Just being nosey really... do you all use your computers to write? I did originally, but found editing my work really hard work, and I used to skip bits. As my user name suggests, I am very lazy.

To make me work harder, I now write on paper. It is when Im transferring it to a Word document that I do my best editing.

Has anyone else found this?

Liz

Yes, me. I've written whole novels longhand, but gave myself RSI typing them up. Now I tend to start things off longhand, and use typing up as an editing stage after a while, which is specially useful if I've had a break, and want to get back into it. But there are several stages when I have to print the whole thing off and scribble on the margins - there's no easy equivalent of doing that on screen.

Emma

I used to do all my writing longhand (then type it up) and always said I could never do first drafts onscreen. I do now though! partly because at some point after getting onto the 'net in the 90s I found I felt very cut off from my online world if I was away from the pc too long.

I never go anywhere without a notebook and pen though and have been known to get up from bed to scribble down a wonderful thought or bit of dialogue as it came to me pre-sleep, having learned the hard way that however convinced I was that it was so brilliant I would never forget it, it had invariably vanished by the morning. Of course this means that when I look at it next day it is sometimes not quite so brilliant as I thought

Aha! Now, I write fiction and non-fiction straight onto the computer and edit from there, but poetry is always longhand first and then I type it up.

A
xxx

I wrote my first novel longhand and all the pubescent efforts before that. Transferring 200,000 words to computer taught me that I had to learnt to type a lot better and reconcile my mind to the idea of Word as a blank piece of paper. I now write directly onto word but still doodle frequently in my notebooks.

Interestingly, when I was writing my first book, I knew nothing about editing and didn't even think of it. Hence 200,000 has become 85,000, and I have since learnt that less, in at least some instances, is in fact more.

JB

I do it both ways - computer and paper for both writing and editing, although when I edit on paper I am usually just trying to work things out rather than polish, etc, and bring what I've worked out straight back to the computer!

I am terribly disorganised.

I do a mix of both, pretty much as I feel. I'll do the first draft and possibly the second in long hand. If it's good, it goes straight to the computer without any change but more usually I re-draft or re-edit as I type up. I also have to print it out and re-read it, typed up rather than on-screen and I always try to read it out loud at some point because that adds another completely different angle to the process.

I have serious RSI problems too - mainly because I use the typewriter at work. So I often have to use long-hand only for weeks on end which can interrupt things. But I am a fast typist so I can usually catch up well afterwards. The best thing I ever did was teach myself to touch type!

S

I write each day for about an hour longhand. Then later in the day edit in longhand and type up. Then print out. This way my book progresses daily by about three pages and if I want to browse over the whole thing I can physically flick through the typewritten sheets. I'm just grateful I learnt typing at school!

Sammy