A Writing Life (Part 2)

I said, “Begin to write.” It is hard to say how I finish. I always try to begin in longhand with a notebook; rarely with loose sheets of paper or a pad (they seem to be only for students taking notes or people writing out letters). I have only written a few things directly on a keyboard: a brief film script for a friend’s project; some letters, résumés and poems that are not worth remembering or repeating. A blank page waiting for the ink or graphite marks of my thoughts is a pleasure that many writers consider a form of torture. But you can never really get away from that expanse of clean space. As I write this, I am surrounded by many other patrons trying to write. And they are almost all on personal laptop computers. This would be nothing but a distraction for me (email, games online and on the hard drive, adjusting files and images, etc.) I recommend leaving the technology at home and facing that space with something less electronic and sophisticated.
I use a Pilot Fineliner in black to write these kinds of essays. Also, I have mechanical pencils and a knockoff slick blue ink pen from a chain store (something called an OptiFlow). This is important to me. I never use ballpoint pens and have only recently returned to using any type of pencil. I don’t consider any of this odd or out of touch with technological advances in writing. I still use a computer and I try to complete what I have written up for the day onto a specific file. This is just one stage out of many involved in this type of work.