What To Write...

[ajoe]

http://www.wgz.org/chromatic/writeyourlife/

[pen2paper]

Tyler, since you fix pens, why don't you start documenting each pen that comes to you? Describe each one, what issues it has, your ideas for fixing it, reminders to yourself, how long it took you, who you asked for advice for a particular task, success feelings... That makes a good source for your writing your blog, too.

 

I have a random thoughts journal, a dream journal, a small daily planner for work, and a formal journal. I write grocery lists, phone messages, reminders. I write in different colors, depending on my mood for the day.

 

Tyler, what did you think of this idea? Also use your own pens for baseline comparison notes.

Also repair notes using the pen, serve as a test of the final repair, possibly scanned examples to the customer?

 

Most of my online buys, particularly the vintage ones, included handwriting sample/observations on its nibprint.

 

 

[ajoe]

You want to be a writer,

don't know how or when?

Find a quiet place,

use a humble pen. -- Paul Simon

Edited February 3, 2012 by ajoe

[FarmBoy]

zero one two three four five six seven eight

nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen

fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen

twenty twenty-one twenty-two twenty-three

twenty-four twenty-five twenty-six twenty-six

twenty-seven twenty-eight twenty-nine thirty

forty fifty sixty seventy eighty ninety

hundred thousand ten-thousand one-hundred thousand

one million zero

[phlosar]

Interesting discussion. I keep an Ampad Gold Fiber top spiral notebook in my office. For work matters that require thought, especially with the structure of a sentence, I turn from the computer and go to the notebook. When writing with a fountain pen, I am more focussed than when typing. It is an introspective experience. I take notes in meetings with my pens (Clairfontaine notepads). The meetings are generally boring, so I do some doodling, nib adjustment (discretely), and work on penmanship. Occasionally I work on writing in a foreign language. I seem to be paying attention, so it's a good outcome.

 

I sometimes write a page or two about the day, particularly when I am frustrated or indecisive. I don't save the end product, but the process invokes an internal dialogue and I often resolve the issue.

 

I have also written a short story or two when needing an excuse to write.

[Lloyd]

A couple of years ago i bought a journal and began writing to my wife. I wrote every day for ver six months. I wrote about the memories and the little thngs. I wrote about what i love about her and i wrote about the thngs that drive me crazy...things, not her. I wrote about some of my fears and i even aplogized for a coule of things from the past. I wrote every day. Sometimes for long periods of time.

On our 33rd wedding anniversary I wrapped it and gave t to her. I lovingly told her what it was and how much i wanted to share my love for her. Of course she cried and cried and cried and cried. And i mentioned to her that she didnt need to read it all in one day. I saw it around her favorite reading areas for weeks.

But it was great having a writing project.

What an amazing story and gift. It (almost) makes cynical me want to cry, too.

Edited February 3, 2012 by Lloyd

[handwriter]

Write about pens. About how you feel writing with that nib, about that gorgeous pen you found somewhere in internet, about something interesting you read here, or about ideas for repair...

[Biber]

If you've got really young kids, write letters to them that they'll open when they're adults or at some other milestone age or event.

[freddy77]

I see those period of "writers block" as a blessing in disguise.

 

If you don't have anything to pay attention to writing down don't pay attention to What you are writing down, focus on HOW you are writing it down.

 

Use that time to practice your penmanship.

 

There are few of us here that can't use a little help there.

 

The benefit to not worrying about WHAT you write is that allows you to focus on just the pure mechanics of forming the words you put down, not what those words mean to anyone.

 

IMO it helps here to use some poem, piece of scripture or song lyric that you've already memorized for some reason so that allows you to focus even more on HOW you're writing than on What.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

 

Thank you for posting this, Bruce. I thought I was the only one who thought like this. Sometimes I will write nothing but the alphabet, city and state names, or famous short quotes not for what they are but to practice my penmanship.

 

Tyler, when I do write letters, even if not very often, it reminds me of the pleasure of writing with a fountain pen. Unlike a ballpoint, a roller ball, or a pencil, a fountain pen is as personal as the letter that you are writing. I know I enjoy getting those letters from my few fountain pen buddies as much as I do writing back to them.

