Why I Still Love Writing on Paper

Looking around the house over the holiday, I am struck by how much my office is full of paper. Writing on paper is an important technology for me. Not just the books, of which I have maybe five hundred. It’s the slips of paper, the index cards, the post it notes, the shopping lists. 

There’s so Much Value in Writing on Paper

My older son, Victor who works in St. Louis and couldn’t come home for Christmas, asked me for a letter on paper and I wrote it to him. He read the letter and said, “yes, that’s just what I wanted.” I wished I could ask him just *what* it was that he wanted. What had I put down? I had written what I was doing in that moment, the weather, the fact that I was proud of him. It was, perhaps, the next closest thing to being here for Christmas. Did the letter being on paper make it different? I think it did. He wanted a paper artifact. The effort to put ink to paper signified that I really meant it.

Anne LaMott, in her book Bird by Bird, talks about learning from her father, the novelist, to write ideas on scraps of paper. To carry pieces of paper and a pencil in your pocket. For when inspiration strikes. I’ve never come down to carrying slips in my pocket, and I suppose I’ve lost many ideas because of it. But I do have lots of pieces of paper in the house. I check my register receipts and if they’re blank on the back, I save them for notes and lists.

I write on paper to clear my thinking. When I want to plan, for school or for blogging or for a trip somewhere, I always start with a pen and paper. Somehow the act of sketching the lines and writing the words makes whatever I am planning come alive. Once I see it on paper, I can see it happening. There is much research on how writing helps you think, helps you explain to others, remember things, and process events. Looking for scientific research on this, I found paperseller that Rhodium Mines blog. This lists seven researched reasons why writing on paper helps you think and learn.

Strengths and Dangers of Writing on Paper

The truth is, there’s a dignity to writing on paper that writing digitally doesn’t possess. 

A danger of writing on paper is that no one will ever see it, of course, but as we bloggers know, that’s not always something you can escape even when you publish things to the web. Besides, there are some things you want to write down that you *don’t* ever want anyone to see. I suppose another danger is that someone will find them … but in my experience no one is really looking. Most of the time.

The strength of writing on paper is that it’s going to be where you left it. No switch turned one way or another in some other city can obliterate a piece of paper. You would have to go where it is and destroy it. 

My Youngest Worries: Are We Headed for a Post Paper World?

It was my young adult son Andrew who, observing the web as it’s currently manifesting, with the blog posts corrected and changed as they go along, said  “it’s just like Fahrenheit 451, you know. Or like 1984, where they change things after they’ve been written.” 

Not so with a piece of paper or with any of the books lining the walls of my office. 

Anne LaMott tells of writer friends, exchanging ideas on paper. Taking a cherished idea on paper from her dying friend, LaMott thanks her friend and says  yes, she might be able to use it. Like the letter to my son, it is microspecific. Not just for someone who might Google the topic, the paper came from her friend to *her.* 

The Wind Blows and I Think on Paper

I woke up at midnight last night with the wind blowing wildly around the house. I decided I was not trying to go back to sleep, and I knitted, and I worked on my paper notebook, things I need to do this week. All the things. On paper. I imagined how the wind can blow paper, but not my papers because they are safe inside the house. 

I think the reason we wonder if we should reject the idea of writing things on paper is because they’re so easy to ignore. That’s why you put them on the fridge, or the mirror, so you won’t forget. 

As the winds rip roared around the house, I  thought metaphysically. Why are we writing anyway? What do we hope to accomplish? Whether we write digitally or on paper, we’re recording things that may or may not get through to the intended audience. The message in a bottle aspect is operative. 

Facts and Myths

Yuval Noah Harari in his natural history book Sapiens argues that what makes humans what we are – the apex animal on earth – is our ability to create myth. Perhaps writing each note on paper is part of that, an attempt to create a tiny idea and protect it from all threats. 

When We’re Gone, There’s Still Our Papers

When I cleaned out my father’s house after he died, and realized that I couldn’t collect or read all the letters, all the papers, all the books, I remember thinking, but that means … the transmissions begun on all these papers will end. They will not find their reader. But perhaps not every note needs to be read. Perhaps it’s enough if just some of them are. 

Ever since our trip to  Dinosaur National Monument, when I observed the petroglyphs written by indigenous artists who left their drawings and went on to the spirit world unnamed and unsung, I’ve been reflecting anew that our writing, and all our messages, ultimately end. Even if you’re famous, your life and your voice is temporary. Everyone, no matter how well we write things, is forgotten. 

So why are we writing, 2024?

Why These Slips of Paper?

The wind howls. 

I turn this over in my mind: Not every piece of paper is important, but the sum total of them is. I found several notes in my father’s paper journals after he died that were important. That changed the course of my life. They were micro specific.

I think about his dusty basement office. Had the journals been online, they would be forgotten, I suppose. But one person who really cared, me, did find the necessary pieces of paper. Journals, letters, even pictures on paper – these things extend into the future. And they did change my future. 

The wind howls. I reflect that my paper is safe inside the house. You have to trust yourself with what you write on paper. You can burn paper, but you have to go there where it is. If you don’t, it will be in the future and you will not. 

I write things on paper so I can remember them.  And so others can remember. They’re in my house, in my office, so I can find them. I might not read them again, I might not need them again, but I also might.

Ending this, now I come upon a final sentiment. I write on paper, therefore I am.