etc. All of which make you feel like you actually were doing something during that hour. Inability to erase is also helpful because it encourages you to keep on going, rather than going back to tweak words all the time.
*) Slow input speed - for some reason, this seems to help. Even though my brain naturally wants to move much faster than I can type, my best writing seems to come when I'm writing deliberately slowly, allowing time for any inspirations to hit between each word.
*) Need to retype - if there's one thing I hate, it's having to turn on the computer to hammer out some wordcount when I'm tired and worn out. Having a notebook full of copy ready to be retyped makes it a lot easier - I can just switch off my brain and type it in and I'm usually back in the mood for writing by the time I've finished, plus I'm up-to-speed with the story again.
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notebooks
Date: 2005-05-25 02:09 am (UTC)I just bought a Palm and keyboard, though (the laptop is just too big and expensive). It's for typing in revisions, working on screen - it'll be interesting to see how that goes with the tiny screen size. I plan to type the next book, anyway.
Re: notebooks
Date: 2005-05-25 09:37 am (UTC)Re: notebooks
Date: 2005-05-25 01:08 pm (UTC)