Preparing for NaNoWriMo

Looking around on the NaNo site has inspired me for this year's marathon. I'll need to tidy up my study, which looks at least a little bit like a bomb hit it, and get my tools arranged. I tend to grab a Moleskine cahier for my noveling notes, though I never use the entire thing.

I'll need to select one or two special writing utensils, hopefully from the massive collection I already own, to be my faithful companions, along with my laptop computer, this year. There are always a couple of standouts amongst my pens and pencils, a few with just that extra sprinkle of awesomeness. I'm particularly fond of Sakura Gelly Roll pens, though the glittery ones have heavy ink I dislike. They're cheap, though on certain ones I've bought ink flow can be a problem. My old standby, the green and blue fountain pen, is usually near to hand, and I've enlisted any number of gel pens over the years.

Three years of noveling
madness!

I've got my handy thumb drive, which, though cluttered, has enough room for another NaNo masterpiece. Which reminds me: don't forget to save early and save often! I usually get into the habit very quickly of hitting the save function of whatever program I'm using during NaNo, such that I find myself typing Ctrl-S or its equivalent even when I'm not noveling. It's a good habit to have. Backups are also crucial. I tend to save my work to at least two, frequently three places, because you just never know. I also print out my daily work, in draft quality and often on scrap printer paper, so as to have a certain backup, as well as a physical reminder of the volume of my work. There's nothing like seeing a pile of paper slowly grow over the days, first clipped together with a paper clip, but rapidly outgrowing it and requiring a binder clip to keep it contained. And of course I complete each NaNo by picking up the packet and dropping it on a hard surface from a height of half a foot or so, just to hear the satisfying 'thunk' it makes. It's the thunk of accomplishment, and you can hear it too! Join me this year and take the journey down the crazy, inspired, painful, and joyous road!

Pens And The Reward System

Following on my previous post about pens, I want to talk a little about fountain pens. Specifically really nice fountain pens. There are some blogs and blog commenters out there who've posted to Rhodia and other stationery/pen geek sites about their favourite pens, and I have to be envious of them. Here are people who have not one $30 pen, but several, and even own some of the really expensive (and purportedly high-quality) ones.

I have spent $21 on a pen, once. A few months ago I bought a technical pen from an art store. I like it, but it was basically a birthday gift from a friend, as I used a gift card. Paying more than a few dollars for a pen seems extravagant to me somehow. My next most expensive pen was a Papermate Ph.D. Multi, for which I paid about $8. Lately, as I mentioned, I've been buying inexpensive gel pens.

I've long admired from afar the $30, $40, $50 and up fountain pens I've seen in the case at Staples. I know it's possible to spend hundreds of dollars on a pen, but even these are out of my price range. It's kind of odd: as a writer, one of my primary tools is a pen. Most of my writing is done on the computer these days, but there's no mistaking the value of a good quality, comfortable pen.

So why am I so reluctant to lay out $30 for a nice Lami Safari or the like? Well, it comes primarily from my innate cheapness, but also because, years ago, when I had decided I wanted to publish fiction, that I made an agreement with myself. I said, "Those fountain pens are gorgeous, yes indeed. But very expensive! So. When you've gotten a short story published, as a reward, you can get yourself a nice fountain pen." Said 'nice fountain pen' will likely be a $30 or $40 model, as indicated by the aforementioned innate cheapness. But the reward system has worked for me in the past.

During NaNoWriMo I made little deals with myself throughout the month: reach this word count total by blah day and you can get that (insert thing here) that you've been wanting. Two years ago I bought myself a cheap mp3 player as a reward for finishing successfully. So why not this too?

If I stick to my guns and don't spend $30 on a fountain pen until I publish a short story, it's gonna be a while. Even though I'm now working harder than ever on writing and am researching the whole publishing thing, I anticipate it will be months before I'm anywhere near the point where I can look forward to actually getting my prize.

Don't get me wrong - the accomplishment of getting published will be its own reward! But... fountain peeennnn....



*crickets, followed by hold music*



Oh, sorry. I kind of wandered off there for a minute.

I do have two fountain pens, but they, as one might expect, given my talk of cheapitude, were $3 models ordered through the web, as Staples no longer sells such things. *fistshake* They're fine pens. Simple but functional, and refillable with international cartridges. Which brings me to why I'm not using them often - I'm nearly out of ink. As with the Zebra refills, I've yet to see these cartridges in stores. I'm an in-person, tactile kind of shopper. And I hate paying shipping when I could stop into a store and pick up what I need. I'm my own delivery person, curse you!

I suppose I should look at an expensive fountain pen as an investment. After all, you spend lots of money on things like cars and computers, but you maintain them and refill them. With gas, oil, washer fluid, and more memory or bigger hard drives or whatever. It's just hard to shake off my inner cheapskate.

I'd better get back to work on my story if I want to buy myself a nice pen, hadn't I?