Note: One of my regular blog readers is the lovely and talented A. Grey, who mentioned in a comment recently that she wrote in longhand. That turned my brain into all sorts of bizarre shapes as I tried to imagine writing anything longer than a Post-It note by hand. I wrote back immediately and asked her for a guest post on all the secrets, hows and whys of writing the draft of a novel long longhand!

By A. Grey

When Daisy asked me if I’d be interested in writing a guest blog post on writing longhand, my first thought was ‘Woohoo! My FIRST guest blog post ever!’ My second thought was ‘Holy hot dogs, what’s a guest blog post and how do I write one?’ Here is the end result of my attempts to coalesce the hows and whys of writing longhand into something remotely interesting.

You’ve got your two basic sorts of writers: Those with smooth, clean fingers and those with rough, ink-stained fingers. Neither group is better than the other. They’re just different. I am of the latter. It’s not a choice I made, it’s just how I am. I write almost everything longhand first. I simply need to feel the pen sliding over the paper, to see the pages stacking up. I’ll write with anything if I don’t have a pen and paper handy. I even used a friend’s lighter to char a toothpick once so I could scratch a note out.

I’m almost never without a notebook of some sort. I resemble a bag lady wherever I go. My friends and family have accepted this. That’s one of the good things about writing longhand. You can write anywhere, not just where there’s a power outlet.

I use a three-ring binder, college-ruled loose leaf paper and a black ball point pen. Over time and due to deteriorating joints in my right hand, I’ve settled on Parker ball point fillers and a fat pen made of sandalwood. When I was fifteen my father gave me a blue Papermate for Christmas. He didn’t say anything noble, just muttered that maybe now I’d “stop stealing all his work pens”. I wore that pen out long ago, but I still have it tucked away because for me it represents the beginning of the journey. And I still steal Dad’s pens now and then.

Some writers use spiral notebooks but I like loose leaf because I can take the pages out and lay them side by side like a story board. And I can add more without ever hitting the end. I do often write a rough outline of an idea on my laptop along with a few character descriptions. Everything else is longhand. When I’ve finished a manuscript, I transcribe it into the computer. Yes, it can be a bore. But it’s also when I do my first overhaul edit.

Computers are great (Mac girl all the way) and technology is awesome. But for me, longhand is the truest manifestation of that which lives inside us, and it’s the least diluted version of it. After all, the thoughts have only to travel from your mind to your fingertips in order to be born into our reality in the form of ink on paper. Some day I might not be able to hold a pen and write longhand but until that day comes you’ll be able to recognize me by the black ink stains on my fingers and the satchel of notebooks on my shoulder. There’s just something about the smell of ink on paper that stirs my soul. Like the scent of freshly cooked chocolate chip banana nut bread and crisp mimosas. It’s irresistible, and it could lead to anything.

But however you write, the important thing is to KEEP writing and never let anyone deter you from it!

A. Grey is writer in search of an agent. Her days are spent hauling hay, driving tractors, training horses and occasionally beating boys who mistakenly think they can to a better job at such things. Her favorite word is indomitable and she prefers to hear women use it in three- word sentences that begin with ‘I am’.

Note from Daisy: And with the writing you demonstrated here, I bet you’ll find an agent soon!