I’ve been doing morning pages since 2018. I always notice how writing long hand is more emotional. I usually alternate. I leave the handwriting for emotional scenes, for poetry.. and typing for when im in flow and i want faster writing. A great way to deal with the wrist pain is to take frequent breaks and roll a tennis ball to massage your wrists, the back of your hands and to prioritize stretching and care
Thanks for the tennis ball tip! And that's interesting that you've found you write with more emotion longhand. I'll have to see if I have any patterns like that. And since 2018? That's great! I'm hoping to keep going with them. They've made a huge difference.
As a retired teacher, I totally support cursive writing. I’ve seen what the science reports.
I restarted morning pages with a writing community I’ve joined and can I just use any old notebook? No way! Got to have colored paper, pretty pens, and a binder to hold it all!
You may get tired of hearing this, but thanks for sharing your process. I learn so much from you!
Aww, thanks, Valerye! It's so good to hear you're finding it helpful. :) And OF COURSE you needed new pretty notebooks and pens. I mean, what are we? Animals? A writer needs nice things. ;)
I love writing longhand for the same reasons: it feels less scary and it is easier for me to find the flow that way. I second the tennis ball trick from above, but also, ice! 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. It does wonders to keep the pain at bay.
Thank you for sharing what you're using! You knew everyone would want to see your notebook, hahaha. I have a fraught relationship with morning pages but I just started them (again) and am curious to see what happens. I'm really interested in trying to write longhand, though--my big struggle right now is getting into flow. I've been doing writing sprints, which help me get words down, but I don't feel connected to them or like anything bigger is happening. :-/
Lol, I know I always want to see other peoples notebooks and pens, so I figured I should share. :) And that's interesting about the writing sprints. That makes sense to me, though. I've never been good at writing sprints because it doesn't give me enough time to think and I'm wired to need some ruminating time built in. I can get into a fast flow but that has to happen naturally not because I'm timing myself. Some people really love sprints though. It all depends on how we're wired it seems.
Thanks so much for sharing your progress - it's really inspiring. I have bought some new notebooks: one for planning and three for writing. I have a title and a premise, which is a mashup of several story ideas. I kind of love when I get to combine a few ideas from my 'story idea' book. It's satisfying? Like, I get to check multiple boxes: stories-written. Lol. But also, I find that sometimes a single idea isn't really much on its own, but when you combine it with a couple of others, you have the makings of a plot.
So now I just have to wait until the semester is over (2 exams and one paper to go!), and then get through these line edits for the last book in a series (ugh, the worst - but, yes, the book will be so much better when I'm done), then maybe take a few days to chill, and THEN pick up the planning notebook and start doing a morning pages sort of thing. Write about what I want to write. Then, finally, I'm going to try this longhand experiment and see if it works for me because that whole lack of intimidation is something I could really get behind.
Yay for new notebooks and an idea mashup! My current idea is a mashup of two main ideas as well. That's usually how mine go, too. Good luck on getting through that end of semester push! And you'll have to let us know how the longhand goes when you give it a try. :)
Thanks for sharing your process. Because of family health issues I haven’t been able to write for a month. I’m halfway into a story and every time I think about continuing, something happens to prevent it, or I just feel so tired I can’t light the spark of enthusiasm to actually type anything. Hopefully things will get better soon. It helps me to know that successful people have issues like this too, but for your sake I hope your longhand experiment works for you and your hand pain goes away.
Thanks, Laurel, and I'm sorry to hear about the family health issues. I hope things improve soon. Writing needs to take a backseat sometimes so we can take care of our family and ourselves. The writing will still be there when you have space to get back to it.
I write a lot of my first drafts in long hand. Your hand will likely stop hurting once you build the muscles back up. It's like a workout for your hand. Here's another tip-I use dictation software to get my first draft into my computer. I find reading my draft out loud helps me with editing as it goes in.
I have definitely found the benefit in handwritten prewriting but haven't created a handwritten draft in ages! Most of my writing is coursework at the moment but I might give it a go and see if it makes a difference to the way it all comes together.
