On the Benefits of Disconnecting
By Celeste Ng
Author Elizabeth Benedict, editor of the recent anthology Mentors, Muses, & Monsters, discusses her experience being forced to unplug:
Finding this blank book already so full of hope and history — from Hemingway’s to my beloved sister-in-law’s — was a bit like encountering a bear in the woods: it was just the two of us, and it was up to me to save my skin. I couldn’t hide, couldn’t escape to the computer or connect anywhere but in its cream-colored pages. I began by rereading the manuscript pages from the novel — and I winced two dozen times. It was all too complicated, and there was no through line. There were voices but no story — or too many stories, and I only needed one — one with enough power to drive a novel. [...]
I wrote three pages. By hand. With a pen. Later that day, I wrote two more. I woke up early every day for two weeks and wrote this way. It was primitive and thrilling, like cooking over a campfire, like celestial navigation. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I was on a journey, and it felt natural, instead of cramped, for the first time in years.
In my own experience, I find it harder to write by hand than to type; because writing longhand is much slower than typing, I can’t get the words on paper fast enough and end up losing my train of thought. But Benedict’s essay may encourage me to try again sometime.
What about you? Do you ever feel the need to disconnect—from the Internet, from cell phones, from your computer itself? If faced with nothing but a blank Moleskine and a pen, do you think your writing would benefit?
Yes yes yes, on any piece of paper, with any pen or pencil, especially on the train or in restaurants or even sometimes during meetings, also the toilet (during family parties!) is an important place, and for me paper is THE place where my first ideas are “formed”. Most inspirational and creative period was my 10 weeks sabbatical in Cracow (Poland), in a appartment without internet, tv, radio, cell phone – I was in a flow for all the time. (So next week I will send the second version of my first novel to my editor and I bet that you will hear for me – well, that means, if you read Dutch
).
Let me first just say how jealous I am of Gerdien’s 10-week sabbatical in Cracow–one of my favorite cities of all time.
Like you, Celeste, I almost always write on the computer but lately I’ve found writing on paper helps me break obsessive cycles. It is much harder to rewrite the same paragraph 25 times when you’re doing it with pen and paper!
These comments make me want to visit Cracow!
If you need a lovely visual reminder to log out every so often (I know I do), I’d recommend this beautiful “Log Out” robot poster from 826Michigan’s Robot Supply & Repair store. You can’t see how beautiful the colors are at the link (http://www.onwardrobots.com/high_fashions.html, scroll down) but they’re in line with all those rich, vintage state park posters. Today would be a great day to purchase, too, as it’s 8/26– National Youth Literacy Day according to the e-mail I got from them this morning, which reminded me to purchase my own copy of the poster, which this comment, and all its tangents, clearly proves I need.
I love the feeling of writing by hand, but I usually reserve that for writing letters. The slower pace allows the reflection necessary and conducive to writing letters. When it comes to fiction, I prefer to unplug in the figurative sense with a typewriter. You get the quickness of typing along with the focus of writing by hand. Plus the sound of the keys and your inability to delete so quickly (or accidentally) allows you to power through first drafts. Also, there’s that quote, “With a typewriter, it’s like you’re already published.”
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