Are you a writer or a typist?

Photograph (c) Lisa Wright

When I'm brainstorming writing ideas it has to be with a pen and paper. I mind map, scribble, snake lines across the page, underline as my stream of consciousness runs rings around thoughts and words. It's a mess yet organised chaos.

Then, when it's time to pull everything together, to allow the prose to flow then everything calms. The thoughts organise themselves into a neat line which marches down from brain to hand and out of my fingertips onto keyboard.

Once on screen there's a little jostling for position as the words decide where they are most comfortable and if they'd much rather be in another sentence entirely. It's a method that just doesn't quite work on paper. The jigsaw builds itself.