Bought this new pen yesterday. Spent a long time selecting it. At Staples – I stood there for maybe thirty minutes examining them all; so many to choose from. Ended up with this new style, called a Dr. Grip. Fat at the grip, so my arthritic fingers don’t cramp up and whine just when I’m on a creative roll.
I took a writing workshop a few weeks ago, the gist of which was to help me be more disciplined, to help me make my writing a lifestyle habit rather than drudgery. And the instructor suggested, among a lot of other helpful things, that everyone, or at least those like me who write in longhand first, get an “easy writing pen.”
Not anything I’d ever thought of before. But then I realized that, yeah, some pens you have to really prod. Some are not very dependable, and take a lot of persuasion, or don’t write at all, so that you have to go digging around for another one. Which is when that capricious flow of creativity just dries right up.
But I like my pens to be more than just reliable. I like my pens to be pretty and to make a statement. To say something about me, like that I’m not all business, because I have this little flaky right-brain thing going on sometimes too. And that I’m not cheap, though I am frugal; and that I have a sense of style, but not a loud one.
I want my pen to be colorful. But a classy color, not flashy, like orange, or intimidating, like blue. Classy, like this new one. Pink. Pink and silver. Yes.
I want my pen to put me in the mood to pick it up. I want a pen I can clasp without effort as it slides across the page. And I want the words and sentences and language to ooze out of it like syrup, clinging to the paper and making perfect, indelible sense. A pen that writes from the very first letter without cajoling; no frantic scribbling to get it going; no pressure; no sputtered ink that lies in ugly, disconcerting gobs on the page. Just the silken flow of flawless prose, spurred by gravity and my pen, held taut yet relaxed in an indefatigable downward dog.
My ideal pen will be sound and relentless in its tasks, an effective and very fine writer.
My pen will be a model of efficiency and glamour. Because when the job is done, and it is good, it is the pen that must be ready then to step forward and takes its bows.
Right?
