Handwriting, Typewriter, Computer

The question I pose for myself is whether my creative juices work better when I am penning a piece, typing it ( if I had a typewriter) or using my computer.

Several well known gurus of writing, of priming the pump, of getting in touch with those things you really want to say, encourage people to engage in early morning journal writing. Simply pick up your pen and write, don't stop to edit, keep going.

Several years ago I tried getting up earlier than usual, taking out my notebook, setting the timer for fifteen minutes and then begin to write. That time wasn't a good fit. My mind wandered. How, I wondered could I finish all my morning exercises or the thirty minutes on the treadmill-- if it was deep winter? So I changed the free writing time to late afternoon. At the end of every week I read over what I had written looking for some emotional truth, a nugget to mine, or a sentence to savor. Often I simply found redundancies.

Still believing that writing with a pen was organic and connected me to my innermost thoughts, I responded to prompts in journal after journal. I liked the feel of the paper and loved filling up notebook after notebook. When done with a book I read the entire book seeking commonalities.

I was actually seeking an epiphany-- a story to emerge like a goddess from a seashell.

The first typewriter I owned was a birthday present from my parents. It came in its own blue case. I loved the connection between my finger pads and the keys-- save for the one that always seemed to stick and required an extra push. Despite the numerous typing errors I wrote my first short play, actually a skit, on my Olympia keyboard. It felt so professional. Eventually I moved on to an electric typewriter, but always missed the tension between key and finger.

Then the computer arrived--which I took to immediately. Now I could become a writer and unleash the words with a furious abandon. That is as fast as my two finger approach allows.

Poetry, for me, still needs that organic touch-- handwritten, crossed out, rewritten. Everything else is written on my computer, or IPad, or ITouch.

So what works best for my creative juices-- deadlines, and dreams.