What a great article, Kathleen. I've used all the methods you mention. The Smart Notebook was wonderful because I have literally dozens, probably scores, of notebooks but it's impossible to find anything specific. The Smart Notebook made even my handwritten notes searchable. I'm using the past tense because they "improved" the app, thereby making it unusable. They may have worked on that (I heard they were doing so) but I've gone back to relying on handwritten analogue notetaking and memory. Perhaps I'll move on to one of those Leuchterm (?) notebooks that have a table of contents section.
The most appropriate method for me is the one that accords with either my mood or circumstances. For example, if I'm waiting in the car, where it's too cramped to write, I might dictate into my phone. The marvellous thing about the age we live in is surely that there's so much choice.
I write mostly - including this comment - with a stylus on a tablet using the handwriting to text feature. My handwriting is illegible, even to me, but the tablet somehow figures it out. Al you can use! And it's the best of both worlds - handwriting for me, text for you!
Loved this!! So many things come to mind here...as I recently wrote about, I have neglected my handwriting lately in preference for the speed and efficiency of my laptop. But returning to a notebook this week has reminded me how I write differently by hand. I think I'm less self-conscious in a notebook, trying out ideas and finding out what I think as I go. Whereas, I tend to edit as I go on the screen. Like you though, I learned to type in high school, and then worked for several years as a secretary (initially on a typewriter!!!) and so am a fast and accurate typist, which comes in handy when my thoughts overtake the speed of my fingers! I love the idea of having the typewriter sound on a computer! The sound always reminds me of films of a newsroom, which is where I thought I wanted to work when I was on school. I have also been experimenting with voice notes latelt, though am much less confident with speaking than writing!
I write mostly using a laptop but I also use a notebook occasionally. I notice someone else has said that hand writing is far slower, and when ideas are in full flow typing is better for throwing it all down on the canvas as it were, before you start to craft it. Although this is the method I habitually use it is very time consuming to get it to the point of publication, sculpting and reworking until I am either satisfied or exhausted! Maybe hand writing is more precise and focused and therefore less liable to rework. I have never tried recording. I think I need to see the words in front of me, but maybe it is something I should try at least once. I guess we all find the way that works for us, but as usual you have set out with great clarity your own journey, which gives us a great deal of food for thought. Thank you very much.
I used to get so frustrated at handwriting because my hands wouldn’t move as quickly as my thoughts but that’s the whole point. The beauty of handwriting is that there’s one thought meant to land on the page. It streamlines what often feels like madness in the brain.
I never thought of speech to text as a form of writing! I almost never use it but I love that you opened the idea for me.
I love this! I’m currently sat in a cafe with a notebook and pen which I don't do as often as I’d like. I love the freedom of handwriting, the visible deletions that sometimes, when returning to one journal after time flirting with another, become the seed for another piece of writing.
As a yoga teacher, I resonated with your comparison of the flow of typing with the flow of a vinyasa sequence. Words often pour out when I’m sat in front of my Mac, not always legible to anyone else (my typing skills aren't great) but there's enough there to edit at a later date into a more streamlined and understandable piece.
I’m going to have to find that typewriter sound now. It sounds like so much fun 😊
Awesome post, Kate. I have gone on and off keeping notes in a notebook. I love the feel of them, the notion of having them and a nice pen etc, but my writing sucks and feels sluggish and I can't get that flow that you so correctly define by typing. It does make me ponder that I should embrace the slowness of it more, though.
I do virtually all my writing on my phone. It works for me, etc.
But! I definitely notice how my thinking process is very different when I’m using a piece of paper. It’s even different with a pencil vs. a pen.
Every once in a while, I’m doing something where my note taking app isn’t ideal. Usually this is when I’m doing music analysis.
On top of not being able to write musical notes to indicate rhythm, when I’m observing different layers of thinking in the composer/improvisor’s music, I can capture those intertwined concepts graphically with a pencil in a way that I can’t possibly do with my phone.
All of that is more about the limits of the medium than about the physical process. But I also think the physical experience, the body getting involved with the writing-- I agree with you that it changes the result. I’m not sure I can say exactly how. But I do think you’re onto something interesting here.
