Writing By Hand Can Make You Smarter.
True?
Not true?
Turns out
there’s a lot of info out there to support true.
So it
turns out I’m not old fashioned and crotchety because I still prefer to write
some things by hand. But wait, don’t some groups advocate not even teaching
cursive writing?
Big
mistake. Just check out a study by Pam Mueller, a Princeton psychologygraduate student when this article was written back in July
2015. According to the study folks who
took notes in class longhand retained more and comprehend more than their
fellow students pecking away at computer keyboards and actually taking more
notes because they could take them faster.
So, what
does that mean for writers? Put away your computer and grab a pen and notebook
when in the planning stages of your next project. Whether article with research
or novel (also with research – just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean you don’t
have to have the facts straight) or screen script (ditto).
It appears
that typing might be just fine once the writer is rolling, creating whatever it
is they’re creating, but apparently writing notes longhand is a much better
method to trigger memory and the synthesizing of collected information than
typing or pecking at a phone screen.
Don’t
believe it? Then you might want to give
it a try. I have over the years. Having written novels, published with major
houses and optioned screen scripts in addition to articles and ghosting, I’ve tried almost every method of producing
my work. I’ve tried every idea to try to shortcut the process, but there are
some things that just don’t take kindly to short-cutting and memory and
processing information are apparently two of those. I mean, not only did those student in the
study type notes much faster than they could write them, but it didn’t gain
them anything. In fact, they lost ground against their longhand note-taking
companions. Not only that, but they had less comprehension of what notes they
did take. Not only that, but when they tried going back and studying the
copious notes they’d taken on laptops, they actually did worse on the tests.
Hmmmm.
Ever find yourself taking lots of notes from an
interview on your computer as a professional writer, feeling like you
raced to keep up? Then, did you go back over your notes and nearly wonder who
took them in the first place since you can’t remember what was said?
It seems
like if you take the notes by hand, you’re more involved, more inside the
subject matter.
My notes
are a mess, my handwriting would probably get a ‘D’, but when I compare them to
what I tried to take once up on a time on my computer when I read those notes
they trigger memories and associations. I find myself more fully engaged and
when the time comes to get it all down into a document, the flow is swift and
smooth.
The long
and the short of it is, keep writing. Keep writing by hand to focus the writer
in you. Keep a notebook handy. (come on, you know you love those Moleskines anyway – and they come in cool colors and
black too!).
There’s no
doubt it works. Something about our brains… whatever… my creative partner Charlene
Brash Sorensen and I create our outlines, plot ideas, scripts, even comic
blocks for Planet Of The Eggs by hand on note paper before we even begin
working with our comic creating software. Charlie prefers graph paper – I prefer
lined.
Save the
tech stuff or later. Start writing by hand.
