Ten years ago Dick Brass, Microsoft’s then Vice President of Technology Development, announced to the world that “Paper Is Dead“. He believed we’d all be reading e-books within a decade – and if Amazon’s Kindle sales are anything to go by, he was onto something. Earlier this year the Pew Project For Excellence In Journalism concluded that by the end of 2010, more people were getting their news online than from newspapers (irrespective of the age of the readers). If paper isn’t dead, it certainly has a nasty cough.
But that’s publishing. What about the process of writing itself? Should all modern writers, including travel bloggers, be turning to their gadgets to “pen” their work rather than a good old-fashioned ruled moleskine?
Here are 7 reasons why they shouldn’t be so hasty to embrace progress.
Ditch Your Hastiest Thoughts
In a recent phone interview with Rolf Potts for The Atlantic, veteran travel writer Paul Theroux outlined his main grievance with blogging. Quality writing was ”a great labor of thought and consideration”, while in contrast most blogs looked ” illiterate…hasty, like someone babbling”. Cranky writer shouting “get off my lawn, kids”? Perhaps – but there’s a good point here, and it’s this: how often do travel bloggers first-draft their material? When blog posts are being squeezed into the tiniest gaps in your travel schedule, it’s easy to regard drafting as a waste of valuable time. Why not edit it on the fly? Surely life’s too short?
Because, in the words of Anne Lamott, all good writers produce “shitty first drafts“.
It’s difficult to throw away a first draft when you write it on a computer. The software encourages you to rearrange, cut, paste and tinker. And that’s why you need paper notebooks – because they force you to rewrite everything you’ve written, every single word. You’ll never blog a first draft again.
Devalue Your Words
All too common: a travel blogger has their laptop stolen. Less common? A travel blogger has their paper notebook stolen. Why? Because the latter is absolutely worthless to anyone except the blogger.
Protect your words by storing them on something nobody wants, like a notebook – an uglified notebook, in fact.
Be Quick On The Draw
This one doesn’t apply to the more techno-wizardly members among you – but personally, I’ve never met a gadget that I can start writing into faster than a well-holstered moleskine. No thumbing the power button, no booting up an app – you just flick your notebook open and off you go. And as for speed of use, there’s a reason professional journalism still uses shorthand…
The Joy Of Squiggling
Scribbles. Doodles. Drawing big swirly lines connecting your thoughts. Bracketing. Underlining wildly. Writing over the top (“This is rubbish, DO IT AGAIN“). Ringing words. Sketching pictures into the margins. Crossing out in self-recriminating fury!
These are parts of the creative process that you shouldn’t skip.
And they’re much easier to do on paper.
Zero-Power Productivity
The bane of a travel blogger’s life is power. If you’re relying on your phone or laptop to record your thoughts, you’re constantly dependant on its battery life. Journeys become agonised waits between recharging points. Going under 50% power is enough to break a sweat; under 10%, a full-blown panic attack. Thank heavens for solar-panelled backpack technology, even if it is a bit too new to be practical.
The only power source a paper notebook needs…is your brain.
(And a nice pen).
Become A Single-Tasking Genius
Gadgets are distraction machines, designed to tug your attention a million different directions. Not conducive to a focussed, observant travel blogging mindset, especially if you’re the type of person who has all your social media update notifications pushed to your phone (ahem, *cough*).
In contrast, there are only two things you can do with a paper notebook: write things in it, and swat things with it. Both equally rewarding activities for the average traveller.
Write Differently
If you’re writing in a paper notebook, chances are you’ll find yourself writing in a very different way.
And why wouldn’t you presume otherwise? It’s a different physical process, your body is doing different things, you’re aware that you can’t Cut or Paste or Delete, you’re having to turn your thoughts into marks on a page rather than pushing at buttons…it’s using your brain differently. (Typing is like playing a musical instrument – and writing is like drawing. Discuss).
Longhand isn’t necessarily a better or worse way of writing than using a keyboard, but it’s certainly different. So why not test it out for yourself - for example, by first-drafting everything on paper – and see how your writing changes?
Images: seanmcgrath, Tatinauk, photosteve101, SeanMacEntee, B Rosen, Eric__I_E, vince42 and OMFGmatt.
Post Revisions:
- 20 December, 2011 @ 5:26 [Current Revision] by Mike Sowden
- 18 September, 2011 @ 20:34 by John O'Nolan
- 18 September, 2011 @ 20:34 by John O'Nolan
- 18 September, 2011 @ 10:21 by Mike Sowden
- 18 September, 2011 @ 10:21 by John O'Nolan
- 18 September, 2011 @ 10:20 by Mike Sowden
- 18 September, 2011 @ 10:20 by Mike Sowden
- 18 September, 2011 @ 10:18 by Mike Sowden
- 18 September, 2011 @ 10:18 by Mike Sowden
Great summary, Mike. For me nothing beats sitting in a cafe with a pen an paper to write out thoughts and ideas. Sometimes ideas come out differently when written down, and I also do this as a way to unplug from my laptop, smartphone and ereader.
