How do you write?

[pengolodh_sc at yahoo.no]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Scott" <insanus_scottus at y...> wrote:
> Out of curiosity I thought this would be an interesting question
> to pose. I think that most people on this group probably write
> for some reason or another...not necessarily HP fanfic.
> 
> My question is how do you write? Can you compose better at a
> computer letting your fingers fly over the keys, or in a
> notebook scratching erasing and marking things out with your
> pencil or pen?  Do you write longhand or shorthand, inside or
> out, at night or in the morning...???
> 
> I myself find that it depends but usually I use my computer. If
> not I write longhand and always with a pen. I've found too
> that inspiration never seems to come until the wee hours of
> the morning...
> 
> What about everyone else?
> 
> Scott

I first got a computer as a present for my confirmation when I was 15 
(the Church of Norway, while being evangelical-Luthern, still has 
confirmation - it is a form of rite of passage in Norway).  Before 
that I exclusively wrote by hand.  Since then, I have been doing most 
of the productive work for school on ciomputer, but I take notes by 
hand, and almost all tests are still done at school - the conept of 
home-exams is still very new in Norway.  

Also, exams and mock exams in Norwegian (the subject) require  an 
essay at least five pages long (A-4 format, roughly similar to letter-
format), which of course are handwritten.  You start with this type 
of exams in 6th form.  As I recall (it's been some years), in 6th to 
10th form, these tests last 4 hours 30 minutes, while in 11th-13th 
form they last 5 hours 15 minutes.

I can assure you, the transition tot he US school-system when I was 
an exhange-student in Kentucky, was significant.  

These days, when I write, I prefer to use the computer to write 
things out, while taking notes and brainstorming most certainly is 
best done at a note-pad.

Best regards
Christian Stubø

P.S.    Why does the USA have so strange a standard for its hole-
punchers?  In Norway, the standard is two holes, width between holes 
a bit less than a third of the long side of a standard A4-page - for 
more rigidity four holes can be used.  Punching four holes can be 
done with a two-hole puncher (even if it is a bit tricky), but four-
hole punchers can easily be bought.  The standard puncher is small 
and neat, and easy to bring with you.  I found the American system 
with three holes to a page, and an excessively large puncher - seems 
rather impractical to me.  

The one thing that really impressed me about American school-supplies 
was wire-bound note-books with the wires at the *top* of the page, 
rather than the side.  Sadly, these are not available in Norway, and 
they were not available in squared paper (called graph-paper in the 
US, a term we in Norway only would apply to socalled millimeter-
paper, where the squares are only a millimeter each way).