I've tried writing with a pencil and paper. I finally had to give up, because whenever I'd make a mistake I'd be reaching for the non-existent Esc key to get back into normal mode. Man, talk about a distraction.

I actually write my first drafts in paper, because its slower than typing and I get to think the sentence, paragraph and overall structure better. Of course, I also strike down and rewrite parts, but using pen and paper helps me think a lot more about what I want to write and how to write it.

RSI? I can get through maybe a page of handwritten text before my hand hurts too much to think, while I basically always run out of things to say before typing enough to need a physical break.

It sounds like you probably have too tight a grip and write more from than the wrist and fingers than the shoulder and forearm. This was a solved problem more than a hundred years ago, when it had to be; in the U.S. it's famously associated with the Palmer Method[0], although Palmer didn't originate it by a long shot.

(While these books, of course, are written for use with dip pens, and frequently taken up by users of fountain pens today, the methods described do work with ballpoints, rollerballs, gel pens, pencils of not too hard a lead, nearly whatever you have lying about.)

Of course, retooling is almost certainly not worth it for you, unless you're dying for a break from computer screens (the only reason I ever write by hand anymore). But I'll leave the link in case anyone is curious, either for their own work or just to know what people used to do with a pen, and why writer's cramp was not as serious a problem before typewriters and computers as we might suppose it was, by how frequently we tend to induce cramp on ourselves.

[0]: https://archive.org/details/PalmerMethod1935

It's true, I have no reason to learn a different method as I have no reason to write anything by hand, but thank you for sharing the information. I suppose I had just assumed it was something people got used to, or that regular practice would build up hand strength in such a way that it would no longer hurt.

I do write (draw, doodle, sketch, diagram) with pencil/paper as an initial stage in most pieces of work that I produce. I don't just 'write a lot of words in a row' (quoting Schneier's setup page). Nothing fancy, just HB pencils on A4 photocopying paper on a clipboard.

Once I have an idea of the structure, I can decide which tool to use. Often markdown but equally often LibreOffice. Sometimes Inkscape.

Yes: I also use a fountain pen (I haven't used a goose feather for some decades now, but we did have dipping pens at primary school).

With the new Android text input recognition tool, I am seriously considering the purchase of a cheap tablet and stylus.

Neal Stephenson wrote three 700 page books with a fountain pen about 12 years ago.