Writing Longhand

"You know, cut and paste used to mean something completely different at one time."

- Michael Ondaatje

I did that once for one of my writing classes in college.  Typed something up and cut it up and rearranged it on the floor.  A long time ago, that was the only way one could restructure the work.  When was the last time you wrote something lengthy by hand instead of on a computer?

I am ever working on cleaning my room and came across a folder containing all my scrappy drafts of short stories for a larger book.  I had a load of fun rereading it.  The drafts I read were typed and had edits in red ink for improvement, but my first drafts were usually in pencil on scratch paper.  I didn't write in longhand because I didn't have access to a computer.  I wrote in longhand because it was the only way I could write without getting distracted by a million other things.

To keep the creative juices flowing, I jotted down a short story before going to bed.  And I must say that I am very proud of myself.  Unless I am writing nonfiction, I prefer to write my stories or poems by hand.  It helps me to concentrate on the writing and writing alone.  I'm not sure about composing a blogpost by hand.  Maybe I'll give it a whirl.

P.S. I took a calligraphy class last week and that stuff is a lot harder than it looks.  My friend picked it up and was writing beautifully by the end of the two hour class.  I assumed that it would be easy because my penmanship is pretty neat.  Nope.  You need muscle control or something to make the downstrokes thick and the upward strokes as thin as individual strands of hair.  I blame the nib we were given by the instructor.  They said there is nothing you can do but practice.  Do you have any experience with calligraphy?