https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hxu413I14QesDXm6i2_45_DeP9eQg0U4/view?usp=sharing
Returning to writing, in an extended manual form, was refreshing to me in a way. In my life, both professional and personal, most of my manual writing comes in the form of lists. ‘To Do’ lists, checklists, meeting minutes, agendas, etc. I often make attempts at consistent journaling but that occurs on a digital document, and may not necessarily carry the human touch that the messiness of ink and paper does.
The task, in and of itself, was easy. In fact, it was quite enjoyable. I was able to write about topics, however obscure, that were interesting to myself and in a format that allowed me to think, reflect, and accept imperfection without the interruptions of predictive text and grammatical suggestions, (as much as I appreciate those in my professional work).
The mistakes I made were acceptable in that I could let them go as a margin of error in pen-and-paper. I found that I made fewer mistakes as well. Perhaps the nature of manual writing, being slower than digital word processing and without the ‘fail-safes’ I mentioned earlier, provided the opportunity to be more intentional and think about what I was going to write. This is much different than writing on my PC or laptop where I can always go back, edit, reword, and clarify.
(As a total aside, my mind moved to two thoughts that made me consider the fluidity of word processing. One was an app that I came across a few years ago, (that I currently can’t find), that tracked the way in which an email was composed. It was read by the receiver of the email in the same way in which it was written – each erased line, change in grammar or spelling, would type out in the same manner in that it was composed. So, every change the writer made to language, tone, and text was displayed to the receiver in real time, as if it was being written in front of them. The other thought was about my father who completed his degrees in the 1970’s. I have inherited his typewritten papers and essays, and it always fascinated me that, as a child of the digital revolution, there was a time when the keys one punched mattered, and the errors that occurred resulted in very real and manual editing or re-writing)
In the end, I think that, if I were to be writing something heartfelt, with an important emotional component, that handwriting would convey the message more clearly. Part of the double-edged sword of emails and text messaging is that the intended message often loses, or is misinterpreted, the intention, tone, and nuance that can be communicated verbally and face-to-face, or even through handwriting.