Year: 2002

My writer friend^* and I were recently discussing our personal writing styles, particularly in the context of e-mail, and we discovered that we share the same quirk; as she puts it, my fingers… can’t keep up with my brain. This is odd, because we perform the process of writing quite differently: she writes in a very stream-of-consciousness method–quickly, thoughtfully and precisely–whereas I plod along editing and re-editing in what I call stream-of-unconsciousness. (Not unsurprisingly, she’s a better writer than I am.) When we write, though, whether it’s in a continuous maelstrom or in a short burst of inspiration, we’re both limited by the bottleneck of the act of putting fingers to keys.

I’ve always used this as an excuse for my illegible handwriting–either that or that it’s genetic (my father’s handwriting is also difficult to read). Coincidentally, today Jeanne Thelwell pointed out an article in Education Week that suggests that the effort of the physical act of forming letters can interfere with the writer’s thought process. The article is more about helping grade school students to learn language skills, but it struck a chord nevertheless–I find that if I don’t write quickly, and hence illegibly, my mind will dash ahead to other thoughts before I’m done.

* Writer friend doesn’t come close to describing her or the odd relationship we’ve formed, any more than skater friend, almost-married friends, runner friend, or magician friend describe the various levels of bond I share with other people, but it’s germane to the topic at hand.