29 Comments
User's avatar
Mark Jacobs's avatar

Paper works. It just does. Textural. Creative. Ancient.

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

I might use those same adjectives to describe myself.

Expand full comment
Mark Jacobs's avatar

Almost certainly.

Expand full comment
Julie Babis's avatar

I always use pen and paper for planning anything. I find tech gets in the way and I spend hours figuring out how to do something and very little time actually doing it

I also end up printing loads of things because I absorb info better from paper than from a screen.

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

Shifting finished work into different formats is really helpful with proofing and editing, too.

Expand full comment
Julie Babis's avatar

I hadn’t thought of that, thank you

Expand full comment
Leanne Shawler's avatar

I am fully planning to break out the post its and possibly red twine to figure out how my final book will end up. There’s too many loose ends.

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

Sounds more like you’re solving a murder!

Expand full comment
Leanne Shawler's avatar

only the murrrrderrrr of the planet earth. Or at least trying to prevent it in this alternate history.

Expand full comment
Mark Williams's avatar

The reason paper works is that when you’re using your computer device, it feels like you’re producing something (eg doing). Eg a report / spreadsheet etc. cos that’s what we do in our work lives.

But, when you work with paper, it feels like you’re thinking, not doing.

“I think”.

Expand full comment
James Kinsley's avatar

As I've mentioned more than once, planning is something I avoid at all costs but when I do, it's as likely to be in a notebook as a word doc. The real key for me is that I don't have to flip between windows, I can just have my notebook next to me as I write.

Expand full comment
Allie Bock's avatar

Always paper to play, work things out, and then I type or scan it into my computer

Expand full comment
Bruce Landay's avatar

Sometimes low tech is the more elegant solution. Often a simple solution using pen and paper does the job quicker, more easily, and with fewer limitations. I’ve often seen and used software that mimics paper systems that are much more cumbersome to use.

At the end of the day it’s about getting the job done. I salute your ability to handle mass and complexity over a multi year span!

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

Thanks, Bruce. We’ll see how well I actually handle that complexity over the coming weeks. :D

Expand full comment
Timothy Nisly's avatar

I've been pantsing my upcoming serial, but you've got me wondering if I need to break out the notebook...

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

I'm always happiest when I'm somewhere in the middle of the planner/pantser spectrum!

Expand full comment
Amie McGraham's avatar

I’ve held off scrivener entirely for the precise “structured confines” you mentioned. When I get stumped doing screen edits in a sticky section of my MS, out comes the pen & notebook, scratchpad, whatever. I’m no technophobe, but situationally old school and offline 📝

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

I couldn't write the way I do without Scrivener. For the most part, it's what enables me to write and publish in the way I most enjoy. But times like right now demand a more flexible approach! :)

Expand full comment
Bill Gerace's avatar

I rarely use pen and paper, to be honest. Though I do keep a red journal book that says Jot It Down lol. So when I have an idea for something I'm working on or for a future story, I put it in here to refer to later. Additionally, I do like these software writing tools. I have tried Scrivener before on several occasions, but I feel there is a huge learning curve, at least for me, and I stopped using it. Right now, I use Novel Crafter, which I love. Once I have a character template that I make up with a little help from AI, it designs the questions to ask for me. Then I copy and paste the questions in Novel Crafter and answer them. There are different questions for different aspects of the profile of the character. There is Core Identity, Physical Appearance, Personality Profile, Backstory and Secrets, Power Skills Resources, Character Arc, and Additional Flavor. Then I fill in each question with detail, along with a physical picture I have generated for them in Canva. This helps me visualize and see who I'm talking about as I'm writing their profile in Novel Crafter. This is a new experiment for me, but so far I absolutely love it.

Expand full comment
Mike Miller's avatar

Ah, yes, I also see some comments on "I retain information better from paper rather than screen.

Yup. Again, it's part of the tactile vs abstraction feedback loop. Paper engages more of the brain because you hold it, feel it, may run your finger down a page, flip pages in a book.

This time I remember to link the relevant article, which is a summary of a metaanalysis.

https://oxfordlearning.com/screen-vs-paper-which-one-boosts-reading-comprehension/

Expand full comment
Mike Miller's avatar

In the note discussion last week, I brought up levels of abstraction vs brain engagement for writing vs typing on a keyboard vs typing on a glass phone/tablet screen. If I'd realized you were workshopping a Mon essay - and I should have - I'd have linked some literature. I could drop an NIH study here, but, instead we'll go with a popular science magazine version.

Anyways, I usually start on paper. For the game con in Feb I ENDED on paper as I finished writing the 2pm event at 6am. Didn't have time to type it up.

Deciphering my own shit handwriting is a different topic...

Oddly, about the only time I didn't start on paper was writing the narratives of our weekly campaign a few years ago - but we have a bespoke play aid program/tool which automatically drops the current selected whatever into the clipboard for pasting into a VTT chat, so I was pasting into a word doc in a window instead and annotating as needed there so everything was in order. In general this worked, but, in typing the narratives I did cheat the order of game actions for better flow, handled by highlighting text blocks and marking them to strikethrough as they were integrated with the story.

As you notes paper lets one work how they want, not the software, so I can freely shift between paragraphs, lists, outlines, Venn diagrams, flowcharts, bubble diagrams, etc, even on the same page.

I do almost always move anything done on paper to a digital file later. Reorganization of scrawled notes into typed elements or designed graphics also functions as an "edit pass" as the transfer requires re-organization, hence, thought.

It's also part of why I'll be thrilled this summer to have an office again, instead of the kitchen table, so I don't have to keep removing computer and notes to eat.

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

Ha, if I'd KNOWN I was workshopping for a longer piece, I'd have let you know. :)

And yes - transposing back to digital is also useful. I'm now in the process of converting my mindmap into actual chapter placeholders, which has revealed a couple of gaps (now filled). Shifting in and our of the digital space has been a lot of fun, and practically very useful.

Expand full comment
Mike Miller's avatar

Helps to post the link mentioned in the long ass comment above:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/

Expand full comment
Milktown Writers' Group's avatar

Don't forget to Play.

Expand full comment
Milktown Writers' Group's avatar

Writing/drawing with a pen/pencil uses a different part of ones brain/Mind.

Stuff comes straight from the imagination & out the pen.

Using software however good for 'creation' uses the rational ( recent addition ) part of the brain, which it was not evolved for.

it puts the cart before the horse.

Also I noticed ( when I started mixing with writers ) that they invariably use the sensibile part of their brains for 'thinking stuff up'.

This is what leads to Writers Block, us artists never have Artist's Block !

Grant ( from Milktown Writers Group )

Expand full comment
Vanessa Glau's avatar

This is what I do too! When the plot is linear, I don't really need to turn to pen & paper but whenever it gets complex with many parts happening at the same time or different side plots, I find it much easier to visualise on a piece of paper. I hand write almost all of my brainstorming too, somehow it's more fun to use bullet points, insert ideas with arrows, boxes & other visualisations. The results are much better than if I do it digitally too.

(And let's be honest, digital mindmap tools are still kind of cumbersome & slow if you're not using a drawing tablet.)

I still digitise everything I figure out on paper by adding photos to my Obsidian vault or just typing it up though (probably similar to your Scrivener projects).

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

Yes to all of that. :)

A lot of what I’m been working on this last week already existed in Scrivener, but it was a bit of a mess. Going to pen and paper is what enabled me to untangle it all!

Expand full comment
Heléna Kurçab's avatar

Ha ha, you are an engineer, right?

Expand full comment
Simon K Jones's avatar

Me? I'm not, no. Maybe I should have been? :)

Expand full comment