# What do you write with? What's your favorite?



## TomJMiller (Nov 1, 2014)

I will write with whatever works, but when possible I always choose my favorite pen. It makes my writing experience that much more enjoyable. 

Recently, I purchased a quality fountain pen. The old-school approach appealed to me, as well as the pen's modularity and beautiful writing it produced. Long story short, I discovered that a fountain pen was not meant for me as writing with it became more of a bothersome task than an enjoyable one. I couldn't hold the thing at a 45-65 degree angle, causing it to skip and scratch! After writing with ballpoint and rollerball pens throughout my life, holding the pen perpendicular to the paper has become second nature to me. Therefore, I reverted to rollerball pens. 

My two favorite pens to write with are Uni-ball's Vision Elite and Pilot's Precise v5. Both smoothly glide over the paper, producing elegant and bold writing. 

Does anyone else also find that writing with a favored pen/pencil invigorates the process of writing? If so, what's your favorite utensil and why? As a newbie pen geek, I'd love to hear what you have to say!


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## dale (Nov 1, 2014)

i've always preferred a chicken feather dipped in the blood of dionysis.


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## escorial (Nov 1, 2014)

i have a poor memory so i always carry a pen an pad...then later on pop it on chromebook...


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## dale (Nov 1, 2014)

escorial said:


> i have a poor memory so i always carry a pen an pad...then later on pop it on chromebook...



 really? what i find...is that if i start a story with pen and paper, i have to finish it like that. it happened with my last short story. i wrote the 1st 1500 words on napkins in a camper out in the country. got back in the city, and transferred those 1500 words to my desktop. but i couldn't continue it that way, for some reason. i honestly couldn't finish the last 1/2 of it unless i did it with a pen and napkins. and i know that's purely psychological...but that's the way it was.


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## jenthepen (Nov 1, 2014)

I was given a beautiful Parker pen with a 22 carat gold nib. I decided such a prince among pens deserved a special ink so, after much thought and mind-changing, I eventually settled on a sophisticated sepia brown ink, believing it would give my letters an aura of the professional artist. Sadly, this was closer to the truth than I had realised because my wonderful sepia ink turned out to be for ink drawing and was designed to be used with a dip pen or brush. It contained some sort of varnish that completely gummed up the inner workings of the pen and ruined it. I'm only trusted with pencils these days.

- - - Updated - - -


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## Sam (Nov 1, 2014)

A keyboard.


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## PiP (Nov 1, 2014)

TomJMiller said:


> Does anyone else also find that writing with a favored pen/pencil invigorates the process of writing? If so, what's your favorite utensil and why? As a newbie pen geek, I'd love to hear what you have to say!



I'm afraid not, Tom. I don't tend to focus on what I write with, more what I'm writing about. My inspiration comes from 'location' not from using a particular writing utensil.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Nov 1, 2014)

Also a keyboard. I can't read my own handwriting.


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## PiP (Nov 1, 2014)

mrmustard615 said:


> Also a keyboard. I can't read my own handwriting.



I have the same problem!


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## dale (Nov 1, 2014)

i understand where tom is coming from, though. people draw inspiration sometimes from objects or attachments which might seem
superficial or silly to some. i do it all the time. and like i said with my earlier post...i understand it's basically psychological. but hey.....
...whatever works, works.


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## dale (Nov 1, 2014)

i think stephen king, when he 1st started, said he wrote his best with berol #2 pencils. it was just something he had in his head.
but it worked for him, then.


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## Sam (Nov 1, 2014)

I get the sentimentality and inspiration involved. What I don't get is restricting yourself. 

I can write with a pen, pencil, chalk, keyboard, typewriter; in a cafe, in a shed, in the back-seat of a car, lying in bed, standing up, you name it. If I start to write, my mindset is on writing. I don't need music, setting the mood, lighting scented candles, waiting for inspiration, needing a specific pen, having to have a pot of tea or coffee at the ready, etcetera. 

