The Power of Pen & Paper
Are you someone who can spend long, happy hours browsing the stationary aisles of stores? Do you love picking up various notebooks, testing the weight of each in your hand, trying out its flexibility when open, delighting in the feel, smell, and look of a genuine leather journal that has that perfect amount of soft pliability to tip it out of the “cumbersome” category and over into the “gorgeous”? Have you chosen a pen, in love with the way its nib flows effortlessly and smoothly across the page, and been tempted to go ahead and just buy twenty of the same pen now, since one will not last forever and you may never find such another pen again?
If so, welcome, my friend. For all I know, these behaviors may constitute a psychological disorder, but there is no judgment here. You are in good company! In fact, I would venture to guess that many writers through the ages were initially drawn into their craft as much by the physical aesthetics of writing as the metaphysical. Something about a fresh, new journal thrills a writer’s soul and stimulates his imagination in an indescribable way.
Think about it. When you first started writing—when you very initially started—were you typing on a phone or keyboard? Or did you pick up a notebook and pencil or pen to document your thoughts? Perhaps you started as a child, drafting stories for a family newspaper with your siblings and cousins. Maybe you began with your first travel journal, logging stops you made, sites you saw, and souvenirs you bought each day on some epic family road trip. Or did you keep a diary or journal of your opinions on books you read, outings with friends, or hopes, dreams, and plans for your future life?
And as you have grown in your writing habits, have you found yourself buying a new notebook for each new writing project that pops into your mind, “…so I’ll be sure to have enough space for planning and details”? (Guilty, over here.) If so, why is this? What about writing with pen and paper draws us further into the creative process, unleashing the writer hidden deep within?
According to the National Institutes of Health National Center for Biotechnology Information, this phenomenon has to do with the way our brains process the act of writing versus the act of typing. “Handwriting activates a broader network of brain regions involved in motor, sensory, and cognitive processing. Typing engages fewer neural circuits, resulting in more passive cognitive engagement.”1 In other words, the brain is more engaged and processes better when we write by hand than it ever could while we type. That sounds like better plotlines and writing outcomes, to me!
So, I challenge you: next time you find yourself with writer’s block, staring at the blank new page on your computer screen, close the laptop. Grab your favorite notebook, whether designated for writer’s block in general, or for this writing project alone. Pull the cap off that exquisite pen and start writing your main ideas for what should come next. Ideas in this exercise do not have to be in the exact chronological order they will appear in your final book; just jot them down! As you start writing this list, the chances of a character’s internal conflict development or a good line of dialogue crystalizing just a bit more in your mind are quite good. The temptation may be high to start writing a list on that just a few pages over. Follow that lead, too! If your experience is anything like mine, you will find you have quickly filled pages and pages of your notebook in less time than the amount you sat there staring at the computer screen without writing a single thing.
And that, my friend, is the power of pen and paper.
1 - Marano, G., Kotzalidis, G. D., Lisci, [ . . .] & Mazza, M. (2025). The neuroscience behind writing: Handwriting vs. typing-who wins the battle?. Life (Basel, Switzerland), 15(3), 345. https://doi.org/10.3390/life15030345
