The Right Way to Write

As a child I used to hate the physical act of writing.  I don't really know why, I only know that I was bothered by it.  I used to only want to type and completely avoid pencil (or pen) to paper.  Now I write and type, and I have recognized merits of both forms.


Convenience
You can write anywhere.  I'm not sure about on the moon, but if you're on the moon then you've got other things to do I'm sure.  As long as you have paper (scrap, notebook, napkin) and a writing utensil (pen, crayon, pencil), then you can write whenever it strikes your fancy.  You can write in bed, on a park bench, on an airplane, in a restaurant, or upside down in a tree (though that would take considerable skill and I'm sure it's not as fun as it seems).  Computers are not so easy to use everywhere.  Even the smallest ones aren't as convenient to fit in a purse as a notebook, and they can be quite heavy.  However, typing is convenient in that it is much easier to get your thoughts down faster while typing, and you are less likely to forget something as you type.  Word processors also have the convenient ability to delete or add anything throughout a document, and check for spelling errors (which is very important for someone like me, who can't quite figure out how to spell convenient).


Aesthetics
As a youngin' my handwriting was big and loopy in preparation for transitioning to cursive.  I always wrote with a pencil (because it's erasable, duh) and I had pretty big handwriting.  Now I write much smaller, much straighter (I never do cursive, it still looks like how it did when I was in 3rd grade), and almost exclusively in pen (of varying colors of course).  I really like the way it looks, which makes it more fun to write.  I have always been an aesthetics person, so improving the look of my writing helped me to actually enjoy it more.  Obviously one of the great things about word processors is that you can make it look however you want.  Big, small, cursive, print- you can really do anything.  I have been known to play around with fonts for hours until I finally find the perfect one for my document.  Bonus for typing: you can make it completely legible, regardless of your penmanship.

Top- Current Handwriting
Bottom- 2nd Grade Handwriting

Physicality
Like I mentioned at the start, I used to hate the action of physically writing.  Now I love it.  Pens make it so much better.  Pens just roll across the page, and look really classy.  It is much more enjoyable to write with a pen than a pencil, and the best kind of pens are gel pens.  (Not the ones everyone used like 10 years ago, with the cotton candy colors or the glitter, but pens filled with gel ink.  Although I totally support the other kind as well.)  I also love the physical act of typing, especially on my computer because it has a nice clickety-clack keyboard.  It feels so neat for your fingers to fly over the keyboard, snapping down on keys like you're playing a piano of letters with words for music.  When my sister was younger, she used to run her fingers across the keys before hitting one, so it sounded as if she was typing at lightening speed.  I absolutely approve this technique- it's quite fun.


Success
Both writing and typing get the job done, and they're both a lot of fun.  I love being able to flip through a notebook full of writing or read something I wrote looking professional in type.  The one other writing option I can think of is to get a personal scribe...something I've never tried before...hey little sisters, I've a job for you!...