The value of handwriting
Image: The Passion of Creation by Leonid Pasternak (public domain)
What’s the worst part of writing a long document? For many it’s the dread of starting. You know that somehow you have to fill up 100-odd pages with little black squiggles, and time is ticking away.
I think part of the problem is that you are staring at a blinking, unforgiving cursor, subliminally goading you: ‘What’s the matter, can’t think of anything clever to write? I’m ready, why aren’t you?’
It wasn’t so long ago that every writing task started with a pen and paper, and possibly a snifter of port in front of a warm fire. That’s a much more welcoming creative environment, isn’t it? And while the most agreeable parts of that environment can’t be replicated in most offices, you can at least turn off the disapproving Cyclops on your desk and pick up a pen … or pencil, or crayon.
Don’t laugh. Any strategy that connects you with the neglected part of your brain that flourished in infancy can produce terrific creative advantages. But don’t just take my word for it, see what science has to say:
Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says pictures of the brain have illustrated that sequential finger movements activated massive regions involved in thinking, language and working memory – the system for temporarily storing and managing information.
And one recent study of hers demonstrated that in grades 2, 4 and 6, children wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard.
Read more on the value of handwriting from this Wall Street Journal article, and the next time you find yourself stuck at the beginning of an oppressive writing task, reach for the butcher’s paper and textas instead of the keyboard.
