The Silicon Amanuensis: Taking Pen In Hand...
Steve Beisner -- January 30, 2007
Departing from our usual emphasis on electronic tools like word processors, tracking software, and personal computers, we look at writing pens: hand held devices for putting real ink onto physical paper. We don't recommend that you dispose of your computer, but maybe you should consider the advantages of handwriting!
Many writers will tell you that there is something magical about putting handwritten words on paper. It's fairly common for even technologically oriented writers to do their first drafts by hand. I won't belabor the point of the creative advantages of direct physicality: you either get it and believe it, or you don't.
If you don't think writing with pen and ink is high technology, just imagine yourself waking up tomorrow morning in that idyllic spot in the woods you visited last summer... without benefit of of a disposable Bic, and with no paper in your backpack. Most of us would be hard pressed to record the previous night's inspirations or dreams. Handwriting is high tech, though most pen and ink technology has been around for a while.
It's tempting to imagine that Shakespeare might have left us an even larger canon if he had access to the quality paper and modern writing instruments that we enjoy today at near-zero cost.
But perhaps William had it right. Maybe there's something about a quill pen, frequently dipped into an ink well, scratching it's way across a page of coarse paper, that frees the muse. If you'd like to try your hand at this traditional form of writing, start by Googling for "cut quill". You'll find all you need to know. A popular site for this information, detailed instructions, and photographs is found here: Cutting Quill Pens from Feathers.
Quills were replaced by metal nibbed pens and then fountain pens. Although primitive forms of the "reservoir pen" are ancient, it was the late 19th century before the fountain pen came into it's own and pushed the quill offstage.
I love fountain pens and I own a half dozen of them. Writing with one feels delightfully archaic and purposeful. Handwriting with a fountain pen is unquestionably more "expressive" -- mixing narrow and broad strokes depending on the speed of movement and on pressure -- than with more modern technology.
Your choices for fountain pens and liquid ink will be limited at most local stationery stores and at the office superstores, so you will probably have to look for a specialty store or shop on the Internet. (Google "fountain pen seller" to find shops.)
You might want to look at the Wikipedia article on Fountain Pens.
Ballpoint pens and their various cousins, gel pens, fiber point pens, etc. are definitely a mixed blessing. Most are inexpensive, or even free, so that we don't even notice them except when they fail to work, which is distressingly often. Even the most expensive ball points made by the Cross company or by Mont Blanc will fail if the paper is not pristine, or if you're lying on your back.
Until recently I would have picked any available alternative rather than subject myself to a ballpoint pen. Now have ballpoint pens that write better than Mont Blanc, better than Cross, better than any other I've ever used.
I first stumbled onto the Fisher Space Pen in a museum gift shop. Unlike normal ballpoints that depend on gravity for ink flow, the pen invented by Paul Fisher in the 1950's uses a special ink and nitrogen gas under pressure inside a sealed cartridge to produce a pen that writes pretty much anywhere. In a brilliant marketing move, Fisher provided their pens to NASA, starting with the Apollo program, hence the name "Space Pen".
The pens cost more than a Bic (!), but they're beautifully made. In addition, I recently discovered that a local office superstore now carries Fisher Space Pen refill cartridges for a few bucks. I can put a refill into a cheap pen made by another company and presto... the world's best writing pen for pocket change.
The Fisher pens claim to write upside down (lying in bed!), between -30 degrees and 250 degrees Fahrenheit, in weightless conditions, on wet surfaces or underwater, and on photographs and other ballpoint-hostile surfaces. I haven't tried it weightless or underwater, but the rest of the claims seem accurate.
My recommendations: get yourself a nice fountain pen or a Space Pen, select a notebook or journal made with high quality paper and a beautiful binding. Find yourself a comfortable chair somewhere conducive to day dreaming, and put pen to paper.