Work Is Not Enough...

[LeakyInk]

I'm finding that using my pen at work is not enough. I want to use it more often. I unfortunately have no other use for my pen. I am frustrated... I'm just venting so no need to respond.

[UDog]

I use fountain pens on the first draft of the novels I've written. That's sometimes 4 hours of straight writing...and that's not enough. So I know how you feel.

[Erik Dalton]

Start up some letter writing. Many here do.

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi,

 

... or place a small notebook, A5 or so, in your car and use it as a trip diary.

Idears, impressions, little drawings, concepts, what ever comes to your mind.

 

Best

Jens

Edited August 23, 2019 by SchaumburgSwan

[SpecTP]

I practice my cursive handwriting to fill in the extra times

[Addertooth]

My hand writing has been determined by the Hague Courts as a form of disallowed torture to the reader. I spend a fair amount of time practicing, so it only looks horrible. I test a lot of pens after restoral, and the restored pen to update my catalog of collected pens with a sample of the writing of the freshly restored pen, and all of its particulars. And yes, I do diagrams via pens at work.

[DrDebG]

I have a journal that I write in each day. First thing in the morning, I get a cup of coffee, grab my journal and one or two fountain pens and write. What do I write about? Events, thoughts, feelings, discussions with myself and God, notes from what I am reading, etc. It can be whatever you want. The first few times that you sit to write, it can seem a bit intimidating - the blank page syndrome. But if you set a goal - I will write two paragraphs on yesterday's events, for example - you will find that it gets easier. I also doodle a lot just because I like to doodle. For me, writing is very relaxing and I am able to work out stuff without having to make my husband suffer through my rants.

[TheDutchGuy]

Work: on average 7 A5 pages per day, 4 days a week

Journaling: on average 1.5 A4 pages per day, 7 days a week

Handwriting improvement: on average 2 A5 pages per day, 7 days a week

 

More would be better, but with this amount I still feel the pull of the fountain pen. It beckons me. I never feel saturated. And I like to feel the pull.

[Honeybadgers]

Do something good with your pen. Make someone else's life better.

 

Write letters to people in prison.

 

https://writeaprisoner.com/

 

I used to work as a medic in a jail. Trust me, they're all human beings too, and little things go a long ways.

[A Smug Dill]

Paper and ink reviews can involve a lot of handwriting, depending on your personal review style.

[LeakyInk]

Thanks for the suggestions all. As I said originally I just wanted to vent. The frustration being is I have nothing to write or doodle, since I'm not a writer or artist. I also thought about doing the pen pal thing but I would have nothing to talk about all I do is go to work and stay at home.

[A Smug Dill]

I'm not a writer or artist myself, and I don't even go to work these days! but I still rip through lots of paper testing pens and inks to get a better handle on their qualities and characteristics.

 

If you were located in Australia, I'd send you samples of 28 inks in the mail at my expense if you wanted to do reviews but don't have many inks (and don't want to buy any more right now); that ought to give you plenty to write about while you discovered your personal review style. However, since you only have one main pen that you also use for work during the week, maybe that wouldn't work particularly well anyway.

[LeakyInk]

It's a nice offer, I just wouldn't know how to do a review. I have read and watched reviews but I'm still new to pens in general and some of the things people talk about in the reviews I have no clue what they are really talking about, I'm not very smart.

[A Smug Dill]

I just wouldn't know how to do a review.

Don't worry, there are some guidelines and/or suggestions pinned right there at the top of the Ink Reviews section of the forums. Or you can work out your own way of doing ink reviews in time.

 

I have read and watched reviews but I'm still new to pens in general and some of the things people talk about in the reviews I have no clue what they are really talking about, I'm not very smart.