Good point that I fully agree with. It’s not just the writing that comes out differently when writing with paper – it’s *ideas* too.
Cheers for dropping by, James! Hope to bump into you somewhere round the globe one of these days…
I don’t write articles, books, or other material for publication on paper (I doubt if many professional writers can afford to be that inefficient), but I do use notebooks for their intended purpose: note-taking. As for worrying about losing material because of laptop theft, there’s an easy solution: keep backups, which you should be doing anyway if you’re taking photos. Small portable hard drives hold enormous quantities of material, USB thumb drives will hold a novel’s worth of notes, and–in a pinch–you can e-mail your notes to yourself. As long as your e-mails are stored on a server somewhere, you can retrieve them–and their attached documents–even if your laptop disappears or self-destructs.
Side note (no pun intended): I can remember when traditionalists insisted that real writers used manual typewriters, not electric typewriters or (later) word processors and computers. To borrow a phrase from Yogi Berra, Mr. Sowden’s argument is deja vu all over again. :-)
Then Mr. Sowden is pleased he is carrying on a long tradition. ;)
Yep, I wouldn’t disagree that backing up is vital – and there’s also the point that cloud storage allows you to back your words up instantly. But you’re not denying a laptop, or anything computerised, is more of a target to thieves than a battered notebook? (I also like the fact that it works both ways – because a paper notebook has almost no value beyond the words you put in it, you don’t have to treat it with kid gloves, you can squash it into your backpack or jam it into a pocket of your waterproofs and not have to worry when it gets bashed).
My personal fave, by the way, is the Alwych: http://www.alwych.co.uk/ I have one that survived 3 archaeological excavations including mud, rain and spilled beer. The Terminator of notebooks – it just keeps going, whatever you throw at it.
Don’t get me wrong: I use notebooks myself (as I said above), but I wouldn’t write an article or a book in one. As for computers vs. notebook, I’ve never had a computer stolen or damaged while travelilng, but I’ve had a notebook or two get soggy. And I’d probably scare people off if I pulled an Alwych notebook from my pocket–they’d see my beard, think it was a Bible, and run the other way.
What has put you off writing an article or a book in a notebook? Is it the time factor?
Timely article. As I approach departing for a year on the road and make the effort to revel in the experiences, I wonder how the draw of the notebook will compete with the pull of the MacBook.
The ease of typing, editing, cut and paste allows me to wrestle with words, but often, I’ve found myself more deeply engaged in the soul of the topic when capturing thoughts in handwritten journals. For this reason, my adventure plans take shape in scribbles and hand sketched maps in my treasured travel notebook long before they ever find homes in Firefox bookmark folders or blog posts…
Good piece, but I think you’ve missed one humble, but major use for the trusty notebook – taking notes while visiting a place or speaking to/interviewing people – jotting down all the details so you’re not left to guess at them days, weeks or months later. I think it’s all too easy to look upon notebooks as unnecessary – old fashioned even – but they should be the most basic piece of equipment in a blogger’s armoury.
Sarah Lee makes a good point, to which I’ll add: The real competition for a notebook (IMHO) is the pocket digital recorder, which many writers rely on for interviews, travel guides’ comments, etc. Having tried both approaches, I’d rather decipher my scribbles in a notebook than transcribe speech that was recorded in what may have been a noisy environment. Written notes are more likely to be usable, and it’s quicker to read notes than to fast-forward or reverse through recorded speech.
Aint that the truth! I’ve taken to using Evernote’s voice recording facility of recent as a back up to my notes, but it really is a pain having to go through half an hour’s audio to find one tiny piece of information. It’s one of the first things they teach journalists – notebooks are king. They never need batteries/charging, never break down and are a simple way to get to the information you need quickly.
Do British journalists still learn shorthand? That’s a skill I wouldn’t have minded learning (along with typing) when I was 13.
I was at a press conference this past May for the opening of the Riverside Museum in Glasgow and the fellow next to me was using shorthand…
I learnt shorthand as part of my journalism training years ago Durant. Would imagine it’s still taught now for the reasons David outlines below (court reporting in particular). Oddly I sort of love it. Yes, it can be tricky to transcribe, especially if it’s days or weeks old, but it’s so useful I use it for note taking in every day life too – not just for work!
