My Manual Script: Ilithad and Avalisks
Commentary
Do you normally write by hand or type? Did you find this task difficult or easy? Explain.
I have been an avid typer since I first entered university back in 2006. I remember getting my first laptop and being so excited to type out lecture notes and projects instead of penning them manually. Since this time, I have always preferred typing. Even though typing is my preference over manual writing, I did not think that I would find this task to be difficult given that we were asked to only write 500 words. Now, 500 words type is a quickly fulfilled request, but I learned very suddenly that 500 words manually written was labor intensive and strenuous. My hand cramped multiple times and I found myself not able to get my ideas out on the paper quick enough. My brain was moving quicker than my hand could write and this caused some confusion and lost thoughts along the way.
What did you do when you made a mistake or wanted to change your writing? How did you edit your work? Did your choice of media play a part in how you edited your work?
I chose to write using a black “Trend” pen because this is my preferred pen choice for any manual writing that I do in my regular and professional life. I double spaced my writing to allow myself the room to add ideas and make changes above each sentence during the editing process. When I went back and edited my writing, I followed the steps of editing that I try to teach to my students in my classroom. These editing steps address conventions (capitalization, punctuation, and spelling), word changes, and sentence shake ups. I crossed out words that were spelled incorrectly, and changed words that did not fit. If I wanted to add words into my writing, I used a “carrot” symbol to show where those words fit into the sentence.
What do you feel is the most significant difference between writing by hand and using mechanized forms of writing? Which do you prefer and why?
From this exercise, I definitely feel that writing by hand forces one to slow down and be thoughtful about each word. This slow down also allows for a deeper connection between the ideas in your head and the words on the page. Things seem to become more ingrained through the physical formation of the letter shapes and words. I sometimes find that when I get into that autonomous state of writing using a mechanized tool, I can lose my thoughts and the strength of my ideas. This then results in scattered sentences and weaker writing all together. These reasons would not necessarily change my preference for writing away from mechanized tools, but it definitely makes me think about the importance of slowing down and being mindful of the writing process no matter which form it takes.
Hi Nicholls,
I really enjoyed your story and was wondering if this is a story you have had in your mind for a while or if it just came to you? I would also be very intrigued how the story continues as well as what super powers the river bestowed on the main character.
I was wondering if you have always written more print text than cursive or if this only resulted in you not writing as much by hand and thus you have “lost” the ability to write cursive? It was something I noticed comparing our products as I wrote mostly cursive and I still write by hand quite frequently and most of my university education my notes were also taken by hand as I found it really entered my mind then and became part of me. So was wondering what your take on this was and if it is a plausible theory?
I agree with you that writing by hand is more of a thought-provoking activity and requires more attention to detail. I also like how you intentionally left open a line (I did not do this as I know 500 words written is one page and did not want to count my words) for editing purposes.
Thanks for the interesting read and insights.
Hi Alexandra,
I had been thinking about this story for a while but I had never had the change to write it down. I originally came up with this idea for a Dungeons and Dragons character backstory for a campaign that I am playing. I have more of the story in my head, but felt like I needed to show some constraint in regards to the word limit.
Even after learning cursive in elementary and high school, I have always resorted back to printing. In my everyday, “note-taking” style of writing, I tend to combine printing and cursive for speed purposes (at the cost of readability). But, for this assignment, I chose to try and make my writing a little more legible. Since I do not write from hand very often (only list writing and very scratchy idea scribing) and very rarely do I find myself having other people read my writing, I find that I have to concentrate to try and make my writing neat and legible. This added to the exhaustion of this task.
I would agree that the things that I write from hand definitely stick more in my head. This is why I have never really taken to the “list” or “to-do” software or applications on my phone or computer. I live by lists in all areas of my life, and because of their importance for my existence, I still resort to writing them by hand so as to not forget what I have written down.
Thanks you for your insights, comments, and questions. Maybe I will get to writing down the rest of the story one day.
Kelvin
Kelvin, I was also surprised at the time it took to manually write 500 words. I have become accustomed to typing any lengthy submissions so I too was naive thinking that 500 words would not take long to write. It is interesting because I would agree with you that writing forces you to slow down, but I also found that I would have an idea in my head and I wouldn’t want to lose it so I was trying to write quickly so that I would not forget this, but that often led to errors. I feel like I almost needed a separate page just for my own reference so I could keep my thoughts straight and then one page where I compiled my thoughts for the reader. Do you think this would have helped you as well? I enjoyed the story, thank you for sharing!
Hi Allison,
What a great idea! I also could have used another sheet of paper to jot ideas down because I definitely found that my brain was moving faster than my manual writing speed capabilities. Normally, before I do any creative writing, I try to “plan” my writing first on a separate page, but I did not follow that process for this assignment. I find that when I have gone through a planning process, I can reference back to my planning page to make sure I am on the right path and including all of the ideas that I came up with. Thank you for your insight!
Kelvin
HI Kelvin,
Interesting story, would be great to read the expanded version someday. Maybe you have a future in fiction?
I work mainly with students who exhibit behaviour challenges and one of their triggers of behaviour, particularly the younger ones, is written output. The younger they are the more difficulty they have with all of the bio-mechanics of writing. It was interesting to read about your hands cramping and not being able to get your thoughts on paper quickly. Frustrations that my students tend to feel when asked to handwrite. I also noticed the quality of your writing starts to wane near the end. Did you write it all in one sitting? DId you take breaks? How long do you think you could sustain writing for?
Thanks for the read and the insight!
Shawn
Hi Shawn,
Thank you for your comments. I also work with students who have difficulties with written output and your thoughts are very insightful. I did write this all in one sitting without a break which seemed to take forever. I talk a lot about writing stamina in my classroom and I wanted to see what my stamina was for mechanical written output. I quickly found out that it is low and that I am definitely out of practice. I probably could have continued writing for longer but I also noticed the quality and clarity of my writing started to fall off. This reminded of test writing in my undergrad, especially English and History courses which contained a lot of short, long, and essay questions. I was so used to typing by that point in my life that I explicitly remember the frustration and pain associated with long, written tests.
Kelvin