I'd have to say, it depends.
I've got better at drafting things on the computer as time has gone on. Certainly, for something short - a brief report, a letter, or a vignette, for example - I am more likely to head straight for the keyboard.
For a longer story, I'm more likely to use paper, at least somewhere in the process. For one thing, I like to jot ideas down as soon as I have them. If I don't, I know that I'll forget the words that have sprung fully formed into my head. That's not to say that I never compose straight onto the computer. I do. And I think I do so increasingly frequently.
I find that I can edit much more effectively on paper than I can on screen, though -- although I do both.
Editing for me is particularly important as I tend not to write scenes in the order they'll occur in a story. I need to see what I've written and mark in all the places where I need to fill in gaps. Having pages spread out in front of me gives me a much better sense of where I am than having one screen of a larger document showing. Also, for some reason, I'm far more likely to notice mistakes on paper than I am on screen. I have no idea why that is.
I suspect that, in part, my liking for paper has something to do with my age. I learned to type on a manual typewriter. I had to draft everything long hand and try to type correctly first time. (My accuracy -- which was never great -- nosedived when I learned to word process. Now I couldn't survive without the delete and backspace keys!)
Also, for me, that stage of translating words on paper into words on screen adds an extra stage in the editing process, one that I find that I really need.
Of course, all this is moot if I lack inspiration in the first place, which seems to be the case at the moment...
Chris
