I’m Longhand Writing a Novel — But Why?

I’m writing a novel in longhand and here’s some good reasons why you should try it, too

I’ve always loved writing in cursive. Longhand writing is a lost art and I’m proud to be able to write massive amounts of words by hand.

But a novel? When I first thought about doing this I figured I must be losing my mind. It could take a very long time. And these days, who the heck does that?

Famous writers that write in longhand

It turns out I’m not the only writer who likes writing in longhand. When I started looking into it I found out that there are some famous authors who write their fiction in good old fashioned notebooks.

If you’re a fan of science fiction and fantasy you might have wondered why it took George R. R. Martin so long to come out with new books in the Game of Throne series. Apparently, he was churning out each book by hand before turning it into a typed manuscript for his editor!

Any fan of the Harry Potter series knows that J. K. Rowling wrote the first book and at least parts of the other books by hand while sitting at her kitchen table.

Even Stephen King, who does write most of his books on a computer, has tried handwriting a novel.

So, what the hell — if they can do it so can I!

But why write a novel in longhand?

There’s no doubt that writing by longhand is much harder for some people than typing on a computer. Typing is faster for most of us. Maybe not for those who never learned to touch-type but I’ve been typing since high school so I can go pretty fast when I want to. When under pressure, I can write 14,000 words a day.

And writing by longhand is much harder on your hands. They cramp up and get sore.

So why on earth would anyone choose to write a novel by hand instead of just typing it into a document?

One reason to at least try writing fiction by longhand is because it forces your brain to slow down. When you type quickly into a document, you don’t have to think too hard because the words just fly from your fingers. When you write in longhand, each word takes longer to write so you can slow down and pay more attention to the sentences you are creating.

Also, because your mind slows down as you handwrite sentences, it’s a different kind of creativity. It’s more purposeful and you write with intent.

Another case for writing longhand is the fact that there is no internet. You might think that’s not such a great thing for a writer but it can be a strong case for writing in longhand. Without the internet, there’s no possibility for distraction. You can’t question how something is going to happen and then get lost in the rabbit hole of research. Instead, you just make a note, slap a sticky in there so you know to come back to it later, and keep writing.

Imagine sitting in the park, in your car, or in a coffee shop with no temptations to distract you. It’s just you and your pen and your imagination. There’s no wrong words — only the words that caress the page with inky blue images.

It’s only been a couple of weeks since I started writing my novel my longhand but I’ve made more progress on it in the past few weeks than I have in the year before that. I carry my notebook with me, pull it out when I have a few minutes or half an hour, and add to the story. Sometimes I jump around in different chapters but I figure I’ll sort it out later.

Have you ever tried writing by longhand? A novel or poetry or an article? I’d love to hear about your experience with it.