Before we left for Sanibel I said I was looking forward to being warm, reading and writing with a pen. I brought a fresh Moleskine and my fountain pen with me, but I wasn’t so sure there would be the time or the inclination to pen write.
I love writing with a pen though. I love the smoothness of it, that tactile hand/eye thing it requires, the ease of it. I feel more rooted when I write than when I type. And even though my handwriting has devolved into this horrible cat scratch where I slur my letters almost beyond legibility, cursive is still my native tongue.
I think more clearly when I write with a pen. I dream in longhand, not in keyboard. I have ink in my blood, not key strokes.
I can tell instantly what my mood was when I penned something. I can tell by the sheer lexigraphical look of a page if I was hot on the trail of an idea, or slowly hammering one out.
I can tell if my thinking was slow and deliberate that day, or riffing all over the place just by looking at my handwriting.
I so want to love the keyboard, though. It makes life infinitely editable, legible, save-able and archivable. But for me, the keyboard will always remain my “second language.” I will never be as fluent typing as I am writing in cursive.
On vacation I did write with my fountain pen. And today I took up with it again. I scribbled, cat-scratched, mind-slawed, and word-vomited myself to a more discursive place and found a distinctive tone.
“Just go,” I told myself. “Write. Write like an artist paints. Find a new door into this closed project. Find the right color. Write your way in.”
Inspiration Location 
Loving your blog — the insights into you, into being human these days. “Write your way in.” Simply perfect.
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Thanks, Natalie. Mwah!
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I, too, prefer handwriting over typing. I’m also a fellow Moleskine user, just like you! 🙂
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Hey. I just checked out your blog and I loved your post on pens. I, too, am a big fan of Pilot pens. My fave is the Precise Grip Extra-Fine. Did you know Pilot alos makes a disposable fountain pen? I know you aren’t into fountain pens, but really, there is something so viscerally wonderful about how the ink flows in fountain pens. Makes me feel like I am painting words rather than writing them. I think for a pen freak like you, you definitely need at least one. I recently discovered a ballpoint I really like by a company called “Write Dudes” http://www.amazon.com/Write-Dudes-Retractable-Ballpoint-Assorted/dp/B005FPT7BI/ref=sr_1_3?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1432826804&sr=1-3
Ridiculously smooth! Check it out! I have them at my studio and everyone remarks about them.
Thanks for the comment. Glad to have found your blog!
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I actually had a fountain pen back when I was in middle school 7 or 8 years ago. I did enjoy it but I found myself using it more for illustrations than for writing. I think I’ll have to invest in a new one and give it another whirl. I just bought a few new pens yesterday and have a new pen post in the works so if you’re interested, stay tuned for more! Thanks for the tips! 🙂
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