Writing Tools

It's interesting (to me) how tools seem to make a difference when I write. I'm not a person who desires a lot of stuff, generally speaking. I'm usually satisfied with minimal appurtenances, but the tools I do use, I like to be good ones. I was that way with guns, police equipment in general, and I'm still that way with personal items like knives, flashlights, wallets and the like. They don't have to be expensive, but they have to be "right."I will search doggedly for just the right one, almost obsessively acquiring one after another of very similar items. Inevitably, at some point I seem always to settle on The One, and then my obsession with that kind of item will subside as I make it a part of my day-to-day life. Except for flashlights; I have this thing about flashlights -- but that's for another essay.Natalie Goldberg, in her excellent book "Writing Down the Bones," suggests getting a cheap notebook and just writing whatever comes to mind -- scribbling willy-nilly with no paragraphing or other style -- until you get to The End. Then you go back and clean it up. I've done that, and it works pretty well, but I can't do it with Natalie's prescribed degree of abandon and my heart isn't really in the technique. I need tools that suit: a well-bound book, preferably slightly smaller than a full-size notepad, preferably with cream sheets, subtly lined. In short, a book like the Moleskine notebook that I'm using to rough this out. Later, it will go to the word processor for digitizing and editing, but for now it is a very personal operation.

I'm less picky about writing instruments. I prefer ballpoint or roller ball for feel -- generally ballpoint, since my handwriting tends toward smallish (not to say "cramped") and the ballpoints write a finer line. I like black or dark blue ink, and prefer a pen that is fat enough to hold comfortably. I would probably love a Mont Blanc, but the "gimmie" pen from a Catholic girls' school that I'm using at the moment suits me just fine.The pen must not skip. I abhor devices that don't work right.I've typed millions of words on many and diverse devices, from the 1935 Remington Noiseless typewriter that I learned on to the 3.2 GHz PC (writing to Google Docs and Spreadsheets on the Web) that I'll use to clean this up and prepare for publishing. Call me an old fart if you will (and many have), when it comes to writing about me, instead of about things, my mind seems to work more freely with a digitally-manipulated word processing system.