Writing a book the old fashioned way in longhand

Megane Bashi in Isahaya Park, famous for the Azalea Festival
in the Spring, featured in the novel underway.

I learned to touch type back in high school in 1956 and got quite good at it. When the IBM Selectric typewriters came out my speed got pretty respectable and for most of life I didn't have to rely on my poor handwriting.

I do believe that genes have something to do with handwriting. My mother had beautiful handwriting. My older brother and at least one of my sisters inherited that handwriting. It is a joy to read. My Dad's was very difficult to read. Sadly my handwriting took after his and my grade school teacher lost his patience with me many times as I tried to stay within the lined paper following the Palmer Method of penmanship.

I've edited my novels by hand but never tried writing them in longhand before. They have all been written on either typewriter or computer until now.

The one I'm working on now, so far is being written in long hand in notebooks and I have to say I'm enjoying the process. In some regards I'm finding it more creative than doing it at the machine because I'm not being interrupted as often. And I can keep the notebook with me where ever I go. If I'm waiting in the car, don't want to be tied to my desk, want to sit on the deck, etc. I've got the freedom to do that. Sometimes it is nice to have the mobility.

Now the act of getting it entered into the computer is done by speaking it into the headset. I can enter a chapter about as fast as I can read it. If the computer doesn't understand a word, I can spell it for the machine. In the process of reading the text, I can hear whether it makes sense and do some editing as I go along too. If I need to look something up, I can stop and look it up. But I didn't have to do it as I was going through the thought process. I can draw a line and put in a question mark and go on.

I know this isn't new to people who have been doing this for a while, but it has taken me a long time to come to this and thought I'd share it.

So far the book is coming along remarkably well using this process and interestingly enough my handwriting is improving in the process. How about that.

 Kenneth Fenter