Tell Us About Your Writing Set Up

[Counterpoint]

I must be alone in this - I really enjoy writing first drafts by hand. I have a luxury leather notebook which I take with me everywhere. Sometimes I get round to typing up in my digital MSS, but sometimes I don't. When I find half-an-hour at the start of the day at work, when work for the day is sorted, when porridge is cooling next to my coffee on my admittedly untidy desk, I like nothing better than to put pen to paper.

I wish I could say my handwriting has improved with time. It has not.

You are not alone! I do most of my writing with pen and paper on my writing desk. I have a collection of fountain pens, stationery, and ink that I rotate through to keep things interesting.

 

[Amontillado]

Nice writing desk — I'm envious!

My handwriting was a wreck. Then I saw a fountain pen video and was taken back to fifth grade, my beloved student Sheaffer fountain pen, and my Mom's reaction to the pen's tendency toward inky incontinence.

After that pen video, I practiced loops and curves for about 15 minutes, started writing deliberately, and had at least partially legible handwriting. A few years on, calligraphy is still beyond me, but what the heck. It's not like I'm a diplomat or anything.

Monteverde Innova Formula M, 1.1 mm stub nib, Diamine Oxford Blue.

 

[JT Woody]

I must be alone in this - I really enjoy writing first drafts by hand. I have a luxury leather notebook which I take with me everywhere. Sometimes I get round to typing up in my digital MSS, but sometimes I don't. When I find half-an-hour at the start of the day at work, when work for the day is sorted, when porridge is cooling next to my coffee on my admittedly untidy desk, I like nothing better than to put pen to paper.

I wish I could say my handwriting has improved with time. It has not.

I used to write by hand. I had a notebook in HS that had this really emo story in it about a bullied teen who gets lured into the woods on a prank but the prank goes wrong and kills him.... and when he dies, rather than go to Hell, he goes to "reform school" as an apprentice to one of the Grim Reapers (theres a bunch of them), but he mainly wants to get revenge on his bullies.
The thing about it was.... the ink faded and bled into the other pages, and yellowed othr pages.
I couldnt do anything with the writing because i couldnt decipher it.

Years later, in college, i hand made a notebook. Leather wrapped hardcover, hand sitched pages.
I wrote down half a novel in it, but same thing... ink in the earlier pages started to bleed into the other pages.

Maybe ita poor paper? Poor ink? Idk. But it wasnt lasting.

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

I write by hand first, then type. I gotta feel the words leaving me and it's just not the same for me on a keyboard. I do loose leaf notebook paper, keep it numbered by chapter (page numbers go 1, 2, 3, etc in each chapter).

Once I type up a chapter, it gets printed and put in a binder. Once the draft sits and steeps for a bit, I go through with a red pen and do a sweep, making editing notes in margins or on the backs of each page if I need more space, then rewrites/additions are written on more notebook paper I keep tucked in with relevant chapters.

Those changes get typed and that draft is printed out, and the process continues until the story feels right.

Edit: sometimes I go through with highlighters and mark up dialogue if I'm worried one character is talking too much. Or I'll put different color tabs in there for different things.

 

[DLC]

I dictate my words to my secretary while getting ripped on gin like Barbara Cartland.
Well, that's the dream anyway.

 

[Night Herald]

I do roughly half of my writing at the desktop computer in the living room of my apartment, the other half or so on my laptop, if I'm on the road or just in a couch or bed kind of mood. Some of my best work happens while I'm planted on my mom's couch in the house I partly grew up in. It's a very comfy couch with one of those long peripendicular bits to stretch your legs out on, and there's something about being home that helps the creative juices flow. I use OpenOffice for pretty much all of my typing.

Technically I have a dedicated writing/art desk in my living room, which is a distinct desk from the one occupied by all my computer stuff. It doesn't see much use. It's mostly been turned over into a display shelf for beloved trinkets and a few of my prettiest books, but every once in a while I'll feel fancy enough to sit down with a notebook or a stack of paper and brandish my quill. An actual quill. Kinda wonky to use, I do it for the style points. Honorable mention to this crossword puzzle pen I picked up a while back. It fits well in the hand and writes smoothly, the ink is a lovely shiny black, and that eraser at the end has proved handy.

I have a particular (very handsome) notebook dedicated to my current big project. I use it for brainstorming, taking notes, and roughing out scenes when there's nothing electronic in easy reach. I used to use my phone for that, but something about handwriting feels... good. I should look into making it a bigger part of my process.

 

[tde44]

You are not alone! I do most of my writing with pen and paper on my writing desk. I have a collection of fountain pens, stationery, and ink that I rotate through to keep things interesting.

View attachment 171

I am the same - everything is written out by hand using my fountain pens.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Old ThinkPad touch screen laptop, running Windows 7 and WordPerfect 2021, perched on whatever table or desk I find myself at at the time. If I can plug in the charger cord, so much the better.

 

[Amontillado]

Following up on what made me unhappy, to wit the sorry state of high hotel desks and perpetually collapsing chair struts, I got a Portal brand adjustable height camp table. Yes, I'm nerdy enough to want to lug my own typing table on trips. When folded up, it's a bundle about four feet long and ten inches in diameter. The only drawback I see is the top is aluminum slats. It's OK for pen and paper, but only with something to pad your work. For a laptop, watch out. My heroes shall emerge from dark and stormy nights battered and bruised but ultimately victorious!

Now all I need is some kind of camp chair that doesn't put me in a reclining position.

 

[Rig Haben]

On my work laptop, so I can do a little on lunch breaks, and then some at home since I bring my setup back and forth. I use the MS Word they provide, even if the 2010 version is my ideal choice. Hate how things are turning into Software as a Service these day.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Laptop, manual mouse, pen, paper, desk.

 

[Stuart Dren]

Laptop on the sofa, or sometimes outside. Caffeine is preferable but leads to a performance rollercoaster. I'm the prophet of inconsistent output. I fantasize about having a secluded and austere writing nook like King.

Its battery died, and since it's five years old, I decided to be dangerous and upgrade from a 48 whr battery to a 90 whr one. I had to remove the drive bay and shave down some parts but longboy ultimately sits and fits. Also all the instances of 'ASUS,' err... I mean [redacted] on the new battery were blacked out with a sharpie but I'm not going to think about it.

 

[GrahamLewis]

Laptop on an old library table in a paneled and carpeted basement room, bookcase beside me, space heater, and lots of old family photos. My desk chair is a salvage from a campus building's discards. A second screen that's rarely hooked up. A copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and a New Oxford American English Dictionary. Some inspirational readings nearby. Printer within reach. Quiet and comfortable. No excuses.