Writing On My Phone
We write on our phones all day long. Texts, emails, searches, etc.
But long form writing is a different thing. I’m not sure how much long form writing happens on phones.
I’ve been mostly writing my daily posts on my phone in the last month and I quite like it. I am writing this post on my phone on a train to NYC this morning.
It has a more casual feel. The words flow naturally from my head to my thumbs to the screen. I feel connected to the writing in a way that doesn’t quite happen on a big screen.
I like that I can write on my phone anywhere. On a park bench. On a train. Sitting on the beach.
Being able to write anywhere makes it less of a chore and more of a treat. Like having a moleskin with you all the time.
I don’t write well with a pen or pencil. It is something I’ve struggled with my entire life. Bad eye hand coordination or something else. Whatever the case, I press too hard, my hand cramps, the writing is barely legible, and I race to finish as I hate it.
So my moleskin is my phone. And it is always with me and I can pull it out and start typing whenever I want. And I do that quite often.
There are a few downsides to writing on a phone. I don’t have Grammarly on my phone and I quite like it to keep my writing clean and neat. And I tend to make a lot more little typos on my phone (misspellings, missing a letter in a word, etc). But I expect the tools for long form writing on a phone will improve over time.
The pros outweigh the cons for me and I expect to frequently write blog posts on my phone.
Many people tell me that they want to blog but can never find the time to do that. If you are someone like that, try writing on your phone. WordPress has an excellent mobile app that I write in but you could also write in Google Docs or some other mobile app.
It’s easy, it can be done anywhere, and it feels so natural.
Comments (Archived):
Presume you are writing within WordPress app?
Yes. I love it. Really nice
My first one is coming thanks to you!
Works great for short/off the cuff ideas – look forward to it.
I still miss your blog my friend. You are such a really good writer!
typo. exactly here 🙂 “I don’t write well with a pen or pencil. It is something I’ve struggled with my entire like. “
Thanks .Will fix. The community is a great copy editor
hopefully google or apple will buy grammarly and will bake it in the OS which would be the ultimate integration
Yessssssssss
I have the Grammarly keyboard installed on both Android and iOS.
More silo-ization. Great!
Sort of related:”When you cancel a service, you can tell if a company is a “Keep Customers” company (hostile, tricky policies, retention mazes, etc) or a “Keep Customers Happy” company (easy to cancel, well wishes, fair policies, etc).”- Jason Fried, co-founder, Basecamp:https://mobile.twitter.com/…Tons of comments, retweets and likes on that tweet.Also of interest:via @valerie_maher:[ Replying to @jasonfried”There’s a website that describes all the Dark Patterns companies use to trick or trap customers.”https://mobile.twitter.com/…https://darkpatterns.org/https://darkpatterns.org/ha… ]
“I don’t write well with a pen or pencil…. I press too hard, my hand cramps, the writing is barely legible, and I race to finish as I hate it.”- phew! thought i was the only one. – idea for new social platform – ‘thought-i-was-the-only-one.com’ – network based around people posting what they thought were idiosyncratic things only for a community of similar ‘sufferers’ to pipe up and give them solace.
Computers, and then phones, were a gift from on high for me. I would not be who I am without them
Same here. I can tie all money that I make to the fact that I decided to learn to type from a book that I bought in high school. In about 3 weeks. I still have the book for posterity. No class needed. And it was my idea nobody told, suggested, or pushed me to do so. It just seemed to make sense rather than hand writing. (As mentioned the other day I am all into efficiency).With that ability I was able to:a) Work for my Dad in the office (instead of the warehouse) and type invoices where I got to overhear what was going on and learned a great deal. (I did some warehouse work as well but mainly got to type on an IBM Selectric in an air conditioned wholesale district office). Later I self taught myself (with no book but using a similar technique) to use an adding machine w/o looking so I could (pre computer) easily add up the numbers on the invoice. I could whip through a list of numbers very quickly. Not well known, but accuracy (both typing and using an adding machine) is vastly more accurate than looking at the keys (not even considering the speed advantage). Also easier and less stressful. And little known other fact: You get in a zone with it. Time flies. b) Do my papers on the school computer (and be able to edit them). I actually used the word processing center for the school and sweet talked the ladies there into letting me use their equipment to print my papers out. These interactions led to the first thing that I started out of college which segued to the 2nd thing. (The first thing was selling computer supplies when I realized anyone could buy from the wholesaler and resell to offices after visiting the wholesaler to pick up some ribbons and print wheels).c) Sell the professors (or instructors) into allowing me to bring a typewriter in to type my answers to tests in a separate room. Instead of being with other students who were using a pen or pencil. Major advantage. Very hard for me to write.d) Write personal emails to customers or replies extremely quickly which gives me a significant edge over any competition.e) Write detailed proposals very easily in clear concise language that more often than not closes a deal. Importantly in a non ambiguous and easy to read manner in a direct link from my brain to what I am writing.To many other things to mention that have helped by simply having the ability to type fast.The concept here (that I have mentioned before) is ‘the thing that leads to the thing’. In this case learning how to type.