I’ve been doing morning pages since 2018. I always notice how writing long hand is more emotional. I usually alternate. I leave the handwriting for emotional scenes, for poetry.. and typing for when im in flow and i want faster writing. A great way to deal with the wrist pain is to take frequent breaks and roll a tennis ball to massage your wrists, the back of your hands and to prioritize stretching and care
Thanks for the tennis ball tip! And that's interesting that you've found you write with more emotion longhand. I'll have to see if I have any patterns like that. And since 2018? That's great! I'm hoping to keep going with them. They've made a huge difference.
Thought this might be helpful for the hand pain.
https://blog.ambient-mixer.com/usage/writing/exercises-against-writing-pain-nanowrimo-special/
ooh, thank you! I'll check it out. :)
As a retired teacher, I totally support cursive writing. I’ve seen what the science reports.
I restarted morning pages with a writing community I’ve joined and can I just use any old notebook? No way! Got to have colored paper, pretty pens, and a binder to hold it all!
You may get tired of hearing this, but thanks for sharing your process. I learn so much from you!
Aww, thanks, Valerye! It's so good to hear you're finding it helpful. :) And OF COURSE you needed new pretty notebooks and pens. I mean, what are we? Animals? A writer needs nice things. ;)
I love writing longhand for the same reasons: it feels less scary and it is easier for me to find the flow that way. I second the tennis ball trick from above, but also, ice! 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. It does wonders to keep the pain at bay.
Thank you! I just ordered some little ice mitten-shaped things from Amazon so I can ice when needed. :)
Thank you for sharing what you're using! You knew everyone would want to see your notebook, hahaha. I have a fraught relationship with morning pages but I just started them (again) and am curious to see what happens. I'm really interested in trying to write longhand, though--my big struggle right now is getting into flow. I've been doing writing sprints, which help me get words down, but I don't feel connected to them or like anything bigger is happening. :-/
Lol, I know I always want to see other peoples notebooks and pens, so I figured I should share. :) And that's interesting about the writing sprints. That makes sense to me, though. I've never been good at writing sprints because it doesn't give me enough time to think and I'm wired to need some ruminating time built in. I can get into a fast flow but that has to happen naturally not because I'm timing myself. Some people really love sprints though. It all depends on how we're wired it seems.
Thanks so much for sharing your progress - it's really inspiring. I have bought some new notebooks: one for planning and three for writing. I have a title and a premise, which is a mashup of several story ideas. I kind of love when I get to combine a few ideas from my 'story idea' book. It's satisfying? Like, I get to check multiple boxes: stories-written. Lol. But also, I find that sometimes a single idea isn't really much on its own, but when you combine it with a couple of others, you have the makings of a plot.
So now I just have to wait until the semester is over (2 exams and one paper to go!), and then get through these line edits for the last book in a series (ugh, the worst - but, yes, the book will be so much better when I'm done), then maybe take a few days to chill, and THEN pick up the planning notebook and start doing a morning pages sort of thing. Write about what I want to write. Then, finally, I'm going to try this longhand experiment and see if it works for me because that whole lack of intimidation is something I could really get behind.
Yay for new notebooks and an idea mashup! My current idea is a mashup of two main ideas as well. That's usually how mine go, too. Good luck on getting through that end of semester push! And you'll have to let us know how the longhand goes when you give it a try. :)
Thanks for sharing your process. Because of family health issues I haven’t been able to write for a month. I’m halfway into a story and every time I think about continuing, something happens to prevent it, or I just feel so tired I can’t light the spark of enthusiasm to actually type anything. Hopefully things will get better soon. It helps me to know that successful people have issues like this too, but for your sake I hope your longhand experiment works for you and your hand pain goes away.
Thanks, Laurel, and I'm sorry to hear about the family health issues. I hope things improve soon. Writing needs to take a backseat sometimes so we can take care of our family and ourselves. The writing will still be there when you have space to get back to it.
I write a lot of my first drafts in long hand. Your hand will likely stop hurting once you build the muscles back up. It's like a workout for your hand. Here's another tip-I use dictation software to get my first draft into my computer. I find reading my draft out loud helps me with editing as it goes in.
I have definitely found the benefit in handwritten prewriting but haven't created a handwritten draft in ages! Most of my writing is coursework at the moment but I might give it a go and see if it makes a difference to the way it all comes together.