Nathan Bransford - The Forums

There are a number of books that talk about how different parts of the brain are switched on when using computers, compared to writing by hand. Two of my favorites are Hamlet’s Blackberry and The Shallows. Then I found The Phenomenology (aka “personal experience”) of Writing by Hand by Daniel Chandler and liked the distinction he makes between Planners who “tend to think of writing primarily as a means of recording or communicating ideas which they already have clear in their minds,” and Discoverers for whom writing is typically “a way of discovering what they want to say". At the recent Austin Film Festival I was struck by the number of famous screenwriters who talked about writing in longhand versus using the computer because the said this process felt more organic and real.