Thread: Any Fountain Pen Users?

Originally Posted by Cangooner

Not only that, but it's a different thought process - for me at least! Whenever I encounter writer's block, I try to shake the cobwebs loose by altering my mental state in some way. Sometimes a change of scene will do the trick, sometimes thinking in French rather than English works, but sometimes simply abandoning the computer and grabbing pen and paper is what's needed. When I was a postgrad in Scotland sometimes the triple whammy was called for: thinking in French while walking on the beach (the one where the beach running scenes in Chariots of Fire were filmed), then putting pen to paper. Come to think of it, I really miss that...

When I do what I call 'writing' (my ridiculous poetry) it's simply as the mood takes me; I never 'try' and write something. I just have a thought and then start typing. Normally I write a 'poem' (as I like to refer to them as) in about a minute, almost a stream of consciousness thing.

I wouldn't even dream of what it must be like to write a book; with all the planning and the back story and such...

Gentlemen,

Indeed, writing a novel is difficult. And it is hard work. For me, the hardest I have ever done in my life. And it takes patience and a tough skin.

And I love it. And using a fountain for the first draft makes me love it all the more.

My first novel Will's Music, due out soon, took me a year to write, and it went through several revisions, while at the same time I hosted a six-hour daily radio show as well as write for magazines and newspapers. I wrote the first draft with a fountain pen — Pelikan, Mont Blanc, Waterman, Parker and Schaefer — and then typed it in on the laptop. All the subsequent revisions, then, were done on the computer.

That's how I work. When dealing with a magazine or newspaper article, depending on the deadline, I usually work directly on the computer. Now and then, when stuck on a sentence or paragraph, I work it out with a fountain pen.

I wrote the first draft of my second novel with the fountain, and then on to the computer. The publisher already has the completed manuscript and I am awaiting her review, which will take a while. The same with my book of essays: the first draft was done with the fountain pen, and then on to the computer. I am awaiting my publisher's review of that, as well. My third novel, which I just started, naturally receives daily smooches from the fountain pen.

Yes, gentlemen, there is something magical in the fountain pen.

Obie, I'm beginning to believe that in your past life as an Assyrian Emperor you invented the fountain pen so it would be available to you in this present incarnation. Don't tell me I'm wrong, I was there as one of your Hebrew slaves and nudged you in the right direction.

Razorfeld,

My formal first name is Obelit, and I was named after Ashur-Uballit I, the ancient Assyrian king who ruled the empire from 1363 to 1328 B.C. Obelit is the Americanized version of Uballit.

The prefix Ashur is the national identity preceding many of the ancient Assyrian names. If you examine my avatar, it is the image of the ancient Assyrian god Ashur, also the symbol of the Assyrian nation.

As for the fountain pen, I know the inventor had old Obie in mind.

None of this helps my craving to buy the Pelikan M800 in the green and black. Oy!