The Writer’s Bump
Completely by chance, I found this article that dates back to May about the writer’s bump being headed for extinction, and I can indeed relate to this, since I had already noticed, quite some time ago, that mine had gotten smaller than before. Oh, it’s still here… just more discrete, less protuberant. Nowadays, when I work on my writing, I do it directly on the computer, so that I don’t need to “waste time” doing it on paper first, then copying everything in my word processor.
In a way, it’s a little sad. While I didn’t like it when I was still in my teens—I thought it made my finger look weird—I now somehow regret it. It was indeed some “badge of honor”, the proof that I was living with a pen in hand almost from the moment I got up in the morning to the moment I went to bed. I’d write everywhere, whenever I had five minutes ahead and no book under the hand to pass the time. Or I’d draw, depending on my mood. It’s a wonder that I don’t bear some freaky tatoo resulting from all this ink I got on my middle finger due to cheap leaky pens and mixing so many ink colors.
I still use pens here and there, of course, if only to write down an idea, but it’s nowhere near the amount of time I used to write manually “in times of old” (I know when I stopped: in 2002, when I switched from college studies to graphic-design ones, and would use a computer all the time). Same goes for drawing: vector works don’t demand me to prepare sketches for hours in a row. As a nasty side-effect, too, my handwriting has gotten awful; I used to tease my boyfriend about his, but really, mine hasn’t improved at all, on the contrary, since I’m not “practicing” as much as before.
Ah, well. This is one of the sad things about the wonders of the computer: our old writing scars are slowly disappearing!
FILED UNDER : Writing & Stories
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Comments
melly
Being somewhat your elder, I used to write with a pen for many more years. My writer’s bump still exists, but I forgot all about it until you mentioned it.I do think it used to be ‘bigger.’ And ‘scruffier.’I’m smiling to myself as I write this and examine the bump.What a great topic!
Yzabel
So I guess it’s also more of a war trophy for you than a matter of shame, then? 😉
Jennifer
Ahhh I remember…I had one from drawing not writing (since I started out drawing instead of writing…the architect in me). Then my third year of college everything became computer oriented and now writing seems to have dwindled in favor of the computer…however I do have my trustly notbook and good pen with me all the time and when I start a new idea it’s all on paper. I have to be able to write/sketch all my thoughts quickly. I’ll have pages and pages of notes. I love sifting through my pages trying to find an idea I KNOW I wrote somewhere :)As for handwriting… I had bad handwriting until college…well not bad just not neat. Now however I’ve very neat, flowly handwriting…go figure 🙂
Cavan
Believe it or not, I still like to write with pen and paper. I find the computer too distracting and can generally focus when I have paper in front of me. Additionally, I don’t necessarily consider the time spent typing it up wasted – it’s a great way to edit.
Elvira Black
Now you’re making me wax nostalgic for all the stages of writer’s evolution I’ve experienced:Writing by hand:I’m selling my coop, and have been throwing out boxes of old notebooks I’ve carted around from apt to apt for the past 30-odd years. I finally realized that if I wanted a keepsake to cherish and savor in my old age, I could probably find something more riveting and less space consuming if I really tried.I also found a few priceless hand-written letters. Though I live for e-mail, this kind of communique cannot be so easily duplicated.Typewriters (pre-word processing/computers):Ah…the ink erasers, the wite out, the correction tape, the smudges, the overflowing trash can…And for long papers, the inability to cut and paste and easily reorganize, short of literally cutting paragraphs apart and rearranging them like a jigsaw puzzle. Fortunately, I was able to afford to have someone with one of those (newfangled) word processors to type up the final draft of my master’s thesis so I could actually graduate.As a writer old enough to have “seen it all,” I feel, in my case at least, that computers have streamlined and even transformed the writing process in immeasurable ways.I can now write and edit almost as quickly as I can think (lol). I have a symbiotic relationship with this wonderful tool–it has actually helped me evolve into a more efficient and informed writer. With the click of a link I can find references and potential hyperlinks for my entries and research virtually any topic in depth.To my way of thinking, hyperlinks alone have turned writing into something infinitely more three-dimensional.The works of great geniuses as well as “ordinary” folk are accessible to all in the blink of an eye–and every link widens the information flow exponentially.Long story short, thank goodness for computers.
Yzabel
Jennifer, maybe not being in college anymore has something to do with the handwriting being neater? When I attended classes myself, I just didn’t have time to write properly, since I usually needed to cram 16 pages of notes per two hours sessions (it was something like this, if I remember well); normally, at the end of the class, I could barely read myself, since I’d write so fast and, uhm, not “neatly” at all!
Yzabel
Cavan — Know what, this sounds like very wise words. Maybe I should “force” myself to go back to handwriting, and take the task to copy it in my word processor as an opportunity to edit without even thinking of it. It could work very well…
Yzabel
Elvira — Also piling up notebooks in the hopes of using them for “something worthy” someday? This really reminds me of someone, huh 😉 I have a few boxes at home too. Nowadays still, if I’m unleashed in a stationery shop, I never go out empty-handed. The call of the white, virgin page in a pretty-looking notebook, I suppose.Now, I’m really thankful for all the abilities brought by computers for text editing, that’s a fact. I remember, when I was younger, even trying to justify text on the pages I’d type on my good old Olivetti. Don’t ask me why I wanted to do that, I was 12 and thought “it’d look good” (let’s not mention that editing the text to match the lines’ length was, er, a stupid thing to do). Ah, the things we do, sometimes. Justifying is so easy now.