What do you use to craft your first draft?

[Rebecca]

What do you use to craft your first draft?

Discuss your answers here! :)

Rebecca

[PattyU]

Now that I have a laptop, I use a computer most of the time. Before I had a laptop, it would have been either a notebook or a computer, depending on where I was writing.

[Tarin]

I do my "official" first draft on the computer, but before I ever get to that stage, I've usually filled up a couple notebooks with sketches and outlines. My writing comes out much cleaner and sharper on the computer, but writing freehand in a notebook allows me to be much sloppier and more random with creative ideas. :)

[M. Lawrence]

If it's fiction, I generally craft my first draft in one of my beloved Moleskine (http://www.moleskine.com/index_eng.php) notebooks.

If it's non-fiction, I'll write in the full page layout function of Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html) on my little 12" iBook laptop.

Can't explain why--that's just what I prefer.

[DrRita]

Though I've been known to jot down stuff on anything . . . *blush* I usually use my computer to make my first drafts. I do the notebook thing too and paper napkins, grocery sacks, old envelopes . . . I am now carrying a notebook in my purse at all times.

[melw]

If I had a laptop my answer might have been different. As i do a lot of commuting to work and sometimes have appointments to meet i am not in front of a computer all the time.

so i keep a notebook/ paper with me at all times. You never know when something will come to you. It also means i can edit while entering it into the computer.

though i was at a Sabbath afternoon sing-a-long and thought up the perfect title for my story. I hoped i would remember it, so i wrote in on our church bulletin. But it is good to take some paper as you don't know when you might need to jot down your adress or some great sermon notes.

MEL

[PepperGardenMan]

I'm having a lot of trouble with my hands. I'm going to the doctor to get it checked out. I can't grip things well. Never have been able to hold a pen for long. So, the computer for me! I can type just fine!

[jacks girl]

Computer here, i may make notes on napkins at times. Did that a lot when
i was on the road with hubby.

jacks

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Other:

I use both note paper and the computer for my first draft. Usually I begin with paper and then I may be stuck with what to do next, so I go on the computer and then it comes to me more quickly and I can just type it up.
It's a bit messy but it seems to work reasonably well.

[righter1]

Mostly my laptop, but like I said in the other thread on this, it's been a spiral bound notebook on my current WIP (much more unobtrusive so that I may work on it at work!)

If I HAD a local diner, I'd probably use their napkins... But, alas, big city person here... I don't frequent local diners all that much (though I think if my hubby had had the ring on him when we were at a Waffle House, he may have proposed there, but he'd forgotten it. But, that's a whole other story.) :) Does the local coffee shop count???

[grimsleygl]

I jot down notes on just about anything that I can possibley write on whenever an idea strikes me. Along with the idea normally comes a first sentence or two draft which I may change once I get to playing with it on the computer.

But when it actually comes to sitting down and writing that first draft...due to my horrible handwriting and pain in my hand that has always been there because I hold the pen/pencil too tight, I use a computer!

[Pastor Gail]

I use a pocket voice recorder to note ideas for my writing and my sermons and then go to the computer.

[autumnrain]

I definitely use a notebook. There are things you just can't do on a computer. The computer is my second stop.

[Cymrugirl]

I use various things, but nothing more than my laptop.

[Mary D]

When I am deliberately sitting down to write, I (mainly) use a notebook. If a thought comes to me and I don't write it down, it may be lost forever. So, I am trying to make a habit of carrying a notebook EVERYWHERE!

[Cymrugirl]

When I am deliberately sitting down to write, I (mainly) use a notebook. If a thought comes to me and I don't write it down, it may be lost forever. So, I am trying to make a habit of carrying a notebook EVERYWHERE!

tee hee

I know what you mean. Three years ago I could have answered "on the backs of receipts." Having little notebooks stuffed in things is nice. Finding them later when you go looking for them is nice too.

[rljfl]

all of the above for me...everything from computer to notebook, notepads, napkins, receipts, whatever I have handy.:)

[Dorothy Raye]

Tarin: Help, I'm lost. I'm interested in the book club and have read "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers, but I can't find the club site to discuss it. Help!!! -Dorothy Raye
rdstroup@comcast.net

[smokey the dog]

Well When inspiration hits I have to use whatever is handy. Pen and paper, pencil and notebook, the back of a church bulletin. The computer is the last step for me. I don't type so good, must be these furry paws of mine.

[quark]

A computer....... I tried dictating, writing in a note book, then typing (I was the only one in town that had a 55 gal drum of whiteout delivered to the house). Then IBM took my typewriter.

My books: "Just When You Think You Are All alone"
"AMEN, A Simple Guide To Self-Marketing Your Christian Book"

www.christianstoryteller.com

[CajunGuy]

I actually have a "unique" (read "weird") method. I usually have the basic story line in my head. I use that to create an outline on my computer. Then, as ideas come, I'm able to insert them in the right place. When I'm ready to do the first draft, I actually just "flesh out" the completed outline. :)

[sbrown03]

I keep a notebook next to my bed and I jot down ideas in the middle of the night. They usually evolve into a poem, a song, or a manuscript.:) Eventually I organize my thoughts with the computer.

[Keith Wallis]

The 'napkin at the diner' is me - but really it's a case of anything that is to hand when the fleeting thought pays a call. Sometimes its the pad by the side of the bed, sometimes the computer.

[forgiven]

I planned the "bones" of my novel in a notebook but used the computer to add the meat to the bones. That was last year and it's close to being published. I'm feeling the itch to write again and lately have been looking at a NEO wordprocessing machine. Writer's Digest advertises it. It is 2 lbs. You can take it anywhere (700 hours on 3 AA batteries or use an adapter). My main concern is that I can download it into Microsoft Word. Does anyone have any experience with this machine? It sounds wonderful.

[Ransom v. Unman]

I was about to put "Other" here, as my first drafts are usually an amalgam of things written in my notebook on subway rides, and my transposition of those drafts to the computer, where the drafts will carry on past what I already wrote. It's both notebook and word processor, essentially.

[Invisionary]

Working on my first novel now, and I did the first 120,000 words by pen in notebooks, but I think I'll just write down the outline on paper from here on out and do the majority on a computer. That should make life easier.

[forgiven]

Much easier.

[Mouse5]

I use both notebook and laptop. I prefer using the laptop because I can type faster than I can write.

[revterry]

Friends: I selected "other" as my response for the poll. My vote was based on this: I use whatever is available that has enough empty space to write on. The length of the poem will depend on the space I must write on. I wrote a poetic answer as well, it can be found in the poem workshop.

Revterry