Yesterday I spent a good chunk of the afternoon working on my website. I took several pictures for the different pages, then prettied them up and put the pages together. Despite how boring I'm making this sound, it was a lot of fun. (I'm sleepy, forgive me.)
Among the photos is the first page of my first draft of The Other Side. It's too small to tell here, but I started it on February 21, 2008. Aside from the fact that it's no longer the opening chapter, but instead the beginning of chapter two, not a whole lot has changed here. This is one of the first "flashes" that I had about this story and I'm glad it's stuck.
It was surprising flipping through the notebook and seeing how much has remained intact. Of course I edited, but the bulk of my edits consisted of adding more, not fixing what was there. For those of you who are newer to my blog, my first draft came in at around 45,000 words -- about half of my current total. So while the version in my notebook is shorter, the heart is still there.
Do you ever write by hand? Do you like your handwriting? Is it weird that I like to look at pictures of my handwriting?
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18 comments:
i still write a lot of first draft stuff by hand.
I write poetry by hand. My handwriting rivals a Doctor's signature. In fact, if I were to write a single page, my hand would cramp. These fingers were made for the keyboard! :) (BTW - your handwriting is very neat.)
Travis, it went much better than I expected, and it's a wonderful way to keep yourself from editing as you write.
Turkey, I was surprised I could go for as long as I did. I guess when the words were flowing I wasn't really thinking about much else. Afterwards however... :P
That page was neat, but there were a couple that were hard to read.
I love your handwriting. That's so cool that you wrote it on paper like that, and that it stayed intact. You knew a good thing when you had it.
My handwriting is completely awful, so it is all computer for me. I do have some journals from my poetry days- probably about 3 handwritten ones. Man I had some angst.
Enjoy your weekend Everyone!
I used to love writing by hand with a fountain pen. Lost the fountain pen and do most of my writing with my laptop now.
When I was a kid and they'd ask what I wanted for my birthday I'd say a fresh pad of paper and a new pen. I never got it. I think they just didn't understand.
I used to write by hand, but I found it just takes too much time. I bought a laptop I love and now I only write on that.
But whatever works!
I love writing by hand. It is the reading of what I wrote that gives me trouble. I dont have very good penmanship. Growing up I always told myself that since doctors all had bad hand writing and doctors were smart, then I should have bad hand writing so I'd be smart too. As you can see the logic didn't make sense once I got older. But, yes. I do like to write by hand. I keep a note pad with me at all times.
Great blog! I recently came back from a trip to South America (Brazil) if you'd like to read the story it is on my blog. http://bryan-bigdreams.blogspot.com
God bless.
Erica, I wanted to try something different for my first novel (I wrote my memoir on the computer) and I'd been hanging out at AW for six months by then, listening to the debate between handwriting and typing so... Then my best friend bought me a cool notebook so I figured I'd give it a shot.
Aimless, that makes me sad that your parents didn't understand your need. :(
I used to draw a lot when I was a kid so paper was never lacking. I can't say I had fancy pens (unless I stole them from my parents) but I never tired of sprawling on the floor and writing or drawing the day away.
Wendy, it DOES take longer. You've got me there. Since I already started my other wip on the computer I won't be writing by hand any time soon, but perhaps for the NEXT novel...
Welcome Bryan!
That's pretty funny about your penmanship. Mine has changed over the years -- there was a point when my best friend and I worked very hard to make our handwriting identical, and that stuck for years -- but this smaller scrawl is a more recent thing. But, I've always liked it
Ibis says I write in Chinese so I do make an effort to be a little neater when I'm writing things for him, lol.
Thanks for stopping by!
I am quite fascinated by other people's handwriting, and how it varies so much.
I still do a lot of writing by hand, but the time thing does come into play, so usually I brainstorm/take notes/outline on paper and then type up stuff cuz it's way quicker.
:)
April, I'm always interested to see what people's handwriting looks like too. I don't get into the theories behind it (not much anyway) but it's something I like to take note of.
I take a lot of notes while I'm writing, particularly if it's something I want to remember to go back to but don't want to deal with just then.
Oh how I wish I could write things by hand. My handwriting is terrible! Sometimes I can't even read it myself *hangs head in shame* although that's only when I have written it really really fast.
I've always hated my handwriting and tried for years to make it better, but it never seemed to improve. I've given up and write on the computer as much as I can, except for b-cards, which I take a long time to write so it looks pretty. Well, um, prettier. It often looks like a 6 year old wrote it. Sigh...
Nadine, that actually surprises me about you. For some reason I pictured you having nice handwriting. I don't know why... but I did.
*blushes* Ah, thanks! It's the only place in my life where I am messy and disorganized. And I've tried to change it, but it just won't change.
And my brother has the exact same handwriting.
Oh, that's funny about your brother.
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