Dear Lemmy fountain pen community,

I’m well over 50 and I started using a fountain pen in school, when I was still a little kid learning to write. That was back in the 70s. All those years, I’ve always been using a fountain pen of some sort for most of the stuff I write, and sketch.

I was wondering how many of us were still using a fountain pen to write long-form content? I mean, are you using one to write letters, keep a journal, or for any other form of content?

Even though I don’t have a nice handwriting, I know quite a few people who like receiving my handwritten letters more than a neatly typed letter, and so do I. It kinda feels more personal and unique.

Beside the now too rare handwritten letter, sketching and keeping a journal another thing I like doing when I work on a long text is to draft it using a pen. Only once I’m done with that draft I will switch to the computer for the final typed version. It sure is much slower to write longhand which is exactly what I’m looking for: less speed, aka more time to (try to) think. And less distractions too ;)

  • Libb@jlai.luOPEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    So 99% is practice, and the 1% real work is horrible despite that much practice 😭. The only other thing is my sketchbook. Which is an assault to the eyes.

    Don’t be too harsh on yourself. My handwriting is 100% trash, like it really is. Back in school, I was driving every single one of my teachers crazy just because I could not write. Did not prevent me from earning a living writing, and to write daily ;)

    As for my own sketches, well, let’s just say I won’t win any art competition. That, I can tell you confidently. But I can also tell you I enjoy sketching tremendously. So, I’m fine with my lack of prize-winning perspective ;)

    Sketching sounds like a short form activity but it takes me surprisingly long to do a simple drawing.

    If you’re anything like me, it’s not a surprise: I need time for everything new… not to learn the stuff itself but to assimilate it and to make it some kind of a second nature, something I just do without worrying or thinking too much about it.

    I don’t know if this may help you, but that’s helping me, so here it is: recently, I decided to add daily sketches in my journal and since I journal almost every single day, I notice any page/spread where I have not added at least one sketch. And I mean sketching absolutely anything provided that it grabs my attention (be it IRL or on the Internet, like this mushroom whose picture I saw that day on Lemmy) — I blurred the journal parts ;)