Paper and Pen

I am a writer. As such, I write my books, ramblings, short stories and sometimes (not-so-good) poetry on my laptop. It's fast, legible and oh-so-easy to fix mistakes. However, I find that I miss the simplicity of writing on good old fashioned notebook paper with a pen or pencil. Sure, I keep a notebook in my purse to jot down ideas or really great lines that come to me when I'm away from my laptop. The core of my writing gets done on the keys of my laptop, though. Then it's saved to my hard drive and a memory stick. yes, two places because God forbid something happen to my laptop and I lose everything I've written. We had a laptop fry on us two years ago and we lost almost all of a year's worth of our family photos. It was devestating, to say the least. And a horribly hard earned lesson on backing up what you never want to lose to a technology meltdown.

While I am going to continue writing my fiction on my laptop - I do want to start using a paper and pen again. I miss the feel of paper under my hands and the crinkling sound of pages turning. I realize it's very tactile and probably somewhat helps the creative thought process. I think it may help to create a full outline of each story on paper and add pieces as I go along.

Another thing I think may help my need for paper and pen is a regular calendar in my purse. As much as I do like technology, I really dislike using the calendar option in my phone. It's a pain in the butt and I end up not using it. Then I have to wait to look at the wall calendar at home when my husband calls during the day to ask me about dates to schedule his gigs and what not. It really is a hassle.

At the risk of being very un-green - I am going to switch back to pen (or pencil) and paper for some things. And enjoy every moment that I use these objects in my daily life.