Ok, that has nothing to do with the title of this blog, I know. But when you spend some time on LinkedIn and in the site's various groups, at least in the writer groups I engage in, you inevitably find thought-provoking, stimulating articles and conversations. Like this one, which David K. William posted in our mutual group, The Professional Business Writers – and written by Suchi Rudra, as posted on the Web Writer Spotlight:
http://webwriterspotlight.com/does-writing-by-hand-make-you-more-creative#.VRmjdymfcp4.linkedin
Writing by hand is laborious. In fact, I've found that the more I've grown to use the keypad to write, the more difficult it is to write by hand when I do... and sometimes, I even end up with writer's cramp.
But the question posed in this article is interesting: does writing by hand make you more creative? Does the labor have virtue for writers? In an age when kids are learning to type on iPads before they can even write their own name with a crayon, it's a valid consideration.
For me, this piece nicely gave words to my own previously unexpressed feelings about writing by hand. In her essay "Putting Pen to Paper, but Not Just Any Pen and Not Just Any Paper," which is quoted in this article, writer Mary Gordon advocates that:
“...I believe that the labor has virtue, because of its very physicality. For one thing it involves flesh, blood and the thingness of pen and paper, those anchors that remind us that, however thoroughly we lose ourselves in the vortex of our invention, we inhabit a corporeal world.”
Somehow, the process of writing by hand can facilitate a completely different flow of creative output for me, which is why it's a great exercise to use when facing writer's block. I have found it particularly useful when writing ad copy and generating ideas for headlines and ad concepts. Writing by hand helps me to visualize the ad layout and design better, which often stimulates even more ideas.
The labor has virtue indeed!
