Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How has your writing changed as you've aged?

Writing clearly and concisely has become harder as I've gotten older. Lots of writers work into advanced years and I'm curious if the process of writing gets more difficult as time passes. I'm glad I don't make a living by writing because my productivity has declined to the point it would take far too long to produce anything considered passable writing.

It looks more like a 60 year old doctors prescription these days.
Typing has deteriorated as well, especially on a phone where typo's are so common I only respond here on a PC. Also hate proof reading so rely on spilchuk red line underscoring to identify the "Huh's"

It is starting ti resemble my Fathers, not good. But, it is still heads above the signatures and penmanship of the judges and lawyers I used to have to decipher for years.

I have heard that you drop off with age. So far, I haven't seen it in myself. If anything, it has improved.

One thing that may help: I have been writing a couple of hours a day for almost 20 years. It just became a habit. It keeps me sharp. Some of it is here. Some of it is elswhere on other forums. Some of it is ghostwriting assignments. If you write, it's a lot like a muscle; it needs a regular workout.

Mine is illegible, even if I print!!

It would be ok except for the broken fingers and the resulting arthritis. I have never typed either, I skipped those classes in middle school. Who would of thunk?

My cursive was OK when young, but deteriorated enough by junior high that I started printing--which none of my teachers objected to.

Part of my "problem" was that my thoughts often came faster than my handwriting--one reason I started to type when young. My parents were both teachers and therefore typists, so I started on one of their manual typewriters at around 10. But my fingers weren't quite strong enough then to type "correctly" on a manual, so ended up typing with each forefinger, to make the keys hit hard enough.

Got good enough at that to type pretty fast, and in fact retyped Eileen's master's-degree thesis faster and with fewer errors than she could. But by that time I'd written over 200 articles and a book.

As for the mental writing process, find that it takes longer to slap it into the shape I want when rewriting (which is actually the major process of writing )than when younger, which may mean my mind is slowing down, or I keep discovering too much new stuff!

My physical ability to write legibly has deteriorated to the point my ace assistant at work has likened reading my handwriting to learning a new language. Chinese in particular.

I was recently reading that mental processing speed and memory peak at a relatively early age but that we continue to build our vocabulary late into life. That makes sense to me. I have too many choices to make and the reduced processing speed has brought my productive writing to an irritatingly slow pace. It leads me to make an OK word choice and move on. Rereading a note or letter I've written often finds me wondering why I didn't make better word choices. Age has slowed me down in many ways and I don't like the realization that a short few years ago I could do better in less time.

Writing is just one thing getting worse. Anyone want to chime in about how difficult it is to play pool with a rope?

Writing or penmanship?

A large part of my income depends on my writing. Not fiction, but prose. I think that it holds up, especially if I take the time to refine my thoughts, and people seem happy to pay me for it.

Penmanship is another thing, and mine definitely hasn't improved over the years. They do say that doing a lot of rapid note-taking tends to do bad things for your penmanship, and I'll take that as an excuse for what some may say is nearly illegible.

My late grandfather rarely put pen to paper, but when he did it was a beautiful copperplate. Muscle memory developed many, many years before no doubt, and not corrupted by being in a hurry nor by age.

I can make mine look nice if I want to, but can scribble with any 5 year old if I’m in in a hurry.

I rue the days when I elected to take art or shop classes instead of typing classes back in high school. Mom typed my term papers and when I got into business, I dictated my letters for a secretary. Then a job change or two and hand written reports were unacceptable. My index finger grew a callous from hunting and pecking. I always had enough imitation to be able to spell a work a bunch of different ways. Thank goodness for technology because now writing to you guys I get a nice red line under a misspelled word and I don't need White Out to get rid of typos.

My penmanship used to be very good, like calligraphy. Now my hand cramps if I have to write much more than a couple of paragraphs.

I create marketing collateral and strategy for huge technology and telecom clients, so I probably write 20-30 hours every week, with the remaining 10-20 hours lost to meetings. My writing is better than it ever has been. When I look at my older work, I always see things I'd change, not because they're wrong but because they could be more elegant or concise.


Okie John

I can barely sign my name anymore. I never could write well as a left handed but arthritis has made it close to impossible.

When I first saw your question I thought it was asking whether or not it was more difficult or less so when composing thoughts and expressing them in writing.

My fellow CF members seem to be more focused on the handwriting part. I'e cursive.

So I'll answer both variations:

My handwriting (cursive) has gone from bad to worse. Never was any good, to start with. And as the joints stiffen with arthritis and other indignities, continues to erode. I can barely scratch out a grocery list any more.

My composition, on the other hand, seems to be holding up. In my biz I do a lot of writing on a keyboard. And lately am even picking up on writing projects (historical novels) I started many decades ago, but abandoned because of other priorities.

Older I get the better I was.

As a recovering gun writer I find I get to spend a lot more time shooting and hunting

Phil,

Am not exactly a recovering gun writer, but understand. These days I tend to write about more obscure rifles/cartridges--which of course require more shooting. The last article I submitted was on my new-to-me Marlin 1893 in .32-40, made just about 100 years ago....

I use waaaay fewer crayons.



P

They ought to do a country song on that...wait...

Via Luck, Texas