As someone who tends to be in the head and has to work towards embodiment, this framing of writing as coming from the body is of interest ... And relates to something I've been exploring lately which is the way that handwriting changes in relation to mental health:
What a great article, Kathleen. I've used all the methods you mention. The Smart Notebook was wonderful because I have literally dozens, probably scores, of notebooks but it's impossible to find anything specific. The Smart Notebook made even my handwritten notes searchable. I'm using the past tense because they "improved" the app, thereby making it unusable. They may have worked on that (I heard they were doing so) but I've gone back to relying on handwritten analogue notetaking and memory. Perhaps I'll move on to one of those Leuchterm (?) notebooks that have a table of contents section.
The most appropriate method for me is the one that accords with either my mood or circumstances. For example, if I'm waiting in the car, where it's too cramped to write, I might dictate into my phone. The marvellous thing about the age we live in is surely that there's so much choice.
I write mostly - including this comment - with a stylus on a tablet using the handwriting to text feature. My handwriting is illegible, even to me, but the tablet somehow figures it out. Al you can use! And it's the best of both worlds - handwriting for me, text for you!
Loved this!! So many things come to mind here...as I recently wrote about, I have neglected my handwriting lately in preference for the speed and efficiency of my laptop. But returning to a notebook this week has reminded me how I write differently by hand. I think I'm less self-conscious in a notebook, trying out ideas and finding out what I think as I go. Whereas, I tend to edit as I go on the screen. Like you though, I learned to type in high school, and then worked for several years as a secretary (initially on a typewriter!!!) and so am a fast and accurate typist, which comes in handy when my thoughts overtake the speed of my fingers! I love the idea of having the typewriter sound on a computer! The sound always reminds me of films of a newsroom, which is where I thought I wanted to work when I was on school. I have also been experimenting with voice notes latelt, though am much less confident with speaking than writing!
I write mostly using a laptop but I also use a notebook occasionally. I notice someone else has said that hand writing is far slower, and when ideas are in full flow typing is better for throwing it all down on the canvas as it were, before you start to craft it. Although this is the method I habitually use it is very time consuming to get it to the point of publication, sculpting and reworking until I am either satisfied or exhausted! Maybe hand writing is more precise and focused and therefore less liable to rework. I have never tried recording. I think I need to see the words in front of me, but maybe it is something I should try at least once. I guess we all find the way that works for us, but as usual you have set out with great clarity your own journey, which gives us a great deal of food for thought. Thank you very much.
I used to get so frustrated at handwriting because my hands wouldn’t move as quickly as my thoughts but that’s the whole point. The beauty of handwriting is that there’s one thought meant to land on the page. It streamlines what often feels like madness in the brain.
I never thought of speech to text as a form of writing! I almost never use it but I love that you opened the idea for me.
I love this! I’m currently sat in a cafe with a notebook and pen which I don't do as often as I’d like. I love the freedom of handwriting, the visible deletions that sometimes, when returning to one journal after time flirting with another, become the seed for another piece of writing.
As a yoga teacher, I resonated with your comparison of the flow of typing with the flow of a vinyasa sequence. Words often pour out when I’m sat in front of my Mac, not always legible to anyone else (my typing skills aren't great) but there's enough there to edit at a later date into a more streamlined and understandable piece.
I’m going to have to find that typewriter sound now. It sounds like so much fun 😊
Awesome post, Kate. I have gone on and off keeping notes in a notebook. I love the feel of them, the notion of having them and a nice pen etc, but my writing sucks and feels sluggish and I can't get that flow that you so correctly define by typing. It does make me ponder that I should embrace the slowness of it more, though.
I do virtually all my writing on my phone. It works for me, etc.
But! I definitely notice how my thinking process is very different when I’m using a piece of paper. It’s even different with a pencil vs. a pen.
Every once in a while, I’m doing something where my note taking app isn’t ideal. Usually this is when I’m doing music analysis.
On top of not being able to write musical notes to indicate rhythm, when I’m observing different layers of thinking in the composer/improvisor’s music, I can capture those intertwined concepts graphically with a pencil in a way that I can’t possibly do with my phone.
All of that is more about the limits of the medium than about the physical process. But I also think the physical experience, the body getting involved with the writing-- I agree with you that it changes the result. I’m not sure I can say exactly how. But I do think you’re onto something interesting here.
As someone who tends to be in the head and has to work towards embodiment, this framing of writing as coming from the body is of interest ... And relates to something I've been exploring lately which is the way that handwriting changes in relation to mental health:
https://createmefree.substack.com/p/handwriting-hypergraphia-hypographia