A few weeks ago in “When Efficiency Is the Enemy,” I described what I perceive to be the benefits of my excruciatingly slow writing process.
As a reminder, these are the typical steps of my writing process for essays:
- Write a first draft longhand in my notebook with a pencil or fountain pen
- Edit the handwritten draft with another color
- Type a second draft on the typewriter
- Edit that by hand
- Type it a third time into the computer
I received many emails asking questions about this analogue writing process. So I thought I’d share a few more details about the process, along with some photos. Specifically, I’ll show you how I’m applying this process in writing my next book.
“What kind of typewriter are you using?”
The typewriter I’m using is a 1958 Olympia SM3. I chose this model because I found it to be a good balance between function and aesthetics.
After a lot of scouring both locally and online, I found this dark green one that perfectly matched my office.
By the way, if you are interested in typewriters, the subreddit /r/typewriters is a great resource.
“Is your research process also analogue?”
Yes and no.
One of my rules for reading is “always be researching.” So I have amassed a mountain of quotes and citations both physically and digitally over the years.
I have used Readwise for the past five years or so to store my book notes and highlights. It lets you sync everything to your preferred note-taking software. I still mostly use Logseq for my digital notes, but with Readwise as the middleman, I could sync them all to Obsidian, or Notion, or Evernote.
I like digital notebooks because they are searchable. But as my collection has grown, it has started to become difficult to find the best stuff. Even with meticulous tagging, if I don’t know what I’m looking for, I may never find it again. So a couple of years ago, I also started writing my favorite quotes on 3×5 index cards.
If you’ve watched my video on tracking prayer requests, you’ll have seen some of how I do this.
Doing this analogue has turned out to be quite helpful in the book writing process. I find that physically organizing these quote cards into chapters or arranging them in a mind map on my magnetic chalkboard helps me wrap my mind around the whole and make connections much better than if I try to do so digitally.
“Are you writing your next book this way?”
Yes. Perhaps foolishly. We’ll see.
There is a lot of starting and stopping to change out the paper and things like that. But it is surprisingly not that much slower to write on a typewriter versus a computer, once you get used to it.
But, as I mentioned, the real benefits come in the form of focus. I can get lost in writing for 3–4 hours without a single distraction when I’m writing longhand or on the typewriter. That never happens when I’m working on a computer.
“How do you organize the typewritten pages?”
When you have a bunch of physical papers and no search function, it’s easy for things to get lost. So early in the book project, I came up with a system for organizing my typewritten pages in a binder.
I type everything on half-letter-sized pages and organize them in a three-ring binder. I started with a pretty clear outline of the book, so anything I write just goes in the chapter where I think it best belongs.
I quickly learned that it’s best to write each subsection as a separate unit (meaning, when I end writing a subsection of a chapter, I start a fresh page for the next subsection). This way, if I want to move a section to a different chapter, it’s as simple as moving those pages. The rest of the chapter stays intact.
Brass page tabs indicate the chapter numbers. These library card pockets perfectly fit my 3×5 cards. They adhere to the back of the paper, so I can include any relevant quote cards I want to use in that chapter.
So, everything ends up contained in this little binder.
The long-hand first drafts are all written in a dedicated Moleskine notebook. And I have another dedicated notebook where I jot down any ideas that I’m not sure where they will fit just yet.
“Why not just scan the typewritten drafts into the computer?”
I may for some of them. With OCR technology, it would be easy enough to do—though that would be a lot of scanning. But I usually just retype them, for a couple of reasons.
First, as you can see in the photos, I have handwritten edits all over the typewritten drafts. So, forcing myself to completely rewrite them when I type them up on the computer lets me incorporate those edits. But, second, retyping also leads to a lot of microimprovements, or even strokes of inspiration where I end up writing entirely new sections.
I read in one of Oliver Burkeman’s recent newsletters that part of his writing process is to “Print it out, type it back in.” And the effect this has on his final product resonated with my own experience.
The result is that I make all sorts of editorial improvements as I retype, in a very painless way; it’s like a conversation with someone who almost gets what I’m trying to say, so that my only job is to suggest a slight rephrasing. Or what feels like a slight rephrasing in the moment, anyway. Looking back, that’s often the stage at which a piece of writing went from being hopelessly confusing to as clear as I’m ever going to make it.
“Aren’t you just a huge nerd/hipster who is only doing this because you think it looks cool?”
Yes.
Okay, so nobody actually asked this question (you all are too nice).
Part of me does wonder, though, if this is just some insane exercise in procrastination. “Why not just use that perfectly good computer you have, Reagan?”
But I stand by it; I believe going slowly will lead to a better end product. And I also think making the writing process more aesthetically appealing is worth something too.
Writing is hard, so anything I can do to make it a bit more enjoyable, I’ll take.
