On writing

[fleetfootmike]

The bout of insane creativity continues - that's 5 sets of lyrics in 10 days. (See previous LJ entries if you don't believe me)

Part of it is definitely down to having the Moleskine, and carrying it with me everywhere - being able to scribble down ideas, snippets whenever I can is really helping. I'm also sure that the quality of said little notebook helps - it's nice having something that looks and feels good to work in. And telynor is dead right about a fountain pen too. :) Having picked up a black Lamy Safari at Rymans yesterday, I've discovered two things:

• it makes me write slower and neater, because
• writing becomes a joy, above and beyond just a means of getting words down on paper. I find myself writing things down more!
  

I haven't owned a fountain pen since senior school (barring a few calligraphy pens at university), and I'd forgotten how tactile and pleasant the act of laying ink down on paper with a nib is compared to using a biro or even a gel or fibre tip.

Comments

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

*smug*

My work here is done. ;-)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

So get your son a cheap but halfdecent fountain pen and see if he'll start to enjoy writing more? ;)
*grins, ducks*

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

I was considering that, actually :)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Between you & telynor, I'm definitely tempted to find my old fountain pens. I will, too, but it's not quite made it to sufficiently high priority to drop everything else & stand the house on it's head (yes, an occasional transliterated German saying, why do you raise those eyebrows? ;) until I succeed. ;)

[keristor.livejournal.com]

"Stand the house on its head" makes perfect sense to me! OK, it's a mixed metaphor, but then no one really expects you to literally "turn the house upside down" (the equivalent English phrase) either.

I don't write enough (I type mostly) to justify getting a good pen. I actually preferred the Pilot fibre-tip calligraphy pens (not the really broad tip, the 1mm one) which had the same effect, I wrote slower and more legibly because I liked the shape of the letters.

*hugs*

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Oh,I know the equivalent english phrase. Every so often I just like to exploit the dual-language idiosyncrasies. Or otherwise funny phrases, like "I'm too short for this" (or variants "I need a chair/ladder to stand on" for "this went straight over my head". :)

Thank you, again, btw, for the Liaden Universe Companion. I've been enjoying a story or two each night for the past several days. *huges*

[keristor.livejournal.com]

You're more restrained than me, I think I read it in one sitting *g*. And then reread the whole series (I've been good this year, I haven't reread them again yet -- my booklist is actually having the effect of inhibiting my rereading somewhat).

*huges*

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

Hasn't worked for Jared. Fountain pens are a requirement at his school, but you've never seen so many cartridge malfunctions in one set of hands. The boy was constantly covered in ink. *sigh* We gave up after 3 fountains and asked permission to send him with a rollerball until the urge to fiddle leaves him... I had to buy a pack of 5 new shirts 3 weeks into term - it was that bad :-}

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I was blighted with some poor teachers, which may have wrecked my use of fountain pens for life.

But I have seen disposable fountain pens--nothing to come apart in the way a cartridge pen does.

[rickbooth.livejournal.com]

In theory boys at our school are required to use fountain pens, and some teachers enforce it. We don't in maths, because frankly ink-covered boys and desks don't appeal to us all that much.

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

The good Doctor Booth has just pointed me (and you, probably) at http://www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Pilot_V4_Disposable_Fountain_Pen.html

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I'm so old that, when I was in my fifth or sixth year of school, "fountain pen" and "cartridge pen" were different beasts, and the cartridge style was considered a barely-acceptable substitute. (Or, does 'cartridge' in this context refer to the inner reservoir of a "loadable" fountain pen?)

All the desks had holes in the top where a standard-sized ink bottle could be inserted. The horror! :-)

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Er, yes, you mean they don't now? We also had "dip in" pens with a holder for the nib at the end of the wooden body, we weren't allowed to use our own fountain pens until about 13 years old.

(I'm not sure what a 'loadable' pen is. Is that the type which has a rubber ink chamber inside and you use a leaver to squash it and then suck the ink in through the nib? I think of the 'cartridge' ones as having disposable cartridges which you buy ready-filled and just fit into the barel of the pen.)

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

Your image of "loadable" is what I was trying to convey; I don't know if there's a technical name.

[aunty_marion]

I'm half-tempted myself now to take a trip to Ryman's. I have a Shaeffer fountain pen, but I think I've only got a medium italic nib for it - I'm sure I used to have other nib units, but I'm not certain where they are (probably buried at the back of the desk drawer in the bedroom, where I can't get at them without moving a lot of Stuph). I know the last time I tried to use it I found myself getting frustrated because I actually couldn't write fast enough - by the time I'd got one word down I'd forgotten the rest of what I wanted to write! It's possible a finer nib might help with that.

Mind you, £12.99 is a bit of a luxury buy for me at the moment. It may have to wait till next month.

[stevieannie.livejournal.com]

I have been using a Parker student level fountain pen that I received as a "going away to university" gift from the library where I worked for 4 years during O and A levels. I find the quality of the paper has a lot to do with it as well - the combination of the two is almost hypnotic. I have been using a notebook and fountain pen as a brain dump for 6 months or so now, and it's working well. Hasn't done much in terms of my songwriting, as (for me) that's very much about extremely quick shorthand, scribblings and crossings out and is usually done with a biro so I don't spoil the fountain pen...

But it's nice to see a sudden wave of "nicepen-itis" sweeping the flist!

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

> I find the quality of the paper has a lot to do with it as well

Indeed - in which the Moleskine again helps.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to the view that a "nice pen" needn't be a fountain pen. But somehow the pen, paper, and writing style fit together, and the words seem to flow.

[wolfette]

I find holding a pen for any length of time makes my hand hurt these days. I have a special "ergonomic" pen which helps, and I can take short notes by hand, but typing is definitely easier for me when I'm 'writing' anything longer, thanks to the arthritis. :-(