Agreed, as pre-first-draft devices, notebooks are indeed king. I used to do clerical work that involved take minutes of 3 hour meetings, and quickly learnt that transcribing from recordings was a painful and surprisingly inaccurate way of doing it. Much better to take notes at the time, using the full range of the human senses to collect data and scribbling it down as fast as possible…
@Durant – I learned shorthand, yes. Still have the theory, but not the speed. And if I don’t transcribe it within 15 minutes, then it may as well be Maya temple carving. It’s still taught, partly because it’s just useful to have, partly because you’re not allowed to take recording devices into courtrooms. I’d never try an interview in shorthand though – I’d be too busy concentrating on getting it down to properly listen to what’s being said.
I use notepads all the time, for a few reasons:
1. Getting the detail down. What a place looks like, the sort of food it sells, the most interesting bits from the museum etc. That’s all material that could be used at some point.
2. The process. Bizarrely, I find I hardly look at my notepads whilst writing up (at least if I write up within a week or two of being there anyway), but I find the process of consciously recording things makes me remember it.
3. Future reference. If I get an e-mail from an editor wanting 2,000 words on a place I last went to four years ago, then that notepad is the most precious thing in the world for being able to pull it off.
4. Turns of phrase. Often the most important thing is being able to capture a thought. Sometimes I’ll see something and come up with what I think is a wonderfully apt description or clever turn of phrase. It’s a thought I’ll only have at the time, and if I don’t write it down, it’s gone – inevitably to be replaced by something more humdrum later down the line.
5. Atmosphere. It’s a wonderful exercise to just wander along for a few minutes, taking notes on everything you see. It’s surprising how much you do see, and how atmospheric it can be to read the results of the exercise back.
Yes agree with every one of these! It’s about capturing the small things, the atmosphere and all the important details. Sometimes I even go for a coffee or to my hotel after a day out on a trip and just spend time writing notes to make sure I’ve got everything down rather than rely on memory.
Perhaps because a lot of blog posts are written up quickly there’s a sense that note-taking isn’t that important as you’ll remember the whole experience.
And yes, sometimes I don’t even refer to my notes when writing up – but the important thing is they’re there, and by virtue of having taken time to write it down it tends to lodge in my memory.
Love all 5 of these, but 2) is one that I hadn’t thought much about – and you’re right. Having written it down makes it stick in the mind better, meaning you don’t have to refer back to it. Yes, I’ve found that too – wasn’t fully aware of it until now. And it makes perfect sense, since a good way to remember words in a new language is to copy them longhand…so this should work for ingraining known words, too?
I couldn’t agree more with every point. I’ve written in a paper journal since I could write. It’s a practice I will never give up and somewhere in my best friend’s basement is the history of my life in paper journal form. It’s a practice that has definitely come hugely in hand on press trips as a traveling writer / blogger. Sometimes, when a trip is long enough – I buy a special notebook just for the trip and that is its own thrill.
As someone that relies solely on Evernote, I like the points you’ve made here Mike. As much as I love being able to bang in some notes on a bar, hostel, sight or historical fact into my iPhone, there’s something about jotting it down, pen to paper that a touchscreen can’t match.
Justin/Mike – Prepare for your brains to be destroyed: http://wacom.com/en/Products/Inkling.aspx
I would like to EAT that chocolate-colored rustic notebook that looks as though it’s lived in the back pocket of an adventure traveler for the last 40 years. I long for my notebooks to adopt a loved appearance, but they all remain crispy new and blank. Meanwhile, digital documents pile up on my computer—Draft_1.doc, Draft_2.doc, Draft_103.doc—and I live in constant fear of my hard drive dying.
BTW, I love this line: Cranky writer shouting “get off my lawn, kids”?
Absolutely, whole-heartedly agree! I’ve been using notebooks for the longest time and on our recent trip to India, I decided to use my iPad 100% of the time to take notes instead. The battery was the biggest issue I had. At 10% power, I had to start typing REAL fast and using acronyms just in case it died while I’m typing up my notes.
By the end of my trip, I was using my notebook 90% of the time and 10% my iPad. Looks like paper is still a blogger’s most trustworthy companion!
I always have a pen and notebook with me. I’ve tried starting on the computer, but it just doesn’t work for me. BTW, my notebooks are always pretty cute.
Dare I offer one other use for the traditional notebook that hasn’t been mentioned yet. In an absolute emergency you always have some paper handy for those moments when no paper is available for personal use in some disgusting, fly blown, Third World hole in the ground that passes for a toilet!
Oh, and yes, along with my electronic notebook, iPhone and other tech aids, I always carry several pens and one or two small pocket notebooks.
