pen to paper

I have a known obsession with office supplies. I’ve tried to curb this habit due to budgetary and storage constraints. I’m involved with a group in Ravelry called Pen Fetish Crafters and they can be the most enabling group of persons I know. I mostly avoid the temptations they place infront of me, but having two local shops within steps of my normal routes, I don’t always do well. That Strand sells Moleskine® notebooks at slightly lower prices and not one but two but three muji shops within reach, I am hopeless to resist.

So what do I plan to do with these pens and paper which seem to multiply with a voracity which may give a bunny or a sock yarn stash run for its money?

The same thing I’ve been doing, but more of it. I’m writing more letters and cards. I’m writing more in my journal and trying to carve time to work on my NaNoWriMo 2008 idea. I’m going to try to do better at drafting posts by hand first and writing down more things in my work log journals. (I confess there was only a short line in my journal about this post before I put fingers to keyboard.)

Why? I need to slow down and think through my thoughts and words before I blurt them out. I need to reconnect with process. I type very quickly and often don’t think about what is being written and then have a difficult time editing because I still read what is in my head not what is written on screen or paper. That doesn’t happen when I write by hand, at least not as often.

So much of life today seems to be the same desire that has existed for years, to do everything faster and more efficiently — because we can. I’m no longer sure that we should and I’m trying not to do everything at a breakneck pace and I’m beginning to see an improvement beyond what I previously thought was acceptable quality of my work.

I also find that when writing by hand I doodle and that leads to unskilled sketching and that opens up creative juices that lay dormant when I sit and type for hours on end. I am practising calligraphy not so much to be very skilled at it but to improve my handwriting in general and because it is something I enjoyed when I was a child.

In a pathetic attempt not to keep this a soliloquy: are you trying to slow down or find balance this year? Are you trying to return to paper or pencil? What’s your favourite pen or ink colour?

• Category: write