[Image is of my desk, laptop and some notes.]
Writing is an important medium for communication and documentation, whether it be traditionally with pen and paper or digitally. Both traditional and digital formats of writing have their pros and cons, which is to say there is no one definite superior to the other.
The majority of my experience with writing has been through the educational system, obviously. During elementary school we were instructed using pencils and paper, obviously because those were the building blocks for our education. It was not until the end of elementary school that we were introduced to computers, in the means of writing and documentation. Up until that point, everything we wrote was written on paper. During middle school, we were expected to use both traditional and digital ways of presenting our writing. During high school, a majority of our writing was done digitally, excluding note taking. College is basically the same, however everything has to be turned in typed and the way in which you take notes does not matter.
The environment in which I developed my writing skills, through the educational system, has obviously influenced the way I write today. Whether I have to a produce a body of work as an assignment for class or just taking notes, I tend to follow the same routine. At the start of my writing I jot down all my ideas, look through them and revise, then I take the information and type it out on a computer, revise that as much as I can until it is finely polished. This type of method incorporates both the traditional and digital means of writing that were taught to me.
As far as the physical environment around me while I’m writing is concerned, not much really hinders me, although I do work better in certain environments. That being said, I’m more proficient in my writing if there is a strict deadline. Being under pressure as a writer can be an advantage, it forces the writer to create without much of a second thought or reservations. Besides the whole 11th hour of turning in an assignment, I prefer to write between the hours of 12-5 am, primarily because a majority of the people I know are already in bed and cannot disrupt me. A nice cup of tea or an alcoholic beverage on the side is also a great bonus to the quality of my writing.
