My draft of my entry for the Ilkley Literature Festival, handwritten with the ‘new’ blue and black fountain pen. It was only copytyped on the iPad when finished, a couple of hours before the ‘performance’.
I’ll hopefully get the two ‘attic gems’ working soon.
I just made a breakthrough in my writing. I picked up a fountain pen.
I had not handwritten anything other than short notes since writing to my mother when I was first in Romania in 1993 and had no access to a computer; even then it was with a ballpoint. I found it very difficult, having been used to a computer for the previous ten years, and a typewriter before that, since becoming a journalist in the early ‘60s.
How welcome a handwritten ‘letter’ was
What prompted me to move to handwritten was the reaction of my former student Paula, now a Romanian high school teacher of English, to a handwritten note included in a packet I sent to her (one of my ‘attic gems’ – a special English course I wrote when teaching in Romania). She said it was wonderful to receive a handwritten ‘letter’. I promised to ‘keep in touch’ with handwritten letters from time to time (among brief encounters on Messenger) and as two more of my ‘attic gems’ were fountain pens I decided to go the whole hog and go to fountain pen. The two old ones were not working (I intend to fix them) so I acquired a new one.
Transformation
Having begun the first letter to Paula during the time I had to write my contribution to our writers’ club ‘performance’ at the Ilkley Literature Festival, I began to scribble my ‘poem’ in a primary school exercise book with the fountain pen. What a transformation!
Ideas tumbling out of the fountain pen
Firstly, the ideas tumbled out like never before. Secondly, I began to do something I’ve said I almost never do – edit what I’ve written, neither during nor after writing (this comes from journalism where I almost always had no time to edit – often writing as many as 60 stories a week including one or more long features). With the fountain pen I found myself crossing out, writing alternative lines, jotting down ideas as they came, making lists of rhyming words as I was following Lewis Carroll’s ABAAB rhyming scheme. All very strange to me.
Even stronger urge to write
Now, the urge to write ‘creatively’ is far stronger with a fountain pen in my hand. I wonder if this will bring my ‘novella’ out of it’s long hibernation. Or even extend it to be a novel.
This writing by hand doesn’t extend to what you might call ‘non-creative’ writing, like writing blog posts. Those are still written on the the iPad (more rarely on the MacBook). So this post is written on the iPad, as will be most future posts, but if they include some ‘creative writing’ you can be pretty sure that will have been written first on paper, with a fountain pen. The only disadvantage of writing by hand is that to include hand written pieces in something ‘digital’ they have to be typed up on a digital device.
PS. My first, 10 page, letter to Paula, composed over a couple of weeks, was posted on Saturday morning.
I’d be really interested to hear from others whether the medium with which they write influences their writing, particularly use of a fountain pen (or not).
You can read my finished ‘poem’ on a previous post, or hear me read it on the post of 5 October.
April 12, 2019 at 10:28 am
[…] books; it was more convenient to buy kindle editions and read them on the iPad. But my recent reversion to writing on paper with a fountain pen brought to mind the delight of turning real, physical […]
October 8, 2018 at 3:51 pm
I write my blog posts in a diary with a fountain pen, there is something really satisfying using a fountain pen. I then type in my laptop and I can make the necessary changes. I write on my paper with a ball pen to my aunt. She is 87 and loves the feel of paper and reads and re-reads my letters. I liked your post. Regards
October 10, 2018 at 7:38 am
There is isn’t there? But I’m at a loss to explain why. I find receiving a handwritten card, like a Christmas or birthday card, even more welcome than a greeting via internet, though I don’t know why, even though most often they will be written with a ballpoint rather than a fountain pen. As I’ve blogged in the past, my mother kept all my handwritten letters from my time in Romania and now I am grateful that she never learned to use a computer, nor wanted one, so I have a wonderful diary of my years there.
October 10, 2018 at 7:33 pm
I think having the ability to easily re-read the letters from others contributes greatly to our appreciation of a hand written letter. An email, text or internet exchange seems somewhat ethereal, somewhat transient to me. A piece of paper or card-stock that someone actually took the time to hand write a letter, now that’s a labor of love.
October 8, 2018 at 12:59 pm
In the US many schools no longer teach handwriting in cursive. What a shame because these children will grow into adults who will never know the joy of wrting with s wonderfully crafted fountain pen. I love writing “real” letters or signing cards with a fountain pen but sadly most of my writing is via laptop.
October 10, 2018 at 7:40 am
That’s so sad. What will they do when the internet crashes completely, as I am sure some day it will. Maybe I should begin to hand write my blog posts in a book first as they are mainly a ‘diary’ for myself.
October 8, 2018 at 12:30 pm
I am a fountain pen lover. Mont Blanc 1970s model, Swan Marie Todd x2 from the 1930s, a Parker bought for me by my wife for my 18th and various Osmiroids. Loads of others in a box that are basics. All beautiful to write wth. Use them at work for writing in patients’ notes. Actually….use them all the time. Nibs? Normal and Italic too. Hope you get to be a fan. They help the spirit of mind invention. Email and Blogs? Like you…all iPad.
October 10, 2018 at 8:07 am
My fountain pen is a cheap German model; Petronela bought it for me in Romania during our summer trip. Even now I can remember how smooth was writing with a Waterman from my grandmother; I seem to remember this was French made but certainly it was before the French company took over the American founders in the ’50s. As for Mont Blanc, I remember well my board colleague, in fact the managing director, always had a Mont Blanc (modern) ostentatiously displayed on his desk! If I cannot find my Waterman, which is doubtful, I might try to ‘acquire’ one but it would certainly be a vintage model.
October 12, 2018 at 12:27 pm
Thanks for your reminiscing. Fountain pens are aesthetically pleasing. But, the main reason I used them was for comfort. Writing with a fountain pen is easier when writing lots. My fingers/wrist suffers with ballpoints. And also the time out to refill. It’s akin to ‘The here and now’. It allows taking in the moment to focus, be calm, adding thoughts upon perusal of the words done. Old pens have smaller fill chambers which need more regular refills. Probably the price of ink back when. Glad you’re loving the old style again.
October 12, 2018 at 4:40 pm
I hadn’t realised until I began to use the fountain pen that is is tiring to write with a ballpoint, as you say you feel it in both fingers and, particularly for me, wrist (which I have a bit of a problem with anyway). I like the bit about ‘time out’ filling the pen and maybe that’s why the one I have at the moment is a replaceable ink cartridge I really want one with a lever to fill. The old one I had was like this.
October 8, 2018 at 12:07 pm
I love writing with a pencil in my notebook but I still mostly write on my laptop.
October 10, 2018 at 8:14 am
Yes, the graphite has a lovely smooth feel as a good fountain pen. Last year I often used the pencil to write in my little pocket diary as it had a small pencil in the spine; this year’s pocket diary does not. But these are/were very short entries.