>Later I self taught myself (with no book but using a similar technique) to use an adding machine w/o looking so I could (pre computer) easily add up the numbers on the invoice. I could whip through a list of numbers very quickly.I’m a fast typist too. It really makes a difference.
I think that my struggles with a pen growing up led me to computers in high school where I could write on a keyboard. And that led to everything else
“can only connect the dots looking backwards…”
Truth
I had similar struggles. After standardizing on the Dr. Grip pens in middle school they helped a lot when I “had” to write, but my preference has always been a keyboard or screen. I still keep a Dr. Grip in my briefcase to this day.
Many people with your vast working memory have grapho-motor skill struggles. Surprised you like a phone over a full keyboard though.
Not a world changer but for those times when you need to put pencil to paper there’s absolutely nothing like the Paomino Blackwing 602 pencil.Makes writing much more a pleasure.
thx. i have quite a collection of notebooks and to a lesser extent pens. i love the craftsmanship etc of writing in a new clean notebook but after a few mins as fred says. wrist hurts, writing goes to shit, and can’t be bothered anymore.
I still write 2-3 pages with pen and paper almost every morning. I am the only one who has any hope of deciphering what it says – and even I can’t tell sometimes.I don’t remember my handwriting always being this bad. Until I picked up the writing habit again about 15 years ago, handwriting was reserved mostly for my signature (which has always been just a scribble) and greeting cards.I have wondered if using a keyboard for the last 35 years may have ruined my handwriting.Seems like you and @fredwilson:disqus both remember always having this struggle, but I’m still curious what you think “being out of the habit of writing” might have done to your handwriting.
I tend to write a lot on Google Docs on the phone. Then I copy/paste into WordPress. I wished Google Docs had a WordPress integration option where it transfers a formatted doc directly into it.
At some point I realized that part of the reason I was choosing to post to Facebook or Twitter more than my own blog was I did not have a mobile app for the blog (which I setup with Jekyll on GitHub). Eventually I settled on iA Writer. I still often write my blog post on my computer in the morning but when inspiration strikes I am ready.
Why iA Writer – because of integration with Github? or something else?
Basically had best combination of price/features and supported Markdown.
I always thought it was the catholic school nuns who destroyed my hand writing. Jeeze. Keyboard was a very liberating tool.
wooden rulers will do that. In my 7th grade shop class the teacher used T-Squares
.When I think of Sister Anne de Beaupre, I think of the “thesis sentence” and how adept she was with a yardstick.I committed a cardinal sin when she reared back to strike my proffered hand on the edge of a wooden desk by jerking my hand back resulting in her shattering her yardstick.I took off running (hadn’t been to Ranger School by then, no hand-to-hand combat training yet, and was afraid of even little mean nuns like her) ending up in the principal’s office.For the record, Sister Anne did not ever attempt to hit me again. Today, she’d be in jail for as many times as she knocked the crap out of me.She ingrained the narrative hook and the thesis sentence in my psyche.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
Somehow it worked
.The love and care of those nuns and priests (and Christian Brothers) was in loco parentis and the purest regard for their charges imaginable.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
The mobility aspect of the phone is its convenience, but the screen keyboard is nonetheless still a giant pain in the neck as compared to a dedicated hardware keyboard, to me.
I write daily in Evernote.Journaling, meeting notes and longer emails all start their life in the Evernote app. And since it’s multiplatform I can maintain the discipline of daily writing whether I’m on an iPhone, an Android phone (currently the Huawei P20 Pro), iPad, MacBook or a Windows machine.The vast majority of my writing is via my phone and I enjoy being able to write anywhere I happen to be.