Don't worry about that, either. It took me ages to actually spot sheen and understand what that is, and I still struggle with the idea of 'wet' and 'dry' when it comes to inks. You can just write about what you've observed/noticed based on your particular interests.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks for the suggestions all. As I said originally I just wanted to vent. The frustration being is I have nothing to write or doodle, since I'm not a writer or artist. I also thought about doing the pen pal thing but I would have nothing to talk about all I do is go to work and stay at home.

 

But anyone can write and doodle! And you can always write, 'I have nothing to say' over and over—-until you do.

[JollyCynic]

But anyone can write and doodle! And you can always write, 'I have nothing to say' over and over-until you do.

When I started to feel the way the OP does, I would just scribble down some pangrams, just so I could feel the nib gliding along and watch the ink stain the paper. Before I knew it, I was running out of the bazillion notepads I've always had stashed around the house, filled with flow-of-consciousness that I won't ever keep. It gets recycled as soon as the notepad is filled.

 

Sometimes I'll fill five sides of A4 without looking up, other times it's all I can manage to update my bullet journal for the day. But I understand how the OP feels, desperate to sit down and use these gorgeous instruments and not feeling anything I have to say is worthy of what they're capable of. It's just that now I touch nib to paper and stop worrying about it in my enjoyment.

[Arkanabar]

I'm hand-copying the Vatican's English translation of Lumen Gentium. My goal is actually less to use the pens, and more to use up a certain bottle of ink, nicknamed "Bête Noire."

[Frozenoak]

I like to go to the pub, order a drink I've never had, and write a blurb about it while I drink it. There's a guy at my favorite pub that thinks I'm writing about him. It's kind of fun.

[bemon]

+1 here! Of my three EDC pens I fill my two most often used pens once a month maybe. I fill my third EDC that gets the lightest use once every two months. I'm pretty sure more ink evaporates than gets put to paper.

 

I guess just find more time to write at home. Easier said than done if you're a parent.

[inkstainedruth]

I started out with fountain pens (at least as an adult) by journaling. I started reading The Artist's Way, which is a creativity course. One of the things you do is to keep a "morning pages journal" -- three pages of stream of consciousness writing right after you get up (don't worry, you'll be amazed how fast you can get through three pages). In order to get into the habit, I got a nice journal and a cheap fountain pen (a Parker Reflex). Now? I feel weird on the occasional days when I DON'T do morning pages (and a little weird if I have to get up really early for some reason and catch up later in the morning (often over a late breakfast in a diner). I write down dreams if I remember them. Make to do lists ("okay, have to flush X pen and Y pen today, and go get buttons to fix Steve's dress shirt; and which bills have to get mailed before I leave town?...."). I vent about people I've had problems with (hey, if someone reads them after I'm dead, and doesn't like what I say about him/her? That's on them....). I ruminate about stuff sometimes. It's all whatever comes into my brain on any given morning and goes out my hand and onto the page. Three pages, every day.

And like Sailor Kenshin said -- You CAN write. And doodle. Heck, someone took an art class when he was 80 or so, just because -- he now posts his sketches in the FPN Art Gallery every now and then....

I recently had a conversation with a woman who said she didn't do any "art" and couldn't learn at her age -- and now I'm bound and determined to teach her some sort of needlework, if only to prove her wrong.... (Seriously, she did Civil War reenactment for over 30 years -- what did she do all that time? Stand around and look decorative?) So, unbeknownst to her, I'm now waffling between teaching her Icelandic pattern darning and teaching her to make net.... Heck. It took me three months of once a month workshops of not figuring it out, and then sitting down with a book after the third time going "Dammit -- if Pam can learn to do this I can learn to do this!" And am to the point now, years later of having taught a bunch of *other* people to do it.... And I tell them ("You may not get this right away -- I sure didn't...."). As far as I'm concerned, the woman just hasn't found her niche yet.... (Oh, and I have to see if I can find a DVD of the old movie Having a Wild Weekend because she'd never seen it (someone who saw the Dave Clark 5 live as a teen SOOOOO needs a copy of that movie, just because... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth