<p>It's been a long time since I drafted a paper/essay by hand before typing it up on the computer. I'm interested in seeing if CCers (especially those award-winning writers out there) prefer to start papers by hand or begin immediately at the computer. So post how often you write/how accomplished of a writer you consider yourself, and your preferred writing method.</p>
<p>My very very very first draft is always written by hand. If I typed it, I'd end up focusing on the editing instead of the actual thought processing.</p>
<p>I don't know if I'm extremely good at writing, I mean my teacher said I was good, lol, so idk. But..I always type up all my drafts, I find I can't get all my thoughts out fast enough on paper.</p>
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I can't get all my thoughts out fast enough on paper.
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<p>Wow, I totally agree! Sometimes you just get all these random epiphanies and your sorry hand just can't write them all down at once.</p>
<p>^Yep, writing takes way too long.</p>
<p>I write all my final papers by hand. As well as all planning.</p>
<p>my first draft is by hand and then the others are in comp</p>
<p>I draft in my head while walking to/home from school, then type up my papers...</p>
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I can't get all my thoughts out fast enough on paper.
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<p>This. My handwriting is so illegible when I am in that phase of writing that it would literally be pointless for me to do so. If you can't read what you just wrote, is there really anything gained by writing it?</p>
<p>Oh, one time... I had a brilliant essay idea right before going to sleep, and it was like 3 in the morning, and so I wrote a rough draft on my bathroom mirror with Expo marker. :]</p>
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I wrote a rough draft on my bathroom mirror with Expo marker.
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<p>An entire rough draft? o_O</p>
<p>Lol, yep, the mirror is quite large and I wrote quite small - - - using abbreviations and such though, so not so big a deal.</p>
<p>I usually do any prewriting by hand. Sometimes I also hand-write the openings of my pieces. But then I type everything. I like handwriting because a) my handwriting is awesome, and b) it feels more personal than just clacking out letters on a keyboard.</p>
<p>Always typed</p>
<p>Normally, I only write a final. I just type it right out on the computer without any prewriting. Sometimes, if I'm really bored in school before a paper's due, I'll do a little prewriting by hand, usually in French so I can practice the language, but I usually type something totally different for the final.</p>
<p>I "brainstorm" stuff by hand and occasionally draw out a little spider web to organize my thoughts, but my first draft is always done on the comp...</p>
<p>For essay, it's ALWAYS on the computer. Every draft. It makes it so much easier to write.</p>
<p>But for poetry, I usually do it by hand. There are so few words that I don't need fast typing, and a blank screen is so much more intimidating than paper, which you can stomp on and crumple when you're irritated haha.</p>
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I "brainstorm" stuff by hand and occasionally draw out a little spider web to organize my thoughts, but my first draft is always done on the comp...
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<p>Oh my noodly appendages. My 7th grade English teacher required those stupid spider web things. I hated it with a passion. Since I don't write in spider webs, why should my prewriting be a spider web? It makes no sense.</p>
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a blank screen is so much more intimidating than paper..
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<p>i totally agree. i also hate looking at that blinking vertical line when you get writer's block.</p>
<p>Usually, I'll write my first draft, or part of it, by hand. I can get my thoughts out a lot faster on paper, and I get distracted a lot less writing by hand. This one time it took me literally 3 hours to just type up my essay because of how distracted I got at the computer.</p>