I’ve started this new approach to writing. I’ve been working on what I call the “secret project” in longhand. It’s a totally new approach for me.
For our first anniversary – which is traditionally paper – my husband got me a beautiful leather-bound journal. (I got him a paperback book – see how creative we were?) I didn’t want to let it go to waste – I have several lying around that I haven’t written much in. But I had a hard time finding what to write in it.
I’d had this idea I’d been kicking around for a while in my head. I knew who my main character was, but I didn’t know all her backstory. I started scribbling some notes on pieces of paper here and there. Looking for quotes that pertained to the subject matter and jotting them down. Then one day, I sat down with the journal and just started writing.
I remember when I was first starting to write stories, I’d always written by longhand. I wonder where that novel is that I wrote on 200+ sheets of notebook paper? I haven’t seen it in years. Maybe this was a way for me to get back to my beginning. To write without rules. It feel really freeing. No page numbers. No word count to worry about. No paragraph markers. It was great! But the more I wrote, the more I realized I was actually writing this new story that I’d been thinking about for a few months. I finally typed up the first chapter which ended up being nearly 8,000 words.
The more I wrote, the more I liked it. It was such a totally different process and I found I didn’t fret so hard over the details as I did when typing on the computer. I also discovered that I learned more about my characters as I transposed the written word into the typed word.
I’ve filled in over half of the journal. Maybe when I have this first book finished, it will be completely filled. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Writing a novel longhand was the only way I used to be able to write a novel. in fact, there was a short creative curve when trying to type my thoughts down instead of writing them down by hand. But, now both ways work for me! Of course, it is so much more convenient typing your manuscript into your document, so I choose this method. But I hope you enjoy that gift your hubby bought you and have a lot of fun! Happy and creative writing to you!
My magnum opus is 99% handwritten, and has been ever since I began it in September ’93. (It’s one book, spanning 1941-2050, that will cover 12 volumes.) I write everything else on the computer these days, but I love the feeling of writing that one particular book in notebooks after all these years. There’s just something about looking at the collection of notebooks and instantly knowing, on sight, which notebook contains which Part, or which notebook I split into two Parts even though it’s only one subject. Lucky for me, I’m that rare breed that can write with both hands, so there’s so worry about getting writer’s cramp.
Very cool Carrie-Anne! And hey – maybe our notebooks will be collector items someday 🙂
Mmm… I always draft longhand, so I can tell you that a notebook takes around 23k – 25k words, depending on your handwriting.
Enjoy and good luck!
Hi Misha! Thanks for stopping by. I’ve transposed some of my handwriting into a Word doc. It’s around 15k I think. So I have a long way to go 🙂
I’ve always written my first drafts longhand. I hate dragging a laptop around and the only real time I get to write is during my lunchhour. I can crank out 1000 words easily and then I type them later in the evening. It’s probably slower, but it works for me.
I use my mini at lunch and write. So I’m writing two ways. Whatever works right? 🙂