I think people like to over-complicate the process. It makes it seem like they're doing more than sitting down to write. It's more like rocket science than writing. It's the whole woe-is-me thing all over again. Bleed for your craft! You should want to tear your hair out! Smoke your briar pipe and wear your tweed jacket and be the tortured soul you are! Nobody understands us! Hooray for tortured souls! 

Bo***x to that.


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## Pidgeon84 (Nov 1, 2014)

The blood of a virgin...


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## Morkonan (Nov 1, 2014)

I usually write with a keyboard.

But, when I do use real ink, I prefer a medium point ball-point pen. I avoid some of the newer "Gel Pens" like the plague... They're entirely too messy and too sensitive. My own scribbling is nigh unreadable, even to myself. So, I have to use a pen that forces me to put some effort into the act 

I wish my handwriting was more legible.  I worked on it a lot, over the years, but with the advent of keyboards, I gave up on trying to actually scribble something legible. I learned how to write on a keyboard, long before I learned how to write legible script.


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## LeeC (Nov 1, 2014)

Morkonan said:


> I learned how to write on a keyboard, long before I learned how to write legible script.



Were you a child genius, or home schooled on a computer. Don't they have those tedious penmanship classes in grade-school anymore? 


As to what I write with â€” anything at hand when thoughts come to me. The other day while outside splitting firewood, I used a stick to scratch a key phrase in the dirt of the driveway till I could get in and scribble a note. Another time, while building a new chicken house, I wrote out an idea on a piece of wood with my marking pencil. The wife gets aggravated sometimes when she finds notes scribbled on her newspaper. 

When I do sit down to sift through all my scribbles, there's no substitute for the modern text editor on my Mac. It sure beats the endless scribbling, marking up, and retyping employed before PCs.


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## TomJMiller (Nov 1, 2014)

People are blowing this post way out of proportion and are overanalyzing what I said. I didn't mean that it's a necessity when it comes to writing, I was trying to see if there were fellow pen geeks on here. Perhaps I should've specified that.


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## dale (Nov 1, 2014)

TomJMiller said:


> People are blowing this post way out of proportion and are overanalyzing what I said. I didn't mean that it's a necessity when it comes to writing, I was trying to see if there were fellow pen geeks on here. Perhaps I should've specified that.



oh my god. i'm dying. lol. this strikes me as hilarious because it struck me that that's what we do, as writers. we overanalyze everything and
create these worlds out what may seem to many to be just trivial thoughts. ha ha. that's funny. no offense. welcome to the forum.


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## Morkonan (Nov 1, 2014)

LeeC said:


> Were you a child genius, or home schooled on a computer. Don't they have those tedious penmanship classes in grade-school anymore?



Yes, they had them when I was in grammar school. But, I got to bang away on a typewriter before I took those classes. 







(I had an Underwood, but I think it was an earlier model than this one. I still have it, but it's at another location at the moment. And, "yes", I _was_ a child genius... I don't think it carried over, though.  )


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## TomJMiller (Nov 1, 2014)

dale said:


> oh my god. i'm dying. lol. this strikes me as hilarious because it struck me that that's what we do, as writers. we overanalyze everything and
> create these worlds out what may seem to many to be just trivial thoughts. ha ha. that's funny. no offense. welcome to the forum.



Lol. I probably would've done the same thing. Hey, at least the varying interpretations expanded the conversation


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## Gofa (Nov 1, 2014)

Ipad so as to differentiate from day job on computer. Never sitting at a desk again to separate.
I have two favourite pens that have charisma, silver of course, for their antiseptic qualities and the secondary value of being able to stab werewolves and vampires to death should their appearance interrupt my concentration. A writer of fantasy needs to consider the possibly that, what is being written of, could be considered a documentary in some other's realm.


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## Bishop (Nov 2, 2014)

My keyboard on my laptop glows red, my keyboard on my computer at home glows blue. And my keyboard at work is boring. But it's always just on a computer. That's the fastest, easiest to edit and reformat, can be read by anyone with eyes, and can count my words as I write them so I hit my daily goals.


