I have been 99% CW since 1954. Although most of us did everything wrong back then, we survived and enjoyed CW. Personally I do not think 20 WPM is a magic character speed, but I do believe you should push the character speed a little, and increase it over time. If 20 WPM hurts your brain, try a character speed of say 15 or 18 awhile. I have used many types of keys, and paddles both for ham and some ship and shore station maritime work. If I were starting out now, for sure I would buy a mid priced single lever paddle. Skip the Iambic thing, lots of work to feel comfortable, but I wanted the challenge and had too many expensive dual lever paddles. A friend watched me send Iambic squeeze keying, at 30 + WPM and he said as my speed increased I stopped squeezing some of the letters. Personally I have good magnetic and spring return paddles, and could be happy with either, although I MIGHT have a very slight preference for the magnetic ones. For portable work I am comfortable with compromise paddles, but for extended home use prefer something better. Probably you can find something used or new for perhaps $100 to $200, but for sure you do not need a $600 paddle, I have used them, and my 200 to 300 dollar paddles are in all respects very nearly equal. I started out writing down everything, but within perhaps 6 months only made brief notes with a pencil. Example, Bob, Chicago, Teacher, Retired, Fisherman, 10 watt TX. You get the idea. I eventually got my certificates up to about 25 WPM writing very fast, but tried typewriter, no luck. (could type over 70 WPM). Signed on as a CW op on a ship, my head and hand hurt, since the master wanted all the WX for the whole western hemisphere I think twice a day. Sometimes the shore stations would send it faster, and I would need to skip dinner and find another station to fill in the things I missed, then type out a few pages. I practiced lots for about 2 days on the ship, and within another day or so I could just type it out and hand it in, then go to officers mess and stuff my face !! Being able to type it out helped, when I was a shore station op for about 3 months, but I never type my ham stuff out, except in a contest where you have software, and can even do great by hunt and peck typing. It takes many (hundreds?) ((thousands ?) of hours to learn to concentrate in a noisy environment and to be able to answer a simple question from my wife, like when do you want to eat, and I just say seven, while listening to code, or sending. I suspect most never get this skill, so do not worry, if it happens great. Just enjoy your ham CW career, in contests 30 to 40 WPM is common, but generally rag chews are perhaps 15 to perhaps 22 WPM. I often operate portable QRP and 7 to 15 WPM is common at times. You will probably write down everything for awhile, then just brief notes. I think all of us would write out what to say before we even made our first QSO's.....takes the pressure off. Before long you will begin recognizing letters instead of dots and dashes, but it may take longer, probably well over a year before you start to hear words, but you can have years of fun without this skill. True head copy probably only happens when you are comfortable at moderate to higher speeds, probably over or well over 20 WPM. I bought some books on a CD decades ago at I think something like 30 or 35 WPM and it was fun to just sit back and listen, but again this will not happen anytime soon, or perhaps never for some folks. My ideal ham activity is QRP from a park or trail, and nice long rag chews at perhaps 15 WPM preferably with someone less than 1000 miles distance. I have made DX QSO's but it is hard with QRP and a compromise antenna. Rick KL7CW