FROM MY HAND TO YOURS. Much of Between Tides was handwritten. Since my days at The Coastland Times, writing feature stories, I’ve found that my most creative work often flows from a pen, not from a keyboard. Equally compelling, though, has been the freedom to write anywhere, unconstrained by even the lightest laptop. A good portion of the novel was written on a clipboard while swinging in the hammock on my pier on Roanoke Sound. Another advantage of writing by hand is that it removes that easy backspace delete of computer-generated work. I would use the backside of old drafts, and write in small print to the edges of the page so even in handwritten drafts I couldn’t easily revise as I went. That would come later, when typing the handwritten pages. The example pictured here shows how much or how little might be salvaged from that first plank of thought laid down on the page.
FROM MY HAND TO YOURS
