Pen and Ink

I used to write in notebooks constantly.
I have boxes full of them going all the way back to high school.
Then I had started to have major problems with my hands and had carpel tunnel surgery.
Now I can't hold a pen for very long so I'm pretty much restricted to the keyboard.
My handwriting was pretty atrocious even without the carpel tunnel so my letter were nothing to write home about (so to speak).

 

I prefer to write by hand when I can, but I have terrible handwriting, so it's purely for my own enjoyment. I use Sharpie pens and a Lamy Safari AL-Star. There's a pen and paper shop in Biltmore Village I like to go to, and it's like there's a heroin dealer down the road... except with fountain pens.

 

I always carry scrap paper and at least 1-2 pens with me. Along with a sharpie and a pocket knife.
Many of my better ideas or names for characters have been inspired by people or things I have seen on any given day. I make sure I can write them down when they are fresh in my head.

My typewriter is the other tool I really appreciate for writing down those ideas a bit later or doing the first draft. I never have lost anything typed due to a ribbon needing to be replaced or whatever else but certainly lost more electronic data than I care to recall due to dead hard drives, etc.

 

I never really liked writing longhand. I don't have great handwriting, and I find it hard to slow my thoughts down to the speed I can write with. I still think faster than I can type, but it's not quite as bad. I type virtually everything I write now, mostly on my laptop, but sometimes on my phone, if I have an idea I need to get down right away, or a list I need to make.

And I don't do handwritten letters or cards. I send e-mails, e-cards, Facebook messages, texts. But it's literally been years since I picked up pen or pencil and paper to write anything more than a confirmation number for something or suchlike. For the most part, as soon as I had a good computer, I started to transition away from paper and pen/cil-- so back in the mid-90s or so. By the time I started rabbinical school in 2005, I had basically done a complete transfer. I took all my notes in rab school on laptop, did all my papers on it, and most of my exams, with the exception of just a couple that required pen and paper. It was always easier to write academic stuff on computer; it was pretty easy to transition my fiction/drama writing to computer also. The thing that took the longest to transition was writing poetry. For a long time, I just composed poetry better with a pen/cil than on a keyboard. But eventually, that transitioned too, and I now do all my writing electronically.

I'm also not very organizationally oriented, so back in the day, I was always losing track of where this or that paper was, and it was a pain in the ass. I like it much better now that everything is on my laptop or in the cloud or on my email, and I can always find what I need right away. Especially now that I back up everything to the cloud, I am much more at ease-- I don't even have to worry about the hard drive crashing or some sort of removable data storage being lost. This is one of my absolute favorite blessings of technology. I appreciate it all the time.

The one exception to all of this is that occasionally I do some Hebrew calligraphy. Sometimes as a meditative exercise, sometimes as gifts for people. And that, of course, can only be done by hand, with pen on paper.

 

I jot down a lot of notes, especially when when I'm on the phone dealing with important things, and during meetings.

Since my handwriting sucks--seriously, it looks like that of a five year old, and that's being generous--I really like the PaperMate PhD ball point pens. Liquid gel pens write very smooth, but don't work well with my hesitant handwriting. Conversely, my wife has beautiful handwriting and loves fountain pens

Today we picked a five pack of my absolute favorite notebook, Mead Cambridge Professional Notebooks:
100 sheets...micro-perforated (for easy removal)...11 x 8.5...heavyweight white bond paper (can write on both sides with little bleed through)...college ruled...durable poly front (it really does holdup well)...super rigid back (think steno pad)...2-pocket divider...4-year calendar...time zone & area code map...area for important phone numbers...side-ruled (much easier to write on both sides of the page).

Why do I care so much about what kind of notebook I use? Keep in mind when I was school doing a lot of writing you either used pen & paper, or a typewriter. I like to see the looks on some peoples faces when I tell them that I buy my notebooks five at a time.

The strange thing is if I have to write a personal letter, or need to seriously organize my thoughts when writing, I use the computer.

 

I am quickly developing a preference for using my typewriter for organising my thoughts or doing the first rough draft stuff. Much like my main film camera that is roughly the same age, it has a much more connected feeling than these fancy electronic gadgets like my phone or laptop. I also like the small details like the 'ding' when it nears the end of the line or how the frame advance on the camera requires actual movement from my thumb rather than pushing a button. Neither one needing batteries or an external power source is a plus as well.