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## dale (Nov 2, 2014)

but back on topic...i haven't bought one? but i do love those fancy old style pens. i don't have one, but
 i do have one of those old style razors. the ones that take the double edged blades? i love that nostalgic type paraphernalia.


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## stevesh (Nov 2, 2014)

I don't write creatively in longhand, but when I need a pen, I haven't used anything but the Pilot G-2 Gel ballpoint in years. The perfect disposable writing tool.


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## Mythel (Nov 2, 2014)

I, personally, usually write via keyboard while listening to music. Recently, I've taken to using the Notes feature on my phone to write when I'm on the go. However, when all else fails and nothing seems to make sense, I go back to just writing by hand. And when writing by hand, I love to use ye olde lined notebook and black gel-pens. 

Actually, I think I'm in love with gel-pens - they glide so smoothly that I can write at top speeds, and because I can't erase, I just have to scribble it out and move on. It's great for completely cancelling out over-analysis. Plus, there's the added bonus of completely obscuring the page-margins with scribbles, notes, sketches and character-illustrations. And then later you can go back and page through and see how silly of a genius you were at age fourteen. Such great fun. 

~Myst


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## BryanJ62 (Nov 9, 2014)

Pidgeon84 said:


> _*The blood of a virgin...[/*_QUOTE]
> 
> *We need to hang out for a night. *


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## BryanJ62 (Nov 9, 2014)

*I sit at the kitchen table. I can only write in the morning. The backyard to my right. A half a dozen favorite pens (black/bold) and a Five Star Mead notebook. Plus, one sheet of blank typing paper used to scribble my outline. *


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## bazz cargo (Nov 9, 2014)

Ha! I made my pen

http://www.axminster.co.uk/woodturning-crafts/woodturning/pen-pencil-kits

Most of my writing is done inside my head, it becomes a vast amount of illiterate notes which then get translated into computerese. 

I prefer black ink, will use blue or red but always look for black first.


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## DarlingD (Nov 17, 2014)

I type it on an app then  when I'm  finally happy  with it I write it down on a nice notebook I have. ☺


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## belthagor (Nov 17, 2014)

I write with a friend..... wait what?

*attempts normal reply*

I write with pen, one of the least permanent writing tools. You know, because if you have a white eraser and put a drop of water on the tip, you can erase ink.... but don't trust me, go ahead and google it.


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## Bloggsworth (Nov 17, 2014)

My mind...


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## belthagor (Nov 17, 2014)

My instinct........


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## Bishop (Nov 17, 2014)

Bloggsworth said:


> My mind...



Wife: "What are you doing, honey?"

Me: "Writing... with my mind..." *glares at empty page, words appear from the Netherverse at my command*


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## Bruno Spatola (Nov 17, 2014)

I chisel it onto stone tablets. It's time consuming, loud, and painful, but... Hmm, there are no positives. Maybe I should upgrade to wax and styli.


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## docshoog (Dec 8, 2014)

A pen, and my mind.


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## bookmasta (Dec 8, 2014)

A computer and keyboard.


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## BryanJ62 (Dec 8, 2014)

*Every now and than  I try doing it the old fashion way (at least in todays world) with a keyboard and notes and all that good stuff and I just can't do it. The ideas dry up. Obviously they are out in my kitchen dancing. I'm thinking disco. *


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## macytech1 (Dec 21, 2014)

I love writing with a pen in a leather journal. I find it so much more personal than writing on a computer, and I love writing in pen because it makes me really think before putting the word on paper.


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## Nemesis (Dec 22, 2014)

laptop/computer, but I work best if I'm:

A. working with an alcoholic buzz
B. over-caffinated
C. sleep deprived
D. on (legally prescribed) pain medications

The last I found out after breaking my elbow Christmas last year XD


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## SwitchBack (Dec 23, 2014)

A peacock quill pen. 

That's when I'm not putting a beaver to shame and chewing through pencils.


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## Sakurako (Dec 23, 2014)

Scrivener, via my iMac. After being spoiled with this program, I honestly can't write any other way...


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