Why I Write First Drafts By Hand

It's less stressful to stare at a blank piece of paper than a blinking cursor

The cool thing about humans is that we’re all different. Our brains are wired differently, and therefore how we express our creativity varies wildly from person to person.

I starting writing to earn income back in 2010. I blogged about raising Vietnamese-Black children long before it was “trendy” to talk about race on your parenting blogs. I loved food so I tested recipes and taught myself food photography with a fancy pants camera that I bought with money I earned from blogging. (The blog I’m Not the Nanny is still up—for now—but I no longer updated it. I’ve published some great recipes there!)

Because of the connections I made through the above work, I was given the opportunity to write essays and eventually I got into content marketing. I was writing content marketing articles until a couple of years ago. By then I didn’t even want the byline. I needed the income and the clients I worked for paid well and quickly—which is sadly uncommon in the freelance writing world.

Back then I wrote almost everything digitally. I wrote directly into Wordpress for my blog. Even though it was risky because you could easily lose your work, it save me time when I was writing during toddler naps or late at night. For my content marketing work, I wrote in Google Docs. Everything was fast and dirty. My editors loved how “clean” my writing was, which made me wonder what other writers turned in.

Now I primarily focus on my fiction writing and things like this Substack.

Handwriting first drafts

My first novel Happy Endings was primarily written digitally because that’s what I thought I should do. Mostly I didn’t understand how my brain worked when I wrote fiction. My kids were older then but I still didn’t have a lot of time to write as I was juggling freelance writing, my blog (for a while), and running a new business.

After finishing my third novel, I’ve embraced that analog tools work best for me when I’m writing first drafts.

3 Composition notebooks filled with various sections of my first draft. And lots of crossed out words

When I put my fountain pen to that cheap composition notebook, the pressure to get everything perfect right away fades a little. It doesn’t go away, but my brain relaxes a bit. It’s just a $3 notebook—so what if I mess up?

I allow myself to scribble and cross out lines when I draft by hand. Sometimes entire paragraphs. I don’t stress about word counts because there’s no counter in my notebook. There’s no cursor on a blank screen flashing at me.

I probably handwrite 45-60% of my first drafts. Sometimes the scene rushes out of me like a fire hydrant so I switch to typing because my hand cannot keep up.

When I’m stuck or blocked in my story, handwriting allows my brain to work things out while I put down the words. The tactile feel of nib on paper forces me to sit wiith my physical body and helps me from overthinkng.

I’ve sent plenty of emails to my editor that start with “I’m probably overthinking this, but...”

She usually agrees that I’m overthinking and reminds me that the scene works.

Honoring your process

My current selection of fountain pens. Each is inked in a different color and have different sized nibs to suit my mood at the moment.

About halfway through writing my second novel Full Exposure, I gave myself permission to handwrite as much as I needed. I also did a lot of drafting on paper during revisions. My editor was kind about it, but the novel needed a ton of work. In fact, I scrapped half of it during revisions and completely rewrote it.

When I started working on Something Cheeky, I reached for one of my many blank notebooks. They were “good” paper and felt too precious. Then I learned about some fountain pen friendly composition notebooks from one of my fountain pen communities.

I’d only purchased two at first. When I returned for more, the paper hand changed! Any creature of habit will tell you what a crisis that is! After consulting with my pen community, I learned that CVS composition notebooks were also great for fountain pen inks. Bonus: they were on clearance for fifty cents each so I bought 4. Hopefully that’s enough for my next novel.

Which I’m not working on quite. First I need to refill my creative well by reading and painting.

If you’d like to learn more about the exact analog tools I use when I write, let me know. I can include it in a future post.

Do you prefer writing your first drafts on your computer/laptop or do you go for pen and paper?