Lauren Chase
The act of putting pen to paper feels old-fashioned, rightfully so due to the endless amounts of other outlets and options on the internet. But my mother, a nurse in her day-to-day life, always had me handwrite things, like a diary/journal, notes, or while designing posters and essays. She argues that handwriting requires more focus and engages our brains in unique ways typing doesn't. She was in college during a time where computers were not portable and phones were sliding up and down with a built-in keyboard. She swore that writing out her notes by hand in nursing school made the complex material stick, turning what I’m sure were overwhelming lessons into something manageable.
I recently learned about an author named Donna Tartt who takes this to a new level. She exclusively writes her ideas and novels by hand before turning to a keyboard. She “scratch[es] things out and underline[s] things in different colors” and insists the slower rhythm lets her think over each sentence fully before writing it down (Studio 5).
The benefits go beyond memory. Handwriting appears to activate areas of the brain linked to imagination and critical thinking (JF 1). That may be why so many authors, diarists, and poets turn to notebooks: they offer more than a record of thought, they invite thought itself. Researchers have found that the act of writing ideas by hand improves conceptual understanding because it demands both the physical and mental attention of the person performing the act. Each word becomes a small decision. How to phrase it, how to shape it, how it fits within a larger thought.
Literature, too, has its roots in the handwriting process. Before the printing press, every story we now consider “classic” was first carried by pen across a page. That lineage suggests writing by hand isn’t just a tool, but that it’s part of the creative tradition that links us to millennia of storytellers back in ancient times.
Really, I appreciate my mother having me handwrite things. As I now have copies of my first “books” as bits of folded up pieces of paper and illegible squiggles as “words” because I wanted to imitate her handwriting on little notes left around the house; the first evidence of my love for writing and words before I knew they needed correct spelling and grammar. I appreciate handwriting, as it has shaped the way I write today. Something I bring with me into every project and essay, no matter if it is formal or not.
References:
JF, Planton S;Jucla M;Roux FE;Démonet. “The ‘Handwriting Brain’: A Meta-Analysis of Neuroimaging Studies of Motor versus Orthographic Processes.” Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23831432/. Accessed 26 Sept. 2025.
Studio. “Donna Tartt, the Writing Life.” Rivista Studio, 25 June 2021, www.rivistastudio.com/donna-tartt-intervista/.