I always struggle with the idea of writing on my computer or in my notebook. I have written about this in the past. This weekend while reading I ran into these two statements. One is from Sontag and one from Gay. They express much of what I think.
Susan Sontag says:
- any technology that slows us down in our writing rather than speeding us up is the one we ought to use
Gay, Ross. The Book of Delights: Essays (p. 32). Algonquin Books. Kindle Edition.
- it’s that it is better if it goes slower, at least I think so. It’s good to feel it in your hand and it’s good to be able to just think…
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/10/the-project-of-literature-susan-sontag-92y/
Ross Gay says:
- because I write poems pretty slowly, line by line, with a pen, a Le Pen these days (a delight, the Le Pen is). Prose, though, I often write on the computer, piling sentences up quickly, cutting and pasting, deleting whole paragraphs without thinking anything of it.
Gay, Ross. The Book of Delights: Essays (p. 32). Algonquin Books. Kindle Edition.
I must say I am much like Ross Gay. Although I don’t write a lot of poetry I find that 
my personal journal writing and my garden journal writing need to be by hand. I want the pen and paper in my hand. I need the slowness to help me think and to give me to time to reflect. When I write for my blog or other writing it is always on a computer. I am not sure why I feel I need to use the computer. I guess I like the ease of correction. I like the ability to look things up quickly or reference other things I have written. I can do that with paper but for some reason I want the computer for some types of writing.
It really should not matter. Both are great ways of writing and I really believe that writing is the key not how you write but that you write and write often.
This said – I know my struggle is I want to write my personal journal on my computer so it is searchable by me. The garden journal is the same thing. It would be easy to find information from past years if everything was digital. I have tried.
I have worked to transfer my garden journal several years in a row and always return to my paper journal that goes out into the garden with me. The journal that sits in the wet grass or is carried around by dirty garden gloves. The journal with charts and drawing and scribbled notes about what I saw or need to change.
Clearly not a place for my computer or I-pad.
The personal journal is much the same. I write in the journal curled up in bed, or out on the deck in the sun. You might find me late on a summers night on the screen porch listening to the rain and writing. Maybe in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep I will pull the journal out of the basket by the bed and stubble into my office to write a few sentences or thoughts. Clearly this is not a good place for a computer as well.
So I struggle along writing in my paper journals, blogging on my computer and knowing that writing is just what I need no matter which medium I choose to use.
My husband is all computer based. Everything is in one neat little box. He is a writer by trade and writes daily. I admire his organization but I need my mix and match method.
Do you have a preference? paper and pen or a computer writer?
Words from JL 
I love thinking about this question! Like you, I have to have paper and pen (Precise V5 Rolling Ball in blue only) to write some kinds of things–poetry for sure, quickwrites, observation pieces, and anything I’m not quite sure what I’m doing and am writing towards my topic. Once I know what I’m doing and am ready to draft, though, I have to switch to computer. Isn’t it interesting how we all have our preferences and habits? I really enjoyed reading the quotations from Ross Gay too, so thank you for sharing those.
Although I do more writing on the computer these days I do find it is a hindrance at times because those squiggly red and green lines disrupt my thought process and make me want to go back and correct instead of continuing my writing.
A good point! I do find myself editing instead of writing some times.
This made me think of Ann Patchett’s essay “Getaway Car,” which is about what it’s like to write. I also do a mixture of writing in print and digitally, but find that I’m more creative when I write in my notebook because I incorporate drawings as I go along.
I’ve been thinking about this same thing the past couple months. I grew up and went to school (college, too) before computers, so all writing was by hand. When I was doing National Boards twenty years ago, I had to retrain myself. Handwriting was not efficient enough. I’m now adding more handwriting into my life after two decades of computer writing. It sounds as though you have the right balance for you and your husband does for himself. Maybe you can scan your garden journal pages and store those electronically so they are preserved.