I always keep a notebook close by, there is something really satisfying about actual writing as opposed to the tippety tap of my keyboard – I take it one step further and use a Fountain Pen which i love !
It really does affect the way you write (the notebook not the pen)
and hopefully in years to come my relatives will be able to read it which is unlikely to happen if they have to plug in a 50 year old macbook
tristan
Ah….fountain pen… (Looks at old pen in desk tidy-up and bottle of Parker Quink on shelf) …. haven’t done that for a while!
Actually, Tristan, I think the pen makes a difference too. I have awful hand-writing. Somehow a fountain pens makes it easier to read. The down sides are: running out of ink all the time and indelible blue stains in your pockets when it leaks. :(
I always carry and use a moleskin for taking notes and jotting down ideas, but I use the trusty old laptop for writing posts and articles.
Great post Mike.
I always always have a notebook. I actually have a collection of them and buy new ones every time I go to a new place and tend to buy the cheap little touristy ones with the name of the place I’m in on it. It’s my own quirky souvenir I guess.
I don’t write full posts in them, but write my ideas and notes in them. I don’t think I could ever take notes with an electronic, it just doesn’t work for me.
My memory is terrible! I have to have a small notebook with me to write down interesting things I want to see and follow up on like an art gallery opening advertised on a flyer or the tiny parrilla with great prices and a room full of only locals.
People (including myself from time to time) will often just use the computer/laptop/smartphone to hastily put together a short post so they can release it to the world in case their readership dies over night. Luckily I have no readership, as yet, so can write, re-write, then burn it all and start again before deciding to put up a post. Pity it takes so long to transcribe from a notepad to the computer. I have been trying to find a decent App that will actually automatically record in text my thoughts as I see and experience them and that will recognise my ridiculous Kiwi accent. Have tried several and all I get is gobble-dee-gook. Not helpful. Anyone know of any that work? Anyway off topic.
Its an efficiency thing for a lot of people to not use paper. There should have said that at the start.
Cheers
I always have a notebook to write everything down when I’m on the road and more often than not this will turn into a full blog post. I’ll only ever intend to jot down some notes but always write the full thing.
I don’t know why but I find it easier to think when I’m writing rather than typing. I get too distracted when I’m sat at my computer but there’s nothing to distract you with a notepad and a pen.
Oh yes, and one more thing. Little notebooks fit in your pocket. Ipads/ netbooks don’t.
Yeah, but David has notoriously small pockets! ;)
One more good reason: you can use paper (notebook) and pen while flying at the start/end of a flight during the “no electronics” timeframe.
–Meliha
Congrats on a very thoughtful post. In addition to using notebooks to jot down details as I travel, and notes on what people say, and i.d. for photos I’m taking, I generally use a legal pad and pen to start first drafts (and yes, Durant, I wrote a whole book that “inefficient” way). There is some connection between the hand moving across the paper that connects with the brain in a different way than touch typing, where I’m not actually forming the letters, but just being mechanical. Guess it all depends on whether you want your writing to be utilitarian or creative.
Love it. Both this article and taking notes on a notebook. I work on a laptop, obviously, but I always have with me pen and paper, I can forget my wallet or my mobile, but I can’t go anywhere without a notebook. I’m fully aware of all the greatness of tools such the iPad but I’m just not able to take notes with it, I need to write them.
If you like this post you can follow Mike on Twitter at @Mikeachim
I love notebooks. There’s something very heartwarming about ‘returning’ to an old notebook and rediscovering how you felt about a particular place years ago. I also use my notebooks to doodle and sketch- when I’m sitting in a moving train or bus, I like to sketch the scenery outside. My drawings aren’t anything to shout about but who cares :)
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I think notebooks will never die, they have that something which no technology will ever annihilate :)
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Found you through the Worldwide Travel Writers group on LinkedIn, and yes, I whole heartedly agree that notebooks are the best way to seize the moment when traveling or any time. I’ve learned firsthand that the “process writing” method of Natalie Goldberg and Pat Schneider (founder of the Amherst Writers and Artists method), works like nothing else to inspire creativity and engage the brain in a more concentrated way. All writers, especially travel writers immersed in new experiences, can benefit from unplugging and taking notebooks everywhere they go. I have one for the car, bedside table, laptop bag, backpack and purse. I also bring my digital camera everywhere to snap a photo when I see an opportunity or snap shots of interpretive signs and labels for future reference. I’ve written lots on this topic and developed lots of “Monday Mind Trip” writing exercises on my website. Happy sails from Gold Boat Journeys: Live. Write. Travel. Explore.