Comments on: Hunt and Peck

By: elyssany

elyssany — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:22:00 +0000

Oh, I decided at a very young age that I would never learn to cook b/c I was determined to not be the typical female.

Fast forward fifteen years and me struggling over a stove, wondering how I burnt pasta. LOL

I can type pretty fast, but I can’t do shorthand. For me, it depends – I do most of my writing on the computer and after reading TRR, I have nightmares where my computer will freeze and I’ll have a Kelly-like panic! But sometimes, I’ll get ideas in the weirdest of places or right as I’m just about to go to sleep for a scene that just won’t leave my head until I write it down.

By: PJ

PJ — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:57:00 +0000

My dad was a bit more enlightened. He encouraged me to take one semester of typing in tenth grade so I wouldn’t have to pay someone to type my college papers. Best class I ever took. Like Tiff, I’m a fast typist with minimal mistakes and that skill has helped me in every career position I’ve held, even when I had my own secretary to do typing for me. Fortunately, I also have excellent handwriting (thanks to my first and second grade teachers) so I can actually read what I’ve written when I’m taking notes in meetings, which I seem to be doing a lot of these days.

Janga, I took Home Ec in 8th grade. It was required. I was bored to tears. I still can’t sew. lol Funny thing is, for some reason I kept that Home Ec textbook and I was looking through it the other day while cleaning out a closet. Feminists would have a field day with it. It was so obviously written in the 50′s!

By: Maggie Robinson

Maggie Robinson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Ericka, I’m surprised so many of you are “hands-on.” And you outline! I need to be more organized, altho I could never be the sticky-on-the-grid kind of writer just because my ideas come at such inconvenient intervals. Not at lunch, Gillian, but I dream about stuff and then have to write down things in the dark. And Terrio, the buttons on my cell are just to teeny (or my fingers are too fat) for me to ever text for real!

By: Ericka Scott

Ericka Scott — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:50:00 +0000

It all depends (don't you just love that answer)...

In order to outline, it all has to be done longhand in my notebook. There's something very intimate about it.

When the words/thoughts are coming fast and furious, typing is the way for me to go. Most editing is also done on the computer (mostly just to save paper).

If I get stuck...I'm back to long hand...

By: terrio

terrio — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:52:00 +0000

I’m still trying to catch my breath from Tiff typing the words “with minimal mistakes” and then going on to call her writing “ineligible”. LOL! I kid because I care!

Janga – With your eloquence, you can type with your toes and we don’t care as long as you type. *g*

Maggie – You were just ahead of your time. You were texting before they invented it! LOL!

By: Gillian

Gillian — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:42:00 +0000

I love to work by pen, but age has caught me as well–my hands hurt. So typing is the way to get things done.

But on a good day, I’ll scribble out four or five pages of notes at lunch. My “best” ideas always come when I should be concentrating on the day job, of course.

By: Maggie Robinson

Maggie Robinson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 06:13:00 +0000

Janga, I took home ec in eighth grade. I cheated and had my mom help sew the dress that was the final exam…I mean, I’d picked a pattern with pintucks and pleats and a material belt…was I insane? It was pink, too. Blech.

Anne, Bernard and Hellion, even though I carry around a little notebook for when I get “inspired,” I can’t really understand what I write down. I really do think better without a pen in my hand, LOL.

Tiff and Terrio, I’m insanely jealous of your skill. I once applied for a job and only scored “average” on the typing test…which wasn’t enough…but I was THRILLED!

Anon, I took notes in college w/ my own shorthand, which mostly consisted of leaving out vwls.

By: Janga

Janga — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:01:00 +0000

If you type with two fingers, Maggie, you are twice as good a typist as I am. LOL! I wrote the first draft of my dissertation typing (electric typewriter) with one finger. I’m much faster on the computer keyboard, but I still type with one finger. I also write everything in longhand first from assignment sheets for my students to more than 100,000 words on my wip (38,000 have been trashed).

My dad didn’t fuss about my refusal to take typing. I also refused to take Home Economics. I was a feminist before the revolution. Daddy was relieved though that I proved practical enough to get my teacher certification. “Teachers will always be needed,” he said repeatedly.

By: anne

anne — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:01:00 +0000

I can write notes/scenes/chapter drafts/whatever on a legal pad OR on a computer, though I love the ability to edit or rewrite as I type on a computer.

Can you imagine what a 20th century newsroom must have sounded like, with all those typewriters going at the same time?

By: MsHellion

MsHellion — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:00:00 +0000

*LOL* We *had* to take the freaking typing class. Awful, awful. She’d call out letters and we’d have to type them over and over. alalalalal…blah, blah, blah. I never thought I’d get it–let alone do it “fast”–and all I have to say is THANK GOD for word processing and the ability the computer has to autocorrect. Most of the time.

I prefer to type…but late at night, if I don’t want to bring out the laptop (and then turn it back off again!)–I’ll bring out a pen & paper. I’m not wild about my handwriting, but it’s doable. I get tired of it though…and find myself jotting pieces of sentences and “ideas” of what needs to go in the chapter when I get back to “real writing”, i.e. MY KEYBOARD.

I prefer to do poetry by hand rather than keyboard…though when I’m at my computer, it’s easier to do the word search at RhymeZone…but otherwise, pen & paper!