 

(I actually have a serious contribution to the thread!)

I used to write to friends when they went away to college; I adored sending letters and getting them- I would hand-write every single one! After that circle of friends vanished, I didn't write any more letters until a friend's brother enlisted to go fight in Iraq. I started sending him hand-written letters just to let him know the folks back home were thinking of him. (He returned from Iraq safely after several tours of duty.)

Being a RPGer, I write out all adventures with paper and pencil. Every time I consider typing them out (they're usually 4-5 full pages each) I remember that time spent doing them is also time spent away from the computer, and that's not a bad thing. Lately though, I've started to create maps from Photoshop elements, but for years I would draw these by hand using colored markers and even crayons if need be.

My largest writing efforts have been screenplays- I've written four so far, with one of them already turned into a film. The rest are simply awaiting the opportunity. To be strictly honest, I've been collaborating with a friend on these; I find I can bounce ideas off another person who is not afraid to tell me my idea(s) are (occasionally) crap. We write out everything on paper first, and we tend to fill up an entire notebook or two before the whole thing is ready to be committed to a screenwriting formatting software.

Hell, even some of my more elaborate Photoshop jobs have been written out on Post-Its before I sit down and throw 'em together.

Bottom line? I still use the pen and paper and I love it. Sorry, trees.

Okay, I lied- I have one silly pic to throw in here:

 

You must be a fucking phenomenal DM.

 

ZombieSquirrel hangs out with Stanley? (Every time I write his name I think I should be able to tag it...)

 

I hope so- most of the players I'm currently gaming with have never played with anyone else, so they have no other frame of reference.

This is a sample of my old work and newer stuff:


A bridge over a lava pit and a small chapel for hand-drawn, and a garden path and mud pit for photo-realistic battlefields.

Just to keep this on-topic, there's a certain charm to writing out your own campaigns. When I started out with the world I first created back in 1993, it was just a large island and the players adventured there for 20 years. Since then, it's grown into an entire world with several continents/countries and has spanned three generations of characters so far.

If my house ever catches on fire, I pray I can rescue my bin full of RPG chicken-scratch.

 

Holy shit, dude. If you ever run a game in the Chicago area, count me in!

 

I have friends up here who would probably chip in to fly you up.

 

You, good sir, deserve TWO five packs of Mead Cambridge Professional Notebooks!

 

I used to get a lot of compliments on my penmanship: "Wow, your handwriting is amazing FOR A GUY!!" There's been less of that these past few years except for the stray comment from someone about how they can actually read what I wrote. What used to be a nicely flowing cursive has degenerated to a reasonably consistent hybrid of cursive and printing. This is mainly due to my increased impatience in trying to get information down on paper as quickly/efficiently as possible.

I hate cheap pens, although I could go a lifetime just using the crap that automotive companies give away. I hate the drag, the lack of color saturation and the writing pressure they tend to require. I have been through just about every reasonably priced pen (ones that I wouldn't suffer severe emotional damage if lost or stolen).

I can field anywhere up to 100 phone calls a day and most require taking fairly detailed notes of the customer's requests. I work on 5.5 x 8.5 note pads and can average about 12 calls worth of notes per page. I want a pen that writes smoothly, precisely and with as little hand/wrist fatigue as possible.

I've hit upon the Pentel EnerGel Liquid Gel .07. I really like both the blue and black. This pen writes with virtually no drag, the blue just pops and the black is the darkest I've ever found. Despite being a gel, the ink dries almost instantly and does not smear (though I don't think it would dry fast enough for a lefty). This pen writes on almost any media with out a skip. I buy them from Amazon for the pricing. In stores they are expensive, but online I spent @$35.00 USD for 12 pens and 12 refills. I will get close to six months of service for the investment. Worth it.

 

The Mead Cambridge Professional Notesbooks that I mentioned are not listed on the Mead website, & I haven't been able to find an exact match listed as a 5 pack. It could be (??) a special bundle exclusively for Sam's Club. Sams charges about $12.50; the closest I found was at Amazon for around $24.00.

GOD, how's the bleed-through with the EnerGel?

If I need to mark something in my notes for later reference, such as dates, I like the original Flair felt tip pen, green ink.