Being forced offline for over a week, taught me something about my writing. I organise on the computer but create with pen and paper. I know many writers who prefer to just tap their stories out on the keyboard, it's faster and more efficient (and checks your spelling), but creating swirls and strokes with a pen scratching across paper unlocks something in my creativity. I get new ideas and a more intimate connection with my WIP.
Once I've written up my ideas, outlines or first drafts, I can then type them up and develop the narrative. My mind goes in a different direction with typing, I start to think of all the practicalities of my plot.
If I spark different parts of my brain by using handwriting over typing, doesn't it stand to reason a reader would react differently to receiving typed text to handwritten scrawl? If 'I 4got 2 tell u 2day zat I lv u' is not your idea of a romantic message, perhaps you'd rather a handwritten note on scented paper?
Kaz is from my little country town in Australia (although Kaz may reasonably argue it's just as much her little country town) and she's started a blog on handwritten letters. You'll find it here:
Why not pop a letter in the post for someone you care about? Or write to someone you've never met instead of emailing? It'll get the creative juices flowing! A while back my girls got letters from Granddad, they were so excited, they usually correspond via facebook, emails and blog comments.
A writing prompt I like is to write a letter from your main character to someone they miss.
