According to Writer’s Almanac, Maya Angelou 
still writes on yellow legal pads. 
She said:
I see a yellow pad, and my knees get weak, and I salivate.
She also said:
The writer has to take the most used, most familiar objects– nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs — ball them together and make them bounce, turn them a certain way and make people get into a romantic mood; and another way, into a bellicose mood. I’m most happy to be a writer.
And this:
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
How do you write? Yellow legal pad? Laptop computer? Do you have the agony of an untold story inside of you? As always, I’d love to hear from you.
Laptop. I cannot write longhand. (Well, I *can* physically write longhand. I mean I can’t create longhand – but you knew that. 🙂 )
I wouldn’t say that I have “the agony of an untold story inside me,” but I do have an untold story inside me that will get told. I’ve now written two books of a four book series, and those final two books are there and waiting. It’s not really an agony, though. More like a pressure that I’m always aware of. It feels good, really. Like anticipation.
Hi Sonja. I really like the idea of anticipation instead of agony. For me, I think of it as having a “body of work” as a writer and that some of it isn’t written yet. This keeps me going. I always feel like I have another story waiting in the wings.
When I first started writing, what feels like eons ago, I wrote out in longhand. That was back in the day of typewriters and word processors. Yikes! Sometimes I still start a novel out in longhand, but I usually revert to sitting at the computer because of how much faster it is to type than write and it saves time to not have to write and then type it in.
It it such a priviledge to get to write, though, that I’d do it with a stick in the dirt if I had to. 🙂
An exchange with one of my lovely email subscribers:
Email subscriber: Ah, Maya Angelou, my favorite!. Anything she writes touches me deeply and makes me think. I just started dabbling in writing poetry. I write in a notebook most of the time, but anything that is handy will do, like a piece of scrap paper or the morning newspaper. I need to get my ideas down quick because at my age I will forget them in a minute. I find myself writing poetry like I took notes in college. I draw a line vertically down the left side of the paper and that is where I jot down words or phrases I would like to incorporate into the poem. Works for me. Best, Mary
Me: Hi Mary, I think what works for you is great. I am taking a poetry class right now and I am really enjoying it. For one thing it makes writing fiction seem easy! I have so much more time to say what I need to say. But poetry—reading and writing it—is also one of my passions. Do you like Mary Oliver? There is an interview with her in O Magazine this month in honor of National Poetry Month. Great interview. All the best, Susan.
Mary: Funny you should mention Oprah’s magazine. After reading the poetry issue, I was determined to give poetry a try, and I love it. The ideas keep pounding in my head and I have to put them on paper. Always a lover of poetry but did not think I could do it, but now I know I can. I”ll never be a Mary Oliver, for sure, but at least we share the same first name. Thanks to you and the Oprah magazine a new poetry writer was born. Many thanks.
From another subscriber (see why I love you so much?):
“Hi Susan,
Maya Angelou is by far one of my favourite writers. I totally agree with the last statement about the agony of the untold story inside. It is perhaps my greatest motivation to get things on paper. It has to come out of me if for no other reason than for me to have evidence of its’ existence. I too scribble everything out on tablets and scrap paper first, only going to a keyboard after I’ve rewritten and “perfected” (if there is such a thing) the piece. Then I save it on a CD+R. (just in case it needs more “perfecting” at a later date) Some people have to write. Some have to play music. Some must draw. Everyone seems to have some passion. One close friend of mine, who’s over forty, collects key chains, action figure dolls, and hoards empty glass and cardboard containers. It feeds something inside her, just as writing feeds something inside me. In many ways, I think we would both qualify as addicts.
T.”
I write with Word Processor. Laptop vs. desktop doesn’t matter, except I’m FUSSY about keyboards and many laptops don’t make the grade. I can’t imagine how writers used to create their tomes long-hand. How did they keep everything straight?
…And I should add I have agony inside me when I can’t make a story *work.* Like now…
Hi, Susan. I love your posts, as they always give me much food for thought. And I love Maya Angelou. She is one of my heroes. As for writing, I take a notebook in the woods. I usually do three or four revisions longhand, then I do the remaining revisions with a laptop. For the “nuts and bolts,” it helps me to see it in print.
Thanks again for another wonderful post!