Fred – While I run an org called Pencil, I’ve been testing the TextBlade mobile keyboard from Waytools for the last 6 weeks and love it. Use case is exactly what you describe, can’t touch type on a glass screen, but need a keyboard as mobile as the phone. TextBlade seems to hit the mark (and now using it as my main keyboard was well!). I waited 3 years for it, and they are close to general release. I have no stake in the company.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Thanks.
No problem. More background here if you are curious: https://waytools.com/
I suspect thumb joint injuries will sky rocket in the next few years.
Yes, just left a comment about how I got De Quervains from long-form phone writing.
Yes! I didn’t know that was a thing, but it happened to my left hand. I’m sure only a matter of time till it hits the right.
Or the thumb gets stronger: “Thumbs of the younger generation have overtaken their fingers as the hand’s most muscled and dexterous digit.” https://www.theguardian.com…That is one way we can be sure technology changes humans.
I had to switch phone holding hands b/c my left thumb joints were getting sore. I’m no Dr but there’s no way the hand was designed too work this way, certainly not for long. No?
Depends how old you are suppose. I am no Doctor either.
I have the grammarly keyboard on my pixel 2 XL; I switch back and forth between that and gboard. https://play.google.com/sto…
I love WordPress mobile for posts containing text and pictures. But I often want to easily add one out more short video clips … and that’s where it gets really clumsy. Upload is unreliable, my shared server’s bad for serving up video, and the workflow for uploading to youtube, then adding shortcodes to my post is hardly worth it … so I don’t bother unless it’s a longer video and it’s really important to the post. I’m thinking of creating a WordPress plugin from our app just to solve my personal need!Fred (et al) – would you ever add short video clips if it were really easy to do?
Paris Review Literary magazine used to have regular interviews with well-known writers. In each interview, the interviewer would ask the writer about the physical mechanics of their writing process- when they wrote, how long, essentially part of the magazines’s ongoing interest in the literary and writing process. One of their most famous interviews was with Hemingway who apparently wrote part of “The Sun Also Rises” at bars and later began using a lectern at which he would stand up and write. Like other writers, he had a lot of interesting tips about his process. For anyone interested in writing process, you might want to check out some of these interviews. I find them fascinating. I hope link works-https://www.theparisreview….
That lectern idea is interesting. Never come across that idea before, although of course standing desks are similar.This site, usesthis.com , has similar interviews of modern people on what tech and other things they use for their work; many of the people interviewed are well known.https://usesthis.com/
Love everything about this except one … I developed De Quervains Tenosynevitis after doing too much long-form writing from phone. I was pregnant at the time, and it got much better after, but it still bothers me on and off so I have to be careful and try not to do it too much or it comes back. Sometimes I use my forefinger instead of my thumb (doing that to type this!).So, just be wary of phone typing ergonomics!
If you watch kids they use their thumbs to point and touch things like doorbells, not the forefinger.
“Whatever the case, I press too hard, my hand cramps, the writing is barely legible, and I race to finish….”ah, so i’m not the only one. reassuring. i hate my handwriting style. it’s never the same twice. i fear what a psychologist might say about that, so i keep it hidden from the world if at all possible (my neurosis). keyboards are great for this. love keyboards :)it’s weird because i have excellent hand eye coordination for everything else in life, even drawing. i just can’t ‘draw’ written words with any consistency.i don’t use my phone to write. too cramped. i like real keyboards (my Macbook 12” keyboard is nice).
I went from Samsung Note 4 to LG Thinq G7. Love it. Except 2 things: 1) the slightly narrower width has resulted in a fraction shaved off of each key and it is so much harder to type. Like relearning to ride a bicycle with opposing elements. 2) I wish the fingerprint security (on the back) would work for index fingers on both hands. Lots of time I am holding phone with my left and have to switch hands to turn on the screen.While I take a fair amount of notes on my phone and use SMS/whatsapp, in general I find both long-form and even somewhat involved text communication to be tiresome on the phone over the keyboard. I have my computer with me almost constantly, so I know I am an outlier. I believe it’s really the convenience of not needing or not having to turn on your laptop.