[Avetikus]

I just start writing out the Declaration of Independence and keep going until I am happy - Sometimes I start over with a different pen and color ink. I just like to see and feel the pen write and this is a good way for me.

 

You'd be surprised at how many times the first paragraph gets written out when I'm playing with my inks.

 

Jabberwocky is also a favorite.

[amongsttheleaves]

So guys, what do you do when you feel like writing with your fountain pen, but you have nothing to write?

 

I love my pens, but I often feel they don't get enough use. I love writing letters, but I don't have that many people to write to, who still enjoy that form of communication.

 

Any ideas? All suggestions appreciated!

 

Regards,

Tyler Dahl

 

Since you blog, why not write your blog ideas in longhand first?

 

I know a number of people have suggested keeping a diary/journal of sorts and I know what you mean when you respond 'what would I write'? But really you could write about anything - your pens, your dog (if you have one), your work, the people you know, the people you don't, what is happening in the world/your community and how you feel about those things, and such like - just to give you an example, I grabbed a copy of volume 2 of Virginna Woolf's diaries from my shelf and opened it at random to 3rd September 1922 - it must be fate because she writes about her pens (amongst some other stuff about walking, dinner, various people, blaming her husband for her novel's proofs disappearing in the post, how she should be doing work but is writing in her diary and suchlike):

 

'Perhaps the greatest revolution in my life is the change of nibs - no longer can I write legibly with my old blunt tree stump - people complained - But then the usual difficulties begin - what is to take its place? At the present moment I'm Blackie against his nature, dipping him, that is to say [...] I'm galloping on, astride a J pen now, not very compactly [...] Yes, on looking at the pages, I think the balance is all in favour of a steel nib. Blackie too smooth; the old blunderbuses too elephantine'.

 

So thank you for your post, otherwise I might never have found this particular entry. Woolf obviously used the opportunity to try out her pens.

 

I did used to keep a diary but the habit has fallen by the wayside, at present I'm copying out one of my favourite poems, Alice Oswald's Dart, and in doing that I'm learning all sorts of things about the poem, like how the poet has structured it and how the line breaks work, and things like that.

[Newjelan]

1328058896[/url]' post='2234446']

I pick a thread on FPN and copy it all down in a notebook, color-coded by pos--

 

 

 

Great Idea! I think I'll try that, LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't even finish picturing that. Joke fail.

[inkstainedruth]

I have found that the more I do daily journaling, the more automatic it becomes (to the point where I get antsy if for some reason I can't do it the first thing in the morning. And since it's whatever comes out of my head that morning (I do it when I first wake up, before I do anything else) I often use it partly as a dream journal. I have found that the more I write down dreams the more likely I am to remember details (and I have some pretty weird dreams -- not scary, just weird), and the more likely I am to remember the dreams in general.

And with a fountain pen I just generally seem to write faster (the "morning pages" exercise is to do three pages daily, no matter what) -- the words flow out of my head and through my fingers better.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[dvorak]

Similar to what some others have glanced upon, is something that I have done a time or two. Pick a favorite work (like Hamlet, great suggestion previously suggested) and copy it, word for word. For me this was Thoreaux's "Civil Disobediance"... I wrote it out, slowly, I "monked" it... in the grand tradition of monks hand copying works. Go slowly, meditatively. If you get tired of the project, throw it in a drawer and come back to it in 6 months or a decade. Each minute spent hunched over good paper, scratching out noble thoughts (even if not originally your own) is time well spent. -Brent

[ssmui]

At the end of a working day, I would jot down all the things that I need to continue doing the next day.

 

So, I have a "To Do" list of things to jot down at the end of day. Each day it is a different pen with different ink

[NeelsK]

As so many people mentioned, copy some of the old masters. I've started again on the poems of Lord Byron, the works of Poe, some very obscure writers and poets ... just about anything I would like to memorize. Sometimes I include these poems to close friends in letters, other times I just write them and file them away for later reading.

 

I find that copying from the masters gets my own creative side going

[Sasha Royale]

I have inked the Parker Duofold given to me by Mary. It was her father's pen.

Filled with Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue, I have nothing to write. What

a dull, rainy afternoon it is.

 

A good soaking will green-up the lawn, and cetainly do well for the rose bushes,

that surround the bench I built. On a warm, sunny day of early summer, it is

amazing to sit, surronded on three sides by roses.

