A New Writing Implement

It’s an odd experience drafting a blog post on paper, but here we are.

I recently decided to start using my large collection of leather journals that have gone largely untouched over the years. The one I’m writing this draft in was purchased from Barnes and Noble in middle school to use with the dip feather quill pen I got as a present.

It didn’t take too long while using rollerballs¹I mostly use my Retro 51 Tornados: one that was purchased in a fancy bookstore in San Diego during my internship, and another I got as a backup. I also have my Cortex Mark One, which I used as my journaling pen for a while, and also to take random notes. to desire going back to the original spirit of this journal, or at least as close as was reasonable without being so silly as to get another quill pen. So, after some research, I got a fountain pen. In short, it’s made me fall in love with the art of writing all over again.

As a younger kid, I would get a blank notebook with excitement. The possibilities were endless, and I wasn’t ashamed to fill them up (or at least try, until a new one caught my attention.) While my blog has been a continued attempt to keep writing, that’s been more about the “What” than the “How”. Journaling became a bit of both, where taking the intentional time to write by hand slowed me down, and let me think with a clarity and precision I don’t feel while typing. Additionally, the meditative act of writing helps as much as the process of thinking does. So, journaling became a release from my own standards.

Enter the momentum of writing some long piece — whatever form or genre — on an empty page. There is no more effective focus mode, no greater motivation to keep pushing forward, than pen and paper. My eyes lose a bit of focus and I just write. There’s no going back right now, so the next word flows from the last. Yet, my mind is slowed and more deliberate, so that next word has had a few more cycles of refinement than had I been typing. And with all this excitement to write again, to reconnect with my younger self and enjoy this process, I found my beloved rollerball pens — the Retro 51s, and Cortex Mark One — began to let me down. They’re best for longer strokes, quick notes, small sketches. My journaling had already pushed them to the edge of their functionality. My renewed vigor for writing in general broke them.²Obviously I still love them, and use them often. But, they were “skipping” pretty badly at times. It was frustrating.

Now, the fountain pen, my new partner in the long form. I first got a Pilot Metropolitan, the poster-child of “beginner” pens. I immediately noticed the difference. No pressing into the page to write, just let it glide. No skipping, just an even flow. Plus, the intangible factor of feeling special while using a nibbed pen.

However, their ink capacity is a little low,³Metropolitans use a cartridge/converter system. You can either use proprietary pre-filled ink cartridges, or a converter the size of a cartridge that fills with bottled ink. Either way, the ink capacity is pretty minimal compared to the size of the body. and while good for a few minutes of journaling each day, and probably travel because it’s inexpensive, I had higher aspirations.

My goal became to do NaNoWriMo by hand this year. To perform a feat so unthinkable last year, I would need a pen with a great capacity for ink, and ideally a way to keep an eye on it.⁴Furthermore, the Metropolitan has an opaque body. The only way to check the ink level is by unscrewing the pen. Other pens have small windows in the body, while “demonstrator” pens are clear so you can see the entire ink tank. Something trustworthy, a pen that would last. After discussing with a friend with much more fountain pen experience, and perusing the Novel Writing shopping guide on Goulet Pens, I ended up with the TWSBI 580AL⁵Pronounced ‘TWIZ-bee’.. It is a clear-bodied pen with aluminum accents, and an all-replaceable design, which is not the case for a lot of pens.

I’ve written this draft with the TWSBI, in this leather journal that I’ve managed to not lose in 14 years. Will all my posts be written like this in the future? No. Has doing this as a test confirmed my love affair with fountain pens? Yes. I still plan on opening up a fresh journal on November 1, grabbing this TWSBI, and getting to work. We’ll see how far I go.

• 1
  I mostly use my Retro 51 Tornados: one that was purchased in a fancy bookstore in San Diego during my internship, and another I got as a backup. I also have my Cortex Mark One, which I used as my journaling pen for a while, and also to take random notes.
• 2
  Obviously I still love them, and use them often. But, they were “skipping” pretty badly at times. It was frustrating.
• 3
  Metropolitans use a cartridge/converter system. You can either use proprietary pre-filled ink cartridges, or a converter the size of a cartridge that fills with bottled ink. Either way, the ink capacity is pretty minimal compared to the size of the body.
• 4
  Furthermore, the Metropolitan has an opaque body. The only way to check the ink level is by unscrewing the pen. Other pens have small windows in the body, while “demonstrator” pens are clear so you can see the entire ink tank.
• 5
  Pronounced ‘TWIZ-bee’.