​​Crafting Words by Hand: The Art of Longhand Writing​

Riley Mason

November 13th, 2023

After reading Sarah Bahr’s article “The Case for Writing Longhand” for the second time, I felt a connection with the method of writing that the author in the article Sam Anderson used for making new stories. Drafting stories on paper before revising and editing digitally is something he thinks “Carries a certain amount of privilege.” (Bahr, Sarah. “The Case for Writing Longhand.”) I feel the same way about his viewpoint because writing on paper before your computer really allows you to use your thoughts and ideas that really push you outside of your regular boundaries. Those ideas can then be transferred to your paper to create new and interesting stories. As a writer, Mr. Anderson had grown up in a time before computers were common in many places, including homes. The process of paper before computers really helped him connect to his own thoughts before writing his first drafts of stories to be published.  

Reading this article that talks about the steps Anderson takes to write really grabbed my attention and really drove my research because the method he uses to write can also be used and applied in my own life when writing. Writing down your own ideas is an important key in crafting a story for publication. It serves as the foundation in which the entire narrative is constructed. Ideas and concepts you come up with can be transferred from paper to computer screen. What makes writing on paper a better method for writing is that ideas feel more inspired, and they can easily be written down in a notebook which then all those ideas can be stacked up together to turn those thoughts into an approaching finished text. A notebook or piece of paper can encourage writers to capture an idea they have been thinking about. 

Annotated Bibliography  

Bahr, Sarah. “The Case for Writing Longhand: It’s about Trying to Create that Little Space of Freedom.”  New York Times. January 21, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/insider/the-case-for-writing-longhand-its-about-trying-to-create-that-little-space-of-freedom.html 

In this piece, Sarah Bahr discusses the cultural and societal impact of longhand writing amidst a digitally dominated era. She delves into the importance of preserving the tradition of handwriting by talking to New York Times writer Sam Anderson about how he writes his stories before publishing them. She shows the steps he takes for writing and film critic A.O Scott and his way of drafting articles. Although both have different methods of publishing, both still prefer to draft their own stories on hand than with a computer. Bahr’s article presents compelling arguments for incorporating longhand writing practices into modern lifestyle. 

Sarah Bahr is a senior staff editor on the Flexible Editing desk at The New York Times. She holds a master’s degree in English and bachelor’s degrees in English, journalism, and Spanish from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is originally from Brownsburg, Indiana and worked previously at the Culture desk. 

Donovan, Bryn. “The Benefits of Writing a Novel By Hand.” bryndonovan.com. September 16^th, 2020. https://www.bryndonovan.com/2020/09/16/the-benefits-of-writing-a-novel-by-hand/ 

Writer Bryn Donovan shares her interest in writing her stories on paper. Instead of typing on a computer, she prefers to write novels longhand, at least for the first draft. Although she prefers paper, she sometimes transfers her words to a word document for further typing. She also claims that not every writer is the same and says that writing by hand first isn’t right for everyone. Even though she prefers writing on paper, there are detriments to it. It’s a slower process and difficult for people who cant read their handwriting. Besides those things, the advantages is that it removes distractions from social media, allows more creativity, and helps reduce stress which allows for quality writing.  

Bryn Donovan is an author who blogs about her writings at bryndonovan.com. She graduated from the University of Arizona and earned her MFA for creative writing. She currently works in publishing for her blog page. One of her characteristics to her writing is that she expresses positivity, words about believing in your true self, expressing yourself creatively, and not letting anyone else stop you from pursuing your dream career. She currently lives in Los Angeles as of today. 

 
Jurberg, Ash. “Why You Should Write Before You Type.” Medium. August 24, 2020. 

https://medium.com/publishous/why-you-should-write-before-you-type- 2a475fdf5018#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPen%20and%20paper%20is%20always,be%20looked%20over%20and%20reconsidered. 

In this article, writer Ash Jurberg discusses how people often look at their screens most of the time each day. When typing on a computer, he says his mind blanks out with only the cursor showing on the screen. When writing in his notebook, he feels more creative and inspired to write rather than typing on a blank screen. Because of that, he feels that writing on a blank page is something that a lot of people should do each day.  

Ash Jurberg is a writer currently at the company Medium who has a personal interest in writing stories in his own way. Ones he writes can be personal stories, or articles about events happening in real life or the internet, or marketing novels for businesses. His way of writing grabs your attention and has been built over time. Jurberg sometimes works for global corporations, small businesses, and his own small companies. A few of his writings have also won global awards, and have been featured in major newspaper outlets, and podcasts. 

Murello, Ava, interview conducted by Riley Mason on October 28^th, 2023.  

Ava Murello, a student who is taking English 1103 also has her own thoughts about “The Case for Writing Longhand.”  She says that the way Sarah Bahr described the method of writing that both Sam Anderson and A.O Scott use for creating stories is inspiring and really makes you think about ideas that you would not produce regularly. She says that a lot of people should try to use that method of writing to create novels because writing on paper first before typing it out feels like it results in better writing quality. She says that typing on a computer makes the story look completed although there is a lot to add on to.  Although Ava has more interest in art, she still finds that method of writing useful if ever authoring an article or story. 

Ava is currently majoring in graphic design, but she calls her past experiences with the subject of English before taking her current course. She remembers that during her years in high school, she took American literature, and world literature Which included known American and world authors Such as Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Shakespeare, Voltaire, and Alice Wener, all which have authored stories by hand. When she first read Sarah Bahr’s article, she felt connected to it because it was a way of writing that she used and felt familiar with.