 

There is a bump on my thumb that hurts. I think I was bitten by a spider. Generally,

spiders are not very aggressive. Besides, they . . . .

 

It has stopped raining. I am going to bring back two strawberry milkshakes from

Chick-fil-A, and sit among the roses. The first person who comes along gets offered

the other milkshake.

 

******************************************

 

Don't worry that nobody will ever read it. Write with joy.

[Bhavna]

So guys, what do you do when you feel like writing with your fountain pen, but you have nothing to write?

 

I love my pens, but I often feel they don't get enough use. I love writing letters, but I don't have that many people to write to, who still enjoy that form of communication.

 

Any ideas? All suggestions appreciated!

 

Regards,

Tyler Dahl

 

Hi Tyler!,

 

I am so with you on that one! I write lists of gratitudes (starting with my FPS... ). But you know, I guess we could write thank you notes to local staff in hospital's, shops, etc, etc.. crazy as it may seem, what a delight it would be for someone to open up a beautifully written note on gorgeous paper, in the most exquisite ink.. just to say 'thank you, you're awesome!'.

 

How's that for a challenge??

 

Bhavna

[Bhavna]

I have inked the Parker Duofold given to me by Mary. It was her father's pen.

Filled with Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue, I have nothing to write. What

a dull, rainy afternoon it is.

 

A good soaking will green-up the lawn, and cetainly do well for the rose bushes,

that surround the bench I built. On a warm, sunny day of early summer, it is

amazing to sit, surronded on three sides by roses.

 

There is a bump on my thumb that hurts. I think I was bitten by a spider. Generally,

spiders are not very aggressive. Besides, they . . . .

 

It has stopped raining. I am going to bring back two strawberry milkshakes from

Chick-fil-A, and sit among the roses. The first person who comes along gets offered

the other milkshake.

 

******************************************

 

Don't worry that nobody will ever read it. Write with joy.

 

Sasha, that is lovely! Yes no one will read it. Strawberry milkshake sounds sooo good! Esp near the roses. Tell me the sun is out too!!!

[Bhavna]

So guys, what do you do when you feel like writing with your fountain pen, but you have nothing to write?

 

I love my pens, but I often feel they don't get enough use. I love writing letters, but I don't have that many people to write to, who still enjoy that form of communication.

 

Any ideas? All suggestions appreciated!

 

Regards,

Tyler Dahl

 

Since you blog, why not write your blog ideas in longhand first?

 

I know a number of people have suggested keeping a diary/journal of sorts and I know what you mean when you respond 'what would I write'? But really you could write about anything - your pens, your dog (if you have one), your work, the people you know, the people you don't, what is happening in the world/your community and how you feel about those things, and such like - just to give you an example, I grabbed a copy of volume 2 of Virginna Woolf's diaries from my shelf and opened it at random to 3rd September 1922 - it must be fate because she writes about her pens (amongst some other stuff about walking, dinner, various people, blaming her husband for her novel's proofs disappearing in the post, how she should be doing work but is writing in her diary and suchlike):

 

'Perhaps the greatest revolution in my life is the change of nibs - no longer can I write legibly with my old blunt tree stump - people complained - But then the usual difficulties begin - what is to take its place? At the present moment I'm Blackie against his nature, dipping him, that is to say [...] I'm galloping on, astride a J pen now, not very compactly [...] Yes, on looking at the pages, I think the balance is all in favour of a steel nib. Blackie too smooth; the old blunderbuses too elephantine'.

 

So thank you for your post, otherwise I might never have found this particular entry. Woolf obviously used the opportunity to try out her pens.

 

I did used to keep a diary but the habit has fallen by the wayside, at present I'm copying out one of my favourite poems, Alice Oswald's Dart, and in doing that I'm learning all sorts of things about the poem, like how the poet has structured it and how the line breaks work, and things like that.

 

Thank you so much for sharing this! How I would love to use one of the elephantine blunderbuses ! What kind of pens might these have been?? Although my hands are very small, I wonder what that would feel like. As for copying poems.... The Mahabharat has just come to mind, the greatest epic in history and one I have been meaning to study - what a wonderous opportunity to play with my pens, inks and learn at the same time!!!