Modern Times, part 2

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I still enjoy writing personal letters and notes in longhand, with a fountain pen, preferably on Crane's stationary or Clairefontaine paper. When I'm writing a manuscript though, I love using a word processing program.  One of my favorite functions is "Find & Replace".  This morning I pulled my list of words I have a tendency to overuse while writing.  I never worry about it in the first draft, but once I'm aware certain words are being repeated I make a note of them for later.  Then I type them into "find" and see which ones are superfluous or are showing up too often.  It would be possible, but more difficult, to do this with an inked or typewritten manuscript and I appreciate the functionality of modern writing tools.

I know writers who do their first draft in longhand, and others who still pound away at their ancient Royals or IBM Selectrics.  Whatever works for an author is the right way, but when I'm writing it's all about living in the 21st Century.

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