This blog post was written mostly on a blank piece of paper.
Yes, actual paper, with ruled lines and everything.
I can’t remember the last time I sat down and scribbled away until I figured out what on earth I was writing about.
As a kid, I had no choice but to kill as many trees as possible. I had an unreliable typewriter that was quickly followed by a word processor that always found a way to delete my work at the worst possible moment. By the time I was given my own computer in high school—a hand-me-down centuries past its prime—I was paralyzed by the thought of having thoughts that didn’t express themselves through my pen.
When I first went to college, now armed with a brand spanking new Dell desktop, most of my schoolwork still originated, in full or in part, on a pad of paper. I’d waste hours upon hours transcribing what I had written into a Word document. (At that point, I still typed with two fingers, which made for even longer nights).
Gradually, the tide started to turn. I was using the instruments I had trusted since birth less and less. I realized my editing process would go a lot quicker if I did everything on the computer to begin with. My belief that every word and thought had to be perfect BEFORE I started typing was ridiculous. I could make ten times as many mistakes and clean them up 100 times as fast if I reached for a keyboard instead of a pen. By the time I graduated, I was essentially living in a paperless world.
This blog started out the old fashioned way it did because I wanted to test if my brain was truly wired differently. Would I have the same thought process? Would I stare intently at a blank line instead of a blinking cursor in an effort to will the words out of my mind?
To my relief, it turns out, not much has changed.
My thoughts continued to pour out. I lost some thoughts in the process of writing down others, but I admit that happens when I type as well. I could admire my heinous missteps with dark lines through them instead of forgetting about them entirely. I was just as easily distracted by what was going on around me as I am when I’m one click away from the Internet. I had the same good ideas and the same bad ideas.
There were a whole lot of downsides though. I couldn’t copy and paste this paragraph and move it around at will. I had to note that I wanted to bold or italicize something instead of actually doing it. I also had to write out a URL if I wanted to add a hyperlink. I had to laboriously scribble a string of nonsense words instead of angrily pounding the keyboard when I ran out of things to say. And flipping pages back and forth to find something I had written a few minutes before was frustrating…where’s Ctrl+F? And no Spell Check? Really paper?!
Okay, so maybe things are a lot different inside my big dome.
Returning to my roots as a writer made for some nice nostalgia, but I’ve come to expect different things when I write. Today’s technology not only allows me to work faster and smarter, but also gives me a chance to have some fun. Writing can be a dreary and lonely process, so a well placed tweet or Facebook status update can mean a world of difference for my mental health. Plus, I never know what responses are going to lead to my next big idea that actually works better than the one I started out with.
I finished this post the same way I finish everything else I write now, on the screen while juggling a million tasks at once. I’ll always have a soft spot for the ideas that started out on paper, but right now they are exactly where they need to be.
In the recycle bin.
[Image: farween]
