Life’s Too Short to Write with an Ugly Pen

When was the last time you looked at the blank page in front of you and felt no urge to begin writing? I know you’ve experienced it; every writer does. I imagine artists often view their blank canvases with the same uninspired perspective at times, and it’s not an uncommon struggle.

It’s not so much that we don’t have any ideas; it’s more a sense of drudgery and lack of inspiration we experience when we’re facing the same old paper, the same old pen…the same old, same old.

So what’s the answer for that disagreeable feeling of needing to write but not feeling the vibe? Believe it or not, sometimes it’s in the tools you’re using — and the ones you’re not!

Writing Tools Matter

For many years I grabbed whatever pen or pencil happened to be lying around, or whatever I could dig out of the pen jar on the counter. Invariably, when I began writing, whatever I’d chosen just didn’t feel right, or didn’t have the right color ink for my mood, or just ran out of ink altogether.

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My choice of paper often fared no better. If I used loose-leaf pages, they typically got lost in the mayhem of daily living. When I managed to secure them into a binder, they would eventually pull out as the little holes just couldn’t stand up to my writing and rewriting.

I always envisioned having a dedicated place to scribe my thoughts, but the dollar-store notebooks I thought I’d like ended up being just more disposable flotsam — hey, they were cheap, so no big deal if they got lost or tossed, right? THAT is when I discovered my mistake.

As long as I continued to view my writing as disposable and mundane, how could I expect anyone else to find it valuable? I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was looking at my own writing craft as not just optional, but unnecessary in the big picture of my life. How wrong I was.

I have come to realize that it’s not just the words that matter; it’s also how I come to those words, how I consider their intrinsic value, and how that value is revealed in the tools I use to transfer the ideas in my head onto the paper (or screen) in front of me. It has much to do with my choice of tools.

If I believe my words are important and are worth sharing, then I should invest in the tools that will encourage me to come to my writing space with eager anticipation, not an attitude of drudgery or “gee-what-do-I-care-any-old-pen-will-do.”

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We can spend a lifetime improving our writing craft; when we want our words to have their greatest impact, we need at our disposal the tools and resources that will enable us to create the best message we can. My own writing practice has morphed over the years and I am more inclined to put pen to paper and look at my writing now as not only a skill but also as art, when I invest in quality supplies.

Two factors in particular have been ‘instrumental’ in my mental shift: the power of [a beautiful] pen, and the ‘feel’ of great paper under my hand.

Power of the Pen

First, life is too short to write with an ugly pen! These days when I pick up the lovely pen I finally bought myself when our last child headed off to college (and I was no longer left to scrounge up whatever dregs of the pen world I could find in our house), my writing practice takes on a new sense of importance, urgency, and worth. That pen just feels ready for the craft. Much like a quality paintbrush, it can make all the difference in my word-art.

Now I have a bevy of pens that feel good in my hand and are lovely to use. My arsenal will never be complete, as the hunt for ‘the perfect pen’ will surely not end in this lifetime — it’s part of the adventure, as I see it — but my collection is growing, and I’ve decided to start asking for VCPs* as gifts from those who know my penchant for good writing.

Want to see what pens I’m loving right now, as well as a list of other must-have resources to boost your writing life? Just click on the ‘Free Resources’ tab in the Resources drop-down menu, then enter ‘ story’ in the password box. I’ll send you my “5 Resources You Can Use To Boost Your Writing Life Today!”

Better Paper, Better Writing

Second, paper matters! While I never fantasized myself as a starving author, holed up in some dingy attic apartment, scribbling onto reams of lined yellow notepads as fast as my fingers could keep up with my thoughts, there was a time when that sounded, well, writerly — after all, didn’t Laura Ingalls Wilder pen her entire “Little House” series on those iconic yellow pads?! I eventually got over the need to feel so ‘dramatic’, and opted for whatever was cheapest.

Because when you’re raising a passel of young writers and supplies are at a premium, you do with what you’ve got. But when you find that just-lovely pen, you’ll want some just-lovely paper to go with it.

Even if you do most of your writing digitally, the physical act of putting words on actual paper stimulates different connections in your brain and gets your creative juices flowing — “Writing Is Thinking!” While any old notebook will do, if you love your paper you’ll interact with it more. Once you start using quality writing paper and fall in love with your writing practice again, you’ll start looking for excuses — reasons — to begin a journal and artisan-paper collection!

Value the Process

Words matter. How we come to those words matters. When we value our ideas and the process of working them out on paper, we discover that the tools we use reflect that value. Life is too short to keep our words imprisoned inside our heads. And it’s too short to write those words with an ugly, boring pen!

Find joy in your writing process, my writerly friend — invest in beautiful tools, and your journey will never be the same.

*VCPs — Very Cool Pens. Trust me, they’re a thing.