What is your process for “To-Do Lists” or keeping track of the 2-3 big things you need to do each day? Obviously you have an EA but also you’re on the go a lot, etc.
I wrote a shell routine where from the terminal I can input various items and have those items printout on a 3×5 card. The card has a number so I can edit the card and update it. I have a dedicated laser printer in the office just for the cards. ($300 a Brother low volume). I do everything and anything from the shell. Back in the day the shell routine that I wrote (in the 80’s) simply allowed me to keep track of lists on a Wyse terminal. So this is similar to that in a way. Importantly this is way way way faster than a GUI or a web page to do the same. (From the terminal the editing and input I mean).The cards get logged to a text file which is in the cloud so if I needed to reference something I can do so from anywhere.The physical card means if I think of something (even something that I need to picked up at CVS) I can quickly make a card and then put it in my wallet or pocket. Or I can tape it to my desk. Or I can magnet pin it to the door on the way out.No way around the fact that a 3×5 card (which importantly can be easier to create by typing and can be edited) is better than doing the same by hand (which is what I did forever prior to writing the routine).I use these physical 3×5 cards to track all sorts of things. I even will have them in my luggage to indicate what is in the luggage and what is contained within each compartment. And the fact that I can update and edit the card (to add, change or substract) is key. Easy to quickly see if something is there or is missing.I also keep the cards on the front of file folders to easily summarize what is missing from the inside and what has been done. (I have clear pouches on the file folders for this). Yes not everything is electronic and some things do work better with old school manual systems (modified with some electronic addition).To answer your question I don’t do this but it would be trivial for me to simply modify my routine (or write another one) to send an email to either an existing email account or a new account with the results of the card. So I could view them remotely. I could then reply to that email and have the reply parsed to updated the card. Actually that would be something that would be fun for me to do if I actually needed the functionality. Note that if the email is in line with my existing emails it doesn’t require opening or screwing with another app (that someone else wrote with features that are of no benefit to me). This is the biggest advantage of being able to write simple things. You control all the feature and can tailor it to your specific needs.
Why wouldn’t you “write” on phone by using ‘dictation’ option available on iPhone (must have something on Android as well).
Because some people process their thoughts verbally, and others process their thoughts visually.
But in either case, all day long we express them to so many people. It’s the expression I’m talking about. And all of us think in words anyway. That’s why you think more and better if you have good vocabulary.
We witnessed this for quite a while since majority of the stories on Wattpad are created or edited on mobile.P.S. Grammerly has a keyboard app on iPhone. Using the keyboard app you can access most of its functionalities.
I avoid writing on my phone as much as I possibly can. I just make too many mistakes. It drives me crazy. And then I make mistakes while I’m correcting the mistakes. Aaaaaargh! Plus, when I write on the phone, I’m looking down, and that gets uncomfortable for me pretty fast. Unless it’s urgent, it waits until I have a monitor and keyboard.
I do most of the writing for my blog AnEarful (www.AnEarful.blogspot.com) and other music publications on the subway in the morning.I use BlogTouchPro, an app that connects to my Blogger account. I’ll usually finish it at home on a laptop or desktop, depending on how many links and graphics I need and to give a final proof on a bigger screen. I have also done graphics on the fly either using PicCollage or WordSwag – while they have a lot of silly features, they can be very useful for putting words and images together in eye-catching ways.
Dig it.I blogged for a few years often daily from my phone from 2009-2012. Embeds and markup were sometimes a pita with WordPress at the time. I still have typo issues.I wish I could code from my phone easier. But the real estate is tight and meta keys support is weak. Termux is ok for running scripts, but I prefer the built in editor (android).
One additional critical advantage to long form writing on your phone: it slows you down.I’m a pretty fast typist, but I find that the “flow” of writing on my 10” iPad is best for me, actually. It slows me down enough to write at the speed I am creatively thinking. This is another reason that writing with pen and paper is recommended, to slow your thinking down a bit, which usually adds to clarity.Every so often I think quite a bit faster than I’m writing, so I’ll whip out the standard keyboard. But usually that isn’t creative type thinking. For that, phone or iPad is where the creative juices are best squeezed for me.
