Dylan McGehee: That was the main reason I dropped my creative writing class at university. The professor was trying to make everything formulaic and inflexible. My brain doesn't work that way. I felt that the point of creative writing was to be an art and necessarily flexible, with many paths to a desirable end.

The last story I wrote longhand was “Rain” & then I quit working that way for years. Yesterday I went back to the pen & it was such a pleasure I wonder why I stopped. But I know why: I told myself it was faster to begin on the computer. Only it’s not true! It takes exactly the same amount of time.

Wasn’t that Elmore Leonard’s trick? He would write on a legal pad then type up later. It’s fun to change it up!

I gave it a try because @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com suggested I give it a whirl. I wound up writing all 900 pages of The Fireman in longhand. 9 great big Leuchtturm journals.

I think the important thing is giving your brain a different way in and out. And trying to make it feel fun somehow.

That was the main reason I dropped my creative writing class at university. The professor was trying to make everything formulaic and inflexible. My brain doesn't work that way. I felt that the point of creative writing was to be an art and necessarily flexible, with many paths to a desirable end.

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