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Comment by aram | Hacker News Reader

One minor thing to add - consider fountain pens and good paper. That alone can push the thoughts come to paper way easier than other means, and will let you have richer "micro-expressions"/mental bookmarks in your handwriting.

I know it's offtopic, but wanted to mention in case it helps someone.

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I too would advocate quality pen and paper for much the same reasons I would advocate a quality keyboard, better technology makes writing easier. Over the years, I've found that the ceremony of the pen (and to a lesser extent paper) improves the writing ritual upon which the habit of writing in general and journaling in particular depend.

Yet for me, a fountain pen is too much impedance. That much ceremony gets in my way. Today, I use a particular model/brand of gel pen. The ink is blue. The milestone of running another one dry feels good; throwing the husk away less so. But replacement guts don't exist. Ultimately, my journals are equivalently disposable once full but for the meaning that I attach.

Despite their costing more than I think they should, I go to the store and purchase four packs of replacement pens. It's a ritual that requires me to give myself permission to do something so frivolous as writing. Spending money on it reinforces the point.

   I buy these pens for this purpose.

The purpose is not the pens. It is the writing. Technology facilitates it. I have a journal for which I purchased a particular instrument. The journal has a protective leather cover. It's too sacred. What happens when I fill it up?

I use Moleskine journals. Hard bound. Ruled in blue. They cost too much. Tools of ceremony are present, implemented without frills. The elastic band pulled aside, intimate contents exposed. The important page at the end of last use, indexed by the ribbon.

Journals fill quickly when writing regularly. The ending of one is a rite rife with anticipation of beginning the filling anew.

I'd also like to add that if fountain pens are too much of a hassle, it's worth trying out some of the nicer ballpoint type pens. Rather than settling for a cheap, scratchy biro or whatever. Personally I find these to be very nice indeed: https://www.google.com/search?q=UB-157

What fountain pen would you recommend for a beginner trying to relearn how to use anything different then the keyboard? :)

/r/fountainpens[1] have a lot of useful info on choosing a good pen and getting started.

[1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens

Here are a few affordable pens:

- Lamy Safari/Vista

- Kaweco Sport

- Pilot Metropolitan

- Parker Vector

- Tesco's if you can find them; $0.5 but write fairly well

The interesting part about fountain pens is customization: you can choose between different nib widths, type of paper and quality of ink. After some time you will notice significant difference if you go back to ballpoint/gel pens.

If you're interested, check out Fountain Pen Network:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/

Parker Vector quickly becomes scratchy, in my experience. Lamys are great.

Pilot Varsity. They're disposable, come in packs of 3 on up, and are about $3 each.

They also have some of the best nibs for the price point (so good there's a number of people who have developed and published hacks on how to refill them).

http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Varsity-Disposable-Fountain-Medi...

I'd recommend a Noodler's Ahab ($23.66 on Amazon). What makes it fun is that the nib is flexible, allowing broader or thinner strokes depending on pressure. Plus, its a pen built to be hacked. After a while you can cut the feeding unit to your liking, making ink flow more or less.

I got into re-learning to write a bit over a year ago. I was a clumsy left hander with great keyboard skills but terrible handwriting. Take a look at IAMPETH, they have tons of material on vintage writing styles. I even followed Spencerian methods from the the nineteenth century.

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