Lynda wrote her pep talk with a pen. You can see a PDF of it in all it's handwritten glory here.
Dear Writer,
Reconsider your hand. Reconsider writing by hand. There is a kind of story
that comes from hand. Writing which is different from a
tapping-on-a-keyboard-kind-of-story. For one thing, there is no delete
button, making the experience more life like right away. You can't delete
the things you feel unsure about and because of this, the things you feel
unsure about have a much better chance of being able to exist long enough
to reveal themselves. And the physical activity of writing by hand involves
many parts of the brain which are used in story making such as time, place,
action, characters, relationships, and moving forward across an entire
connected gesture. And that's just what goes on when we write a single
letter by hand.
Although word count goals may be harder to reach, your body will not feel
as tired as it does after a day spent tapping buttons and staring at a lit
screen, especially if you write a bit longer than you usually do.
Another thing to reconsider is reading over what you have written. If you
can stand to wait 24 hours before you decide the fate of what you have
written---either good or bad---you're more likely to see that invisible
thing that is invisible for the first few days in any new writing. We just
can't know what all is in a sentence until there are several sentences to
follow it. Pages of writing need more pages in order to be known, chapters
need more chapters. The 24 hour period will give you time to create more of
the things the writing needs. 48 hours is even better, and a week is ideal.
Can you keep your story going for a week without reading anything over?
You'll find you can. You'll find that being able to rely on this ability
will help you let one word follow the next without fussing as much as you
do when you believe it's the thinking and planning part of your mind that
is writing the story. There is another part of the mind which has an
ability for stories, for holding all the parts and presenting them bit by
bit, but it's not the same as the planning part of the mind. Nor is it the
thing called 'unconscious'---it is without a doubt quite conscious when we
are engaged in the physical activity which allows it to be active. This
something is what deep playing contains when we are children and fully
engaged by rolling a toy car and all who are inside of it toward the table
edge. The word imagination isn't quite right for it either because it also
leaves out the need for moving an object---a toy, a pen or pencil
tip---across an area in the physical world. It's a very old, human thing,
using physical activity along with thing 'thing' that is neither all the
way inside of us nor all the way outside of us. Stories happen in that
place between the two. The Image world isn't anywhere else. A computer can
give you a neat looking page, higher word count and delete and copy and
past abilities, but they are poor producers of the thing the hand brings
about much more easily: Right here, right now, the pane of paper that the
paper windows and walls require to give is the inside view, the vista.
You can't know what a book is about until the very end. This is true of a
book we're reading or writing.
Writing by hand is like walking instead of riding in a car. It's slower, to
be sure, but you'll smell the smoke if you're near a house that is about to
burst into flame. You'll hear the shouting from a fight about to break out
in a back yard. You'll be able to help the dog who comes running by with
his leash attached and dragging behind him, and be able to help the person
who has lost him calling his name. This will make writing more like living
and less like watching television.
When writing by hand, when the story dries up temporarily---as it always
does, try keeping your pen in motion anyway by writing the alphabet a b c d
e f g in the middle of the sentence a b c d e f g h i j k until the
sentence rolls forward again on its own. Just keep your pen steadily
rolling along through time, for a good time.
Best! Love!
Lynda Barry
To learn more about Lynda Barry's work, visit her website!
