I Just Listened to The Rolling Stones’ Shine A Light And Boys is My Hand Tired
There aren’t many feelings worse than having to admit Mark Saleski may have been right about something, but here it goes.
I mentioned purchasing Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend from far Away a few weeks ago at his urging. One of her suggestions is to eschew computer-aided writing in favor of pen and notebook, a practice Saleski has long clung to. I don’t think I ever mocked this stodgy ritual as part of his technophobia but I wasn’t ready to follow his lead.
Goldberg doesn’t forbid using computers but did make a case that there might be benefits to the more physical nature of writing longhand. I spent the money to buy her book, so I decided I should at least try it her way.
I haven’t written everything I’ve published by hand since purchasing the book but I have done more by hand in the past weeks than I have in the past several years. This morning I wrote better than 90 percent of my Stones review this way and it was a revelation. This piece you’re reading now started as blue in scrawled in a notebook.
Has physical writing been the source of my reinvigoration? I’ve written three reviews in three days and liveblogged R.E.M.’s Accelerate. That’s frightening output for me.
While the book and suggestions have certainly helped, I also think the deluge of recent music releases has inspired this prolific production; Saleski and Goldberg aren’t getting all the credit here!
As I write this, I’m listening to the new Joe Satriani record, hoping inspiration will spark and words will follow. If they do, my notebook may well be the first to know it.
Filed under: Rolling Stones
i do admit to having technophobia but the writing-with-hand thing had more to do with the joys of dragging a pencil across the page than being a luddite.
glad you’ve discovered that i’m not completely insane.
by the way, best first sentence of a post ever.
I don’t know if the handwritten approach has given me any pleasure but I feel I’ve noticed something I can’t quite define in my writing these past few days and weeks by doing more of it.
Goldberg does suggest pen rather than pencil from an ease of use and speed of motion perspective, fyi, and yes, you are completely insane.
i understand what she’s getting at about the pen vs. the pencil, but a pen just doesn’t work for me. it there isn’t a certain level of friction (i’m even picky about the lead that i use) then my writing is even sloppier than normal….it almost feels like i can’t control the writing instrument, which is a distraction: totally against the point of the exercise, eh?
Yeah. One of things she talks about in the book is constant motion. She even discourages ball point pens because she thinks they force you to press too hard and slows you down. It’s all about continuing to move. You should stick with pencil if it’s what allows you to keep your hand moving quickest across the page.