When I was young, I loved writing. I would spend hours upon hours crafting stories using pencil or pen and lined notebook paper. I had, in fact, several spiral notebooks filled with various short stories and longer, half-finished chaptered stories. And, as we didn't yet have access to the internet, I didn't realize that there was a word for the stories I wrote: fanfiction. All I knew was that inspiration lay around every corner when watching Star Trek or reading ElfQuest, and I was happiest when my pencil lead was going so fast that it threatened to burn right through the paper.

And then high school came along, and I was offered either computer science, in which I had no great interest, or typing. I opted for typing class, and spent a whole semester going from hunt-and-pecking with two fingers to typing at around 100 wpm with both hands. And while I'll break no records typing, that sealed the fate of my pencil and paper writing.

Suddenly, my pencil or pen could no longer keep up with my brain. It felt a little like the words were forced to come out coated in molasses, slow and thick as they plopped onto the page. And yet, writing on the computer felt as though my words had been greased and poised for a perfect slide out of my head, through my fingers, to land on the page with lightning speed.

Added to this was the ease with which I erased unwanted words or letters, and changed whole ideas. No longer was I forced to rewrite half the page in order to keep it looking neat. Computer was the way to go, and my keyboard has remained my favorite writing medium ever since.

And yes... I do still write the occasional fanfiction.