“Hand-writing” and the sweet spot

I’ve often wondered if we’ve lost the charm of living to the added convenience called the digital life that we’ve constructed around us. I say that because in my increasingly busy life as a content designer at a software company, I spend the majority of my time in front of screens. Therefore, sitting down to practice handwriting is a much-needed relief for me.

So, here I pen (drumrolls for the obvious pun!) my thoughts on why I think writing (by hand), the analog experience, is the sweet spot.

The sweet spot between fiction and function

I am yet to hand-write my first fiction. All I know is that I am a compulsive re-writer. I re-write more than I write. So, typing away is easy. Writing by hand can be difficult. But I do not deny the possibility it lends, for I can think at a pace that matches my pen strokes. This lends me that extra second to compose my thoughts in a better way.

While I agree that I cannot always come up with suitable articulations, expressions, metaphors, phrases, or words, I do not want to be too bogged down by the pressure of editing just yet. I do not want to become so busy re-writing and editing that I forget to write. To reach new shores, I must first set sail. All I need is a pen, some paper, and a determination to begin the voyage.

The sweet spot between being an introvert and an extrovert

All textbook definitions of introvert are incorrect. Yes, by design, I am an introvert; I am principally concerned with my affairs. Yet I like to flaunt how my favorite ink flows through the pen and shades away or sheens as it dries on a paper. I like to show off my earned collection of fountain pens. I like telling people why using a fountain pen is a hobby they too must cultivate. The topic of fountain pens gets me started. I WILLINGLY talk.

Does that sound like “someone who is pushed to oneself” to you? But then why would I talk about fountain pens to those who don’t even know how to hold one properly? “What a wasteful transition, that is,” the ambivert within me opines.

The sweet spot between the analog and digital worlds

For once, it is nice to see the world go schmoozing past while you perch by languidly on your thoughts. It is comforting beyond belief. Calming. Like cracking the neck or stretching your back. One moment, you are in chaos. In another, you are mentally on a different planet. If chaos is where I had lost myself, calmness is where I rediscover myself. Amidst that calmness, I run my fingers along those carefully curated curves. In my hands is that unmatched, machined (or hand-turned) delight that, whenever meets paper, translates my wordless thoughts into tangible volumes of pages. Oh, that crack of the neck. Oh, that pen put to paper.