Reasons to Love Paper

 I’ve been thinking about paper a lot in the last few days.

I think about paper more than the average person. Stocks, weights, textures, colors, the smell of new paper, the smell of old paper. I’ve been known to walk library aisles and take long, blissful sniffs. 

When I worked for my local B&N, customers would always ask me how I could concentrate with the smell of coffee in the store. I honestly didn’t notice the coffee that much. (I’m not a coffee drinker, and nose blindness is a thing.) But I could always smell paper. And I was surrounded by paper. Yay!

Now, I’m in the process of rediscovering using paper to help my own writing process, after many years of word processing software use. 

So here’s my question for this week — Why is paper a good idea when Google Docs and Microsoft Word and other word processing software are so convenient?

Let me offer a few reasons.

Nine Ways Using Paper and Pen Can Help Your Writing


Writing by hand stops stage fright. It’s difficult to recognize if word processing software is all you’ve known, but lit screens and crisp typefaces mess with your head. Writing using an electronic device can literally feel like being on stage, with an audience waiting to hear your stunning prose. Yikes!

Writing on paper is usually casual. Writing in a notebook doesn’t feel official, so your creative muscles can relax more.

Pen and paper stop self-editing tendencies. If you’re a person who has trouble writing more than a paragraph at a time because you’re worried about the nuances of each word, writing longhand on paper short-circuits the self-editing tendency. You can go back and cross things out and add notes for yourself later. 

No boundaries. You can use whatever paper or notebook you have on hand. And you can use whatever pen you like best, or whatever pen or pencil is close by right when a great line pops into your head. You can also write in the margins, doodle, write yourself inline notes — heck, you can write your sentences in whatever direction you want to! 

You’re in charge of punctuation and capitalization. When you use paper, there’s no AutoCorrect to get in the way of your style. (E.E. Cummings would have struggled with AutoCorrect. How would he feel about emojis? 🤔)

Writing longhand eases perfectionism. This ties in with self-editing, which can actually be perfectionism in disguise. When writing on paper, reaching a flow state is much easier. Once you start writing, you can just keep writing. You can review your draft for angles to explore and dig for hidden gems later.

Paper has more permanence. With a notebook, legal pad, or loose leaf paper, you don’t have to worry about accidental deletion. Or emotionally-driven deletion you’ll later regret. (The “This is crap!” monster can appear at any time — been there.)

You can stick it to the digital man. Sick of software updates and constant new features? Lost work to the cloud? Paper is paper. It always works. Think about it — you have to destroy it dramatically to erase its existence.

Privacy. This one is huge. If you’re worried about hacking, corporate surveillance, or an AI company gobbling up your creative output, paper is your ticket to privacy. Find a low-traffic drawer for storage, and you’re good to go.


Remember — Software Isn't the Only Option


Paper isn’t flashy, but it’s ever-dependable. If you feel frustrated and restrained by apps, or screens sometimes make your mind feel itchy, try writing with paper and pen. It can help you bypass the tricks that word processing software can play on your mind, help you push past your inner critic, and help you actually write faster, while giving you a hard copy of your work at the same time. Feel the freedom!

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