Thinking you might need to ditch the longhand and start writing on a computer? Think again. In this piece produced by Mashable, 10 authors fess up to how low-tech they'll go. With the likes of Danielle Steele, Neil Gaiman, and Amy Tan on the list, it's pretty clear to us that sticking with old-school tactics has not impacted their success. So proudly wield your pen! Type triumphantly on that Selectric! But most important of all? Just keep writing!
1. Quentin Tarantino
The famed director, who writes his own screenplays, pens his masterpieces with actual pens.
"My ritual is, I never use a typewriter or computer. I just write it all by hand. It’s a ceremony. I go to a stationery store and buy a notebook -- and I don’t buy like 10. I just buy one and then fill it up. Then I buy a bunch of red felt pens and a bunch of black ones, and I’m like, ‘These are the pens I’m going to write Grindhouse with,'" he said in an interview with Reuters.
2. George R. R. Martin
Game of Thrones fans might not know why it takes George R. R. Martin so long to write his books, but maybe this fact will help: He writes everything on an old word processor.
The famed sci-fi writer shared the tidbit in a 2011 post on his LiveJournal account.
"Yes, I have been using a computer for 20 years now, but while I cruise this interwebby thing with a PC and Windows, I still do all my writing on an old DOS machine running WordStar 4.0, the Duesenberg of word processing software (very old, but unsurpassed)," he writes.
3. Joyce Carol Oates
The prolific author of books such as Blonde and them, Oates prefers to write everything by longhand, for up to eight hours a day.
In an interview with Salon, she said of her process: "Why is this so unusual? Every writer has written 'by hand' until relatively recent times. Writing is a consequence of thinking, planning, dreaming -- this is the process that results in 'writing,' rather than the way in which the writing is recorded."
4. Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is a sci-fi jack of all trades. Though he writes screenplays on a computer, he prefers to write his novels by hand.
"For novels, I like the whole first and second draft feeling, and the act of making paper dirty," he said in an interview with TimeOut.
5. Amy Tan
Author Amy Tan prefers to write early drafts of her work longhand. She eventually types everything up on a computer, but loves the act of physical writing.
"Writing by hand helps me remain open to all those particular circumstances, all those little details that add up to the truth," she said in an interview with The Atlantic.
6. Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe is old school. The celebrated author of The Bonfire of the Vanities likes using a typewriter, but ended up writing his 2012 novel Back to Blood entirely by longhand.
In an interview with NPR, he said he'd love to keep using typewriters, but "you can't keep typewriters going today -- you have to take the ribbons back to be re-inked. There's a horrible search to try to find missing parts."
7. George Clooney
Multi-talented actor, director and writer George Clooney isn't the best at technology.
During a Reddit AMA, he admitted that he writes everything out by hand, and then has his producing and writing partner, Grant Heslov, type scripts up on a computer.
"I write by hand and Grant, who I co-write with, has 'skill on the computer.' I'm probably the least computer literate writer there is... Literally when I cut and paste, I cut pages and tape them together. But somehow we make it work!"
8. Danielle Steel
The illustrious romance novelist, currently the bestselling author alive, has one mainstay she uses to type up her more than 100 books.
An interview with the Roanoke Times revealed Steel writes all her books on a 1946 Olympia manual typewriter, during a 20-hour writing shift.
"There are people who show up nicely dressed, they work from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. I can't do that," she says. "Sometimes I don't leave my house for two or three weeks."
9. Jhumpa Lahiri
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri says she writes better when she pens books by hand. Though she eventually types up her prose, she does it on a computer without Internet.
"I don’t write exclusively by hand but I think I feel freer when I write by hand. In fact, I know I do. I write at odd times. I have a notebook by the bed. A lot of things will come to me, which I’ll note down longhand," she said in an interview with Harper's Bazaar.
10. P.J. O'Rourke
Political satirist P.J. O'Rourke denies he is a Luddite, but his actions speak differently. The author uses a Selectric typewriter to pen his numerous works.
*http://mashable.com/2014/02/15/modern-writers-technology/#gallery/writers-who-dont-use-modern-technology/52ffa59b3182974ba000001c
