There are so many kinds of writing software out there now that there’s really no reason for office supplies any more. And yet I don’t know any writer who works solely on her computer. I have friends who actually write the first draft in longhand (that would be Gaffney, for one) which boggles my mind, but even for writers like me who’d never write a story if she didn’t have a keyboard, working with pen and paper at some point feels crucial. My personal crutch is quad paper, those quarter inch squares freeing me from linearity; no matter how much I think I’ve organized things, sooner or later I go looking for the grid to free things up. Continue reading →