The creativity a blank page allows is very exciting. Some will look at it as a start to a great novel. Some will see a great painting. Others may see the notes needed for the next test. Reference material. Children’s art. The possibilities are endless.
Paper
We write things down. We print them out. Characters and images are transferred from paper to digital formats, and back, all the time. We create things in the digital world that are intended for the physical space (books, flyers, 3d-printed models). We create things in the physical world that are intended for digital space (book manuscripts, podcast transcripts, graphic art).
Why all this back and forth? If something is intended for the digital world, why not just create it there? Use the word processor or paint application to create the thing. Of course, we do this. But not for everything. There are times when that flow just does not work for us. For many, getting the “creative juices” to flow when sitting down at the computer is extremely difficult.
On the other hand, when sitting down to a blank piece of paper and a simple pen or pencil, these creative juices seem to flow much more easily. Why is that?
Digital Distractions
One obvious reason is simply that there are many more distractions available at the computer. Everything on it is designed to grab your attention. Millions of dollars of research has gone into figuring out the best way to grab your attention. While the computer may have originally been designed to help us with mundane tasks, it has been transformed into something that is designed to remove us from ourselves; to get us to forget about everything else around us.
Pen and paper do not offer the same distractions. It is easier to just focus on the task at hand. The mind stops wandering to what’s in your email inbox, or who’s posting on social media. The bright colors and flashy screens are not present when staring at a piece of paper.
Waiting
Even more than the distractions, I think we have basically trained ourselves to wait on computers. When we sit down at a computer, we are so used to having to wait for it to do something, that we automatically let our mind wander. When looking at a blank piece of paper, we do not have that response. We know the paper is waiting on us, and as soon as we grab the pen we are off to work. No booting up, no load times, no spinning circles.
Interface
The user interface, if you will, of the paper is also more conducive to creativity. We are not constrained in any way, except perhaps by the size of the paper. Even then, we can always grab another sheet and spread out onto it. Working with a computer, we are removed from the work so that we feel disengaged. We have to navigate unnaturally by a keyboard and mouse. We have to be meticulous in our actions, or we get very undesirable results. No program does exactly what we need.
Sometimes Paper is Better
There are times when paper is just better for the task at hand. Sometimes it is the start to something, and then later transferred to a digital realm.