NO. 2 With a Pencil

What do you do when your computer screen goes blue? I’m talking error-death-apocalypse blue. I imagine if you had lots of money (I like money) you’d go out and buy a new computer, probably something real nice, right? Just drop a stack on a mac or something.

Well this is my blog post, so gather round, this is what I did: I said, F that computer I’m writing on paper. I’m writing on paper and not with a pen. We’re talking cubby-hole, desks with lids, elementary school throwback. We’re talking Ticonderoga and Mirado Black Warrior No. 2’s.

And there is a reason I feel the need to share this – any fellow writers out there – it is a very therapeutic and rewarding ritual. There is something about the whole process. It slows everything down, you’re given time to think about each word, each sentence. Your brain sends the thoughts down through your arm and moves your hand one letter at a time.

With a pencil, compared to a pen, there is a texture, a sensation to the scratching of graphite against the page. And if you are somebody like me, who has been punching at keys for years, if this has always been your writing process, the switch to pencil is a change that you actually sense.

A quick internet search will reveal many great writers who throughout history have chosen to sharpen the wooden writing utensil and scrape their words onto paper. Truman Capote preferred a pencil while he lay on his tummy and wrote, Hemmingway carried a pencil to jot down his notes and ideas, it is rumored John Steinbeck went through as many as 60 cedar pencils in a day (I suspect he didn’t have a sharpener), and Henry David Thoreau was at one time touted as the nation’s best manufacturer of pencils. Now granted those mentioned never had the option or luxury of using a computer, but their accomplishments are undeniable and their works are eternally crystalized in the literary canon.

I would recommend, the next time you need to get a piece of writing started, instead of sitting down in front of that dreaded Microsoft Word white page, grab a notebook and a trusty pencil. You may be surprised by the simple switch. You may be happily surprised by how the different practice will jog your brain, uncover new ideas, and rewire your perceptions on the whole concept of the writing process.

Even if it is just the rough draft or a way to get your first thoughts down on the page, moving your writing hand around and etching each letter and every word, compiling sentences piece by piece, assembling a story, poem , or essay line by line will bring you in to a harmony with your craft. What you think and what you write will be in accord, a solid unity of thought and practice.

Try it. Best of luck. Best wishes.
-Dennis Scott Herbert, Fiction Editor Blue Earth Review