Mightier Than the Laptop

I write all my first drafts by hand — not, however, with a quill pen — because there seems to be some kind of symmetry between the muscular movement of my hand and the flow of ideas in my head. That symmetry gets destroyed by a keyboard, which becomes an alien intruder in the dialogue within myself. Lots of friends assure me that I could quickly make the transition to the laptop and enhance my productivity. I’m sure they’re right, but my dirty little secret is that I want to prolong rather than shorten the writing process, since it is my only source of creative fulfillment.

In the Washington Post, Joseph J. Ellis defends putting pen to paper.