Difficult to write, impossible to read - by Harini Nagendra

Handwritten or typed? Some writers, even today, will hand write a first draft. Some have 3rd grade penmanship from the atrophy our handwriting has suffered. Do you still handwrite any part of your writing process or are you all type, all the time? 

I'll let you in on a little secret - I am, and always have been, short on patience. A recipe like biriyani, that calls for slow roasting of thinly sliced onions for twenty minutes? Not for me. Caramel custard? Again no... it takes patience to get the caramel just right, and I don't have any.

Is it any wonder that I never developed the art of copperplate handwriting as a child? When I was in kindergarten, we were given ruled notebooks with rows of colored lines in which we were supposed to practice cursive writing. I never got the hang of it - except for one assignment, when I was about 5 years old, and painstakingly wrote out each three letter word (think bat, cat, rat) in lightest pencil, and went over it again with a darker pencil once I was satisfied. That was when we had a new teacher whom I absolutely adored - she even came home, to my birthday party, and I was so thrilled. But alas - she only came home to tell my parents she was leaving - she'd been teaching for a few weeks, but then became engaged, and left to get married. I was so disappointed - but there usually is a silver lining, and mine was that once my teacher left, I didn't need to sweat over my handwriting exercises ever again. I reverted to my usual untidy scrawl.

I never learnt how to type. I tried teaching myself to use all fingers on both hands, using typing software (in the early days of gamification, during the early '90s) but it never 'took'. Instead, when I had to type out my Masters thesis, I started banging on the computer keyboard using two index fingers - and that's how I type, even today. I never looked back, at least not for my academic writing - my typing is at least legible. I used to hand write poems (mostly nonsensical limericks) for a long while - but these days I've become lazy enough that I type them out too.

Writing a whole draft by hand? I have nothing but admiration for the writers of old, who did just that (unless they were men who dictated their books to their long-suffering secretaries or wives). I suppose I could try using transcription software, and dictating a book to my computer - but I don't think I could get that it to work.

And so, I type away with two fingers. I don't think I could ever dare to attempt hand-writing a complete draft of a novel, or even a short story. It's not just my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad handwriting that gets in my way. A computer is essential to my process. Without the ability to cut and paste, move sections around, rewrite bits and pieces, connect threads and reshape storylines - my left hand using the Ctrl X, Ctrl V keys while I type with my right (yes, I'm dating myself with this reference) - without being able to highlight words and phrases to look up when I'm editing so I don't accidently introduce anachronisms into my historical novel, or incorrectly describe a sari or a piece of jewelry - I don't know how I would ever get to the end of my book.    

Besides, it would take too long, and I told you - I don't have the patience.