We write on our phones all day long. Texts, emails, searches, etc.I never write emails on the phone. For business or personal. I don’t even answer emails on a phone. The only case that I would do so is if the question or the point is 100% unambiguous. For example someone says ‘are we leaving at 6pm tomorrow? and the reply is ‘yes that’s fine’. But even in that case, and as a habit, I like to repeat what I am saying ‘yes’ to for clarity and future reference. While it may not matter in some cases it does matter in other and it just seems to make sense to use one technique that covers all bases.Here is why. You can’t be exact enough and type enough info in an email to not make the other person end up having to spend more time helping or answering without doing more work.So you force them to think of more things or perhaps answer you w/o truly understanding what it is you want to know (or what you have told them).It creates in some cases a boatload of extra work for the other party.I have proof of this (and can even use you as an example btw..)I am a stickler for this type of thing.
I don’t have any email app installed on my phone. I will, very infrequently, login via a browser to look for an email I need.
After years of running my own email server I finally switched to gmail.I like the fact that I can at least see what is going on and if needed I will then use a laptop or desktop and answer an email.Part of what I do is lottery like so it’s fun for me to check and see any positive emails that I got back.
You’ve mentioned about writing posts on your phone before and I dismissed it as being too cumbersome. But, I gave it a try today and it was actually quite nice to do! http://danielclough.com/less/
https://www.npr.org/2016/04… This is interesting. Taking notes by hand better than digital. Unlike you, I never hated writing. I do write worse than a doctor, but 25 yrs on a trading floor will do that. I have tested this myself. I tend to remember better when I write it, even if I don’t go back and reference it. I am not sure if this is a generational, brain hard wired thing, or a human condition brain hard wired thing. We won’t know for a long time.
Many people tell me that they want to blog but can never find the time to do that. If you are someone like that, try writing on your phone.My theory on this is it’s not time but rather energy and motivation. It’s like someone who says they have no time for exercise. What they are indicating is they don’t have the motivation to simply make another activity lower on the totem pole. If you are a mother and you decide you can’t exercise because you think for some reason your kid needs to be schlepped to sports that is an example. The kid doesn’t. It is probably better all around to simply do something for yourself and not keep up with the other mothers. (Or Dads). You won’t do this though (or Dad) because you have been convinced that being a good parent is doing what others do for their kids. That is not the case. That is thinking like a lemming.You find time to do what you like to do.Most people can always find the time to do the following:a) Watch Sports (if they like sports)b) Play gamesc) View Pornd) Eat Foode) Gamble
I also do a lot of writing on my phone. So much that sometimes on my laptop, it feels really slow that I don’t have the same close-finger ability to auto-select words or spellings when I’m typing on real keys. The phone’s 1-2 inch eyeball spacing of “keys”, screen and suggested words is a real plus. (I’m Android and use SwiftKey keyboard).
I’m old school–just bought a 32″ monitor for the office (to go with the 27″). I use travel time to disengage, reflect, and think. I find I am more productive if I use my 40 minute commute to reflect than to try to type while driving.Years ago i tried Dragon naturally speaking, found it had far too many typos and I spent more time correcting than writing. BTW, it translates an old insult into “pizza chips”. Someday it will get better and I’ll try again.Whatever works for you is best.
.There is a Hemingway quote to the effect … “Everybody could be a writer if it weren’t for the editing. Good writing requires good editing.”I think writing in America has gotten progressively worse because of the speed with which people hit the ENTER key and the speed with which the written word is created sans editing, particularly self-editing.The cost is depth of thinking and clarity of speech. A lot of blogs have become a half inch deep and a yard wide. This sets up the comments section for the rigorous exchange of the best ideas. Not to suggest that isn’t a fair approach. Bit of red meat for the lions to cast about.My writing can only come forth in front of a monitor or two (Dell 34″ curved monitor, Dell 27” monitor) because I have to be able to see my words to actually speak them.Many times, I have to use the second monitor to capture my research before I write. I like to do a lot of research.I can type more than a hundred words per minute and, therefore, have a tendency to cast more words at a subject than are, perhaps, necessary.I still have to print — print, not write, the last vestige of the engineer in me — in a notebook to capture my best thinking and the record of my conversations. The important thing is to actually refer back to one’s notes.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…
I often start writing on my phone, get pissed off, then copy and paste it to myself in an email and finish writing when I get back to my computer. I also write on paper too. I carry a moleskin in my purse and spiral bound hardcover sketchbook in my briefcase (I have many years of these in my bookcase, going back to elementary school) — I prefer a nice sharp pencil to doodle with (many great ideas happen in pencil!)
