Pens

AT left, a Lamy Studio fountain pen.

It has the same nib set as the less expensive Lamy safari line. The hand feel is nicer and it is a metal barrel. Nevertheless, it has all the hallmarks of the (nearly) indestructible Safari by Lamy which you should try first if you think you might want this particular model.

Ink flows smoothly. I'm using Sailor Jentle Ink in black for its colorfast properties. I only use water based inks in my pens. Makes it easy to remove the ink sheen from me.

I gave something to a writing partner a while back and his criticism on return was "you can do better." He's right. I needed to hear that.

It was an early piece for a longer work of fiction and I was trying on a couple of characters and the subject of their attention: the despot Deti O'Tombo. Nevertheless, I didn't even get the basics of the story craft polished well enough. The setting had "white room disease" and the characters have "stock actor" syndrome also known as "sock puppet characterizations."

I needed to hear that. I know I failed to adequately develop the tension in the scene in which the bulk of the story transpires. However, The parts that I did write were horribly under seasoned. Gordon Ramsey wouldn't scream "it's raw" and that's about the only merit the work has in its present form.

Off tot he edit and re-write pile.

What my partner did for me though is put the latest short story I'm working on in another light. Another full re-write taking each scene slowly, carefully. Choices. Writing is about choices and I need to make them carefully. I was not. I was pressing for a shell of a story and not the immersion we need.

Too many words? No. Not the right words. Fifty will do fine over five hundred if they are the right ones.

I recommend the Lamy studio line of pens. Lamy in general is well engineered. They're German. Of course I use German pens. You cannot write well with a #10 Stanley Awl.

I'm off to write. You should do a little as well. Five hundred words and you'll sleep like a baby. A fitful angry baby.