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The vanishing manuscript

With machines ruling the roost, has the image of the creative writer fretting with the pen and paper become passé?

Creative writing, poetry or prose, is as much about the atmosphere in which it took birth as it is about the literature. It has been a journey together for the writers and their idiosyncrasies.

But looks like it's swan song for one of the oldest love affairs, that of writers and handwritten manuscripts. Manuscripts in longhand, a testimony to a writer's labour of love, scribbles, scratches and doodles are giving way to the neat and uniform prints of the computer.

"The traditional manuscript has been reduced to a relic," says Shobhaa De, author of the best selling Spouse: The truth about marriage and Speedpost, who still swears by the written word, literally. "I haven't seen one (handwritten manuscript) in ages, except my own," she says. De writes her novels and columns in longhand.

The trust factor

"I trust my own handwriting," she says. "Nobody can challenge the authenticity of a handwritten manuscript."

For Anita Nair of Mistress and Ladies Coupe fame, the creative exercise is about her Parker gold fountain pen, hardbound notebooks and "the pleasure of the seeing the ink flow onto the page."

The first draft is handwritten and the second draft is on the computer.

"It's not that I can't write straightaway on the computer," says the columnist-author. "But I like going through the ritual of writing. The pen and paper gives you a time lag to deliberate," says Anita.

A sensual experience

"Writing is a sensual experience and the sensuality is lost on the machine," she says.

It "may be a sentimental notion," she admits, but "writing becomes less romantic and more of a chore" on the machine.

"Romance" — the computer may not offer, agrees Chetan Bhagat, whose novels Five Point Someone and One Night at the Call Centre created ripples. For him, writing has no romantic frills.

"Rarely do you sit in a garden or by the river and write," quips the young author.

"Writing is on the computer and if you have a day job, it is done in stolen moments from work, family and friends," he says.

It is the same story for Samit Basu, the 26-year-old author of The Simoqin Prophecies and The Manticore's Secret.

"Some of my notes are in longhand, but that's because I'm not at the computer when I make them," he says.

He, however, does not believe the handwritten manuscript is dead. "How exactly writers choose to write is personal," he says.

Matter of comfort

"For many, the romance of pen and paper is all important. Most writers I know work on paper; but its definitely a factor that they started out that way. The younger writers — especially those with a journalism connection or who have blogs — are comfortable on computers," explains Samit.

The comfort factor seems to be the key.

"My thoughts run faster than my speed on the computer," says De.

"I get impatient when my fingers can't keep up with my mind. Comps are too slow for me."

For the younger ones, writing online comes with advantages. "Editing is infinitely easier and the process is fluid — you can juggle, correct, remove at will," explains Samit.

According to him, storing material is simpler and backups mean data is not lost.

Writing is also about the writer's love affair with the objects that make the experience, especially the pen.

So, when the feel of the fingers embracing the pen is taken over by punching on keys, does the attachment factor suffer?

"Not really," says Samit. "I wrote my first two novels in my room in Kolkata on a desktop that I had a definite relationship with," he adds.

But De is clear that the machine is too impersonal for her. "My stamp or my signature doesn't show on a screen and that's frustrating," she sums up.

Samit sees it as the legendary battle.

"It's like letters vs. e-mail — the war of the romantic and the practical. Once you've typed so much, your fingers know the keyboard intimately and there's nothing particularly unromantic about a computer either," he retorts.

The handwritten manuscript may well be on its deathbed with youngsters turning away from it.

"I sometimes sms myself if I get a great line — that is how bad it is," says Chetan. But, it's a soft spot still.

Tugging at the heart

"I think writing longhand can give a more emotional output. For instance, I write all my romantic scenes by hand," he admits. The battle of the pen and the machine may go on. But as author Shashi Deshpande believes, "What matters is what is produced at the end."

ANIMA BALAKRISHNAN

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