If this question had been asked in the 19th century, the answer would have been clear and straightforward because computers were not invented by then. All the famous authors and poets such as Dickson and Shakespeare used to write their thoughts on paper.
They could not have possibly imagined writing on computers at that point or being provided with software that helped them in writing those books. Despite everything, there are authors in the 21st century who still prefer to write their books and pieces of art with a pen rather than typing it on a machine.
Typewriters tried to replace the pen, and many authors preferred typing to physically and manually writing the content. Even at that point, many authors did not feel the need of stepping out of their comfort zone to evolve with the world.
Different factors tend to influence an author and make them choose and prefer one over the other. All these factors have been discussed down below.
Time at hand
If you have no experience typing on the keyboard of a computer then your forte would be writing on paper. In this case, you should not waste your time trying to adapt to a computer. You would have to hover over the keyboard for hours to find the write letters.
In the process of it, the chances of you forgetting about the point you were supposed to write about would be high. Not only that, but you might also not be able to meet your daily goals or targets as your speed would be impacted.
Some individuals have a lot of experience with keyboards and do not even feel the need to look at them while typing. For those individuals, writing a book on the computer is more feasible. They would be able to save a lot of time.
The number of drafts that authors tend to write is a lot more while using paper than computers. This is because, on computers, you can easily make amendments to any mistakes that you might have made with the content.
Chances of Clutter
It goes without saying that a lot more clutter will be created if you are writing on paper. Computers, on the other hand, keep everything intact for you and make databases to store your content.
Some authors gain inspiration and the right amount of motivation when they see the cluttered paper. This is an entirely different situation and, in that case, writing on paper would be a better choice.
Another drawback of using paper is that the chance of you losing out on the sequence of those papers is high. You might lose a page and spend days trying to find it.
Some writers initially start writing their first draft on a piece of paper. Sooner or later, they get tired and feel the need to drop that idea and move on with writing on a computer. This might be because of the clutter or because, eventually, they would have to write it all again so that it can be published easily.
Security of Documents
When authors are working on a special book and they cannot risk losing the different pieces of paper they are writing on then they would want to use a computer for it. There have been many cases and instances in the past where lost pieces of paper of famous authors were reported.
You might also be writing about someone who lives close to you and there might be a possibility of them coming to your workplace and scanning through your content. This is again what computers tend to help with. Authors that like to have copyrights for their content tend to use computers for their books the majority of the time.
Frequency
The cost of purchasing paper is low, but when the frequency of writing is high, then the paper can be extremely expensive. Not only that, the pens and pencils that you would write with would also incur a particular cost.
When you do not have a proper place to store your work anymore, and the content just keeps increasing with every passing minute, then you would want to shift to computers. Authors can get free access to different writing software such as Ms. Word and write as much as they like throughout the day.
Eco-friendly
Authors are becoming more environmentally friendly with every passing day. Buying paper for writing more content would lead to more trees being cut. This would then increase the carbon footprint.
When writing on computers, everything is digital, and there is no use for paper. It is much safer for the environment, and discarding the pieces that you do not require is easier as well.
You do not have to dispose of the paper by using a shredding machine or burning it off. Authors take pride in the fact that they were not among the ones who caused any harm to their surroundings.
Benefits of Computers
Authors nowadays realize that there are many benefits of writing on a computer. There is a reason that there are a lot more writers now than there were in the centuries before computers were introduced to the market.
Several new book writing software nowadays is available that tend to help writers with grammar, sentence structure, making sure there is no plagiarism, tenses, and even paraphrasing. This makes sure that when your book is published, none of the readers can point fingers at the content you are writing.
Ease of Publishing
Many authors prefer to write on computers because it is easier to publish their content that way. When writing a book, many days have to be spent on making sure that the formatting is perfect. You might have to use different papers if you mess up a single word.
When you go to a publisher, it would be a lot more convenient for them to offer you a slip of publishing as well as going through your content would be a lot easier. You can quickly make any required amendments by clicking on Ctrl F to find the words you are looking for and go about your day.
Final Thoughts!
So, the authors have their preferences in this case. There is no shame in admitting that you still use pen and paper to give your thoughts some meaning. Some authors tend to memorize what they are writing more efficiently when they are doing it manually.
There can be multiple sources of distraction while typing on a computer, such as notifications from social media sites or advertisements, etc. At the end of the day, both modes have their fair share of pros and cons, and it would be a never-ending debate.
