I am Neal Stephenson, sci-fi author, geek, and now, sword maker – AMA
I found this answer pretty interesting:<p>> DavidGan1x<p>> I seem to remember seeing the transcripts for the Baroque Cycle were all handwritten. Are you still handwriting your books and if so, what advantages do you think it has over using a computer?<p>> NealStephenson<p>> Mostly handwritten, yes. It's slower, and so each sentence spends longer in the buffer before it gets written out, so first draft quality is higher.