Some authors still write by hand

Mashable has a neat article about authors who write their books by hand. Joyce Carol Oates is said to write longhand for up to eight hours a day.

In an interview with Salon, she said of her process:

"Why is this so unusual? Every writer has written 'by hand' until relatively recent times. Writing is a consequence of thinking, planning, dreaming -- this is the process that results in 'writing,' rather than the way in which the writing is recorded."

See the full list here on Mashable.

Again, the loss of handwriting looms

If you're sweating over the fast draft you wrote in NANOWRIMO, or sorry you stopped along the way, pick up a pen and write a while. To inspire you, herewith an excerpt from Andrew Coyne's essay in National Post, entitled: Losing Longhand Breaks Link To The Past:

"I’ve been writing on a computer for more than 30 years. But I can tell you I would feel something vital had been lost if I could not express my thoughts longhand. Often when I am stuck at the keyboard, unable to find my way out of whatever mental cul-de-sac I have put myself in, I will pick up a pen and start writing — and the words start to come again.

This is not by accident. You’re using different parts of the brain. Typing is file retrieval, remembering where a letter is. With handwriting, you create the letters anew each time, using much more complex motor skills. Whether it’s the flowing motion of the arm, or the feel of the page under your hand, or the aesthetic satisfaction of a well-turned “f”, it seems to engage the more intuitive, right-brain aspects of cognition."

Read Coyne's full essay here.