Stuck? Write longhand

I was talking to someone the other day who is in academia. He used to write often in all of the ways academics do, but because of his present position in administration the things he writes have changed (e.g., faculty review letters, and so on).  

I had admired his earlier work, so I began our conversation with, “So, what are you working on?”

He started telling me about a book chapter he wrote over the Christmas holiday. “It was hard,” he admitted. “There was a time when I could sit down and just crank out pages,” he recalled.

“It’s like a muscle, isn’t it?” I asked.

He laughed. “Yes, it is and I have muscle atrophy.”

We both laughed.

“But I got it done. I had to get old-fashioned.”

I leaned in, not sure what that meant.

“I got out the legal pads. I wrote longhand until I could get it (words on paper) flowing again.”

“Aw,” I said, settling down. “I do that, too, when it gets hard.”

“It’s funny how you have to lean on those old reserves,” he said.

“Yes, it’s muscle memory,” I concluded, before we moved on to promises about having lunch before the semester ends.

 

So what?

Will writing longhand help today’s student? After all, my colleague and I are of the generation that did not have access to computers in school, so naturally writing longhand would make us feel “at home.”

Does the computer interrupt the hand-to-mind-to-heart connection?

Why do I turn to paper when the writing is difficult?