I wrote a whole 200 page book on my Nokia Communicator 15 or so years ago. (I edited it on my computer.) I would never have had the time to write the book if I couldn’t do the writing during the free intervals throughout the day. But that was on a Nokia Communicator sized keyboard. For years I bought phones with slider keyboards, like the HTC TYTN, but after a while the cost in device width was just too much. The challenge seems not just to be the speed and accuracy of the keyboard, but the fact that a virtual keyboard takes enough screen real estate that it’s hard to look at much of what you’re writing while you’re writing it. Do you type long-form in portrait or landscape?
Related: This was on HN just recently:Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?https://news.ycombinator.co…Some good resources there, not only to the subject, but to doing things using text (/cc @LE).
Also a good HN thread:Keeping a plaintext “did” file (theptrk.com)Post: http://theptrk.com/2018/07/…HN thread about it: https://news.ycombinator.co…
On a lighter note: A Joke.Astrologer told a guy that he will have a tough time and suffer for the next 20 years.Guy asked: Sir, what will happen after 20 years, Sir.Astrologer: You will get used to it. So your sufferings will no longer be there.Disclaimer: I don’t like typing on my phone….
I do a lot of writing on my phone because many times it’s the most convenient way for me.
“I don’t write well with a pen or pencil. It is something I’ve struggled with my entire life. Bad eye hand coordination or something else. Whatever the case, I press too hard, my hand cramps, the writing is barely legible, and I race to finish as I hate it.”I’m the same – absolutely hated writing when in school. Figured out it was because I hate writing pen to paper. With a keyboard, virtual or otherwise, I plow through words.
I love journalling on my phone.Also, there is a Grammarly keyboard for iOS and Android: https://www.grammarly.com/b…I have not used it though.
I do a lot of writing on the phone using Google voice to text via gboard. Fred’s post inspired me to try the Grammarly keyboard, hoping it would help voice to text too. But it doesn’t! There is a clear gap in the market for merging these two concepts and improve voice to text authoring.
It’s easy to write on a phone — just use Swiftkey software and a mini external bluetooth keyboard; Logitech makes the best one on the market. SwiftKey is free or almost free, $1.99 for a custom keyboard, and it corrects typos and misspellings no matter how egregious, and can change languages three times in a sentence, while giving you the proper spellings with accent marks and tenses to boot. I love it, and can’t even bear to use Microsoft Word any more, which I used to use for long documents every day.I can slop through my keyboarding, mix up letters willy nilly in a word, and it will straighten it all out magically before my eyes. Of course, I do have to look back and double check that it hasn’t turned a word into another which I hadn’t intended, but that is a small price to pay for the convenience.I am an excellent speller, but am super prone to typos, besides which it is a pain in the neck to capitalize proper names and places, and so I love the way Swiftkey does all that, voilĂ , and more for me magically in ways that MS Word never could. Es mágico en verdad.I carry a hardboard placemat with me and a phone holder as an ad hoc desk, and I have an instant office set up wherever I happen to be.After I’m done with a rough draft on my phone, I copy and paste it into a Gmail, that is my filing system, as with only one word of the text in a search it will be pulled up and I can work on it more if I’ve saved it as a draft.The only thing I long for is to be able to do all this on a full sized monitor, where I can see a full page of text at a time, but all the tablets and Chrome books disable SwiftKey functionality, I don’t know why. It drives me nuts.SwiftKey says they sold themselves to Microsoft, which gave me much hope, as I thought, oh boy, MS will enable Swiftkey functionality in Word, but I haven’t seen that yet. It would have been better, imo, to have sold their software to Google, so it could be used in Docs, and to have Docs available on the big screen.One more thing: To get the font you want in Gmail, first throw the text into Word and format the font and size, then copy it back to Gmail, where it will retain the formatting.Anyone else have the same experience or feelings about this as I have?
BTW, did all this on my phone in a jiffy with Swiftkey, though it really would still be a rough draft if this were a formal piece of writing.And forgot to say, wish SwiftKey were available on the pc monitor, where one could work on long pieces more easily.