Tried writing with pen on paper after years of typing, wild difference in Salem

Last weekend I got stuck on a scene in my horror novel, so I grabbed a legal pad and a Pilot G2 and wrote the whole chapter longhand at a coffee shop in Salem. Something about the slow pace made me actually think through each sentence instead of dumping words and deleting them later. Typing felt like I was just transcribing my first draft, but handwriting forced me to edit as I went. Anyone else find that switching mediums kicks their brain into a different gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

murray.drew1mo ago

Wait until you try writing with a quill and candlelight, youll never go back to your laptop again. Honestly at this point you might as well be typing on a typewriter and mailing it to your editor with a stamp. Next thing you know youll be carving the chapters into stone tablets and carrying them up a hill. I get what youre saying though, the slow drag of the pen makes your brain actually sit with the words instead of sprinting past them. Its like the difference between eating a meal and just inhaling a protein shake. But Salem? That place is already spooky enough without you channeling Nathaniel Hawthorne on a yellow pad.

annaw731mo agoTop Commenter

Heard some writer on a podcast say the same thing, @murray.drew, but I still aint giving up my laptop.