Recently I started handwriting a story.  I had a pencil and a notebook so that is what I used. I was making no statement against technology. In fact, as a journalist I think with my fingers at a keyboard. I may think at other times as well; but when I write it’s at a keyboard.

Something I had NOT thought about before was the fact that typing is only slightly older than a century. 10 fingers using a keyboard first appeared around 1880 and even then it was a novelty.

This was okay interesting but what was new to my brain was realizing that the lion’s share of our world’s literature has been written long hand. Did I know that? Yes. Did I realize it? No.

Shakespeare and Dickens and Tolstoy and Twain and you-name-them produced their work at roughly 20 words per minute. That’s the average. I don’t know if that’s the number of words I averaged. I do know it slowed down my hands long enough to engage more details. 

Try it. See how you do writing long hand. Might be the beginning of a trend. At least it’s something not to forget.