Pilot, Sailor, Hobonichi

Hey there!

Along with Hallowe’en, PSL, and competitive high school band season, it’s planner obsession season. If you’re considering a Hobonichi and a capless fountain pen, this installment has got you covered.1

Here’s what this post2 looks like on the other side of the page. Looking at it closely like this, the ghosting seems bad. But in practice — especially when the pages themselves are nearly onionskin-thin and so durable? I find it very acceptable. This is truly the worst it gets, and I’ve written on Hobonichi paper with just about everything.

The paper/the planner/the fandom: The Hobonichi universe can be overwhelming3 and expensive.4 For me, it basically comes down to this: I really like having one very unstructured page per day, and Hobonichi gets that done without bulk. The Techo and the Dayfree fit into any bag I’ve ever carried, and the Cousin is about the size of a trade paperback.

The pens: I’ve covered the Pilot Decimo above (and its big sister, the Vanishing Point) here before. But Renee was kind enough to give me this little blue plastic capless fountain pen at Writer Camp this summer, and I have to say: it’s delightful! It’s very light, not rattly, and the ink flows really smoothly through what’s basically an EF nib. Also, the clip isn’t in a place where you have to incorporate it into how you hold the pen — something that should be a huge consideration for the Pilots.5 Renee wasn’t sure about this pen’s manufacturing origins. I think she made it with magic.

The inks: C gave me five bottles a few years ago for my birthday, and these are two of them. They’re lovely6 and very easy on my pens. But every time I use them, I have to use the Google Translate camera on the boxes and then consult various fountain pen forums to remember what their deal is. The short version: they’re from a line of inks commemorating the four seasons, that Sailor folded into another line of their inks about five years ago.7 Anyway, this time I wrote everything down and put Post-it notes in the boxes.

If you’re just here for the fountain pen and paper stuff, you’re done. Until next time, which will hopefully be sooner!

E

P.S. If you’re a Goulet Pens customer and aren’t aware of the latest already, you should probably check out at least the top of this /r/fountainpens thread.8

Have you noticed that more writers seem to be doing studio art type stuff lately? Or is it just me noticing this, because I’m one of them? I really threw myself into it about six months ago, and it’s been therapeutic.9

Lately I’ve been:

• Watching lots of YouTubes, mostly hosted by women of my demographic who do similar studio art type stuff.10

• Trying things out11, and having a really good time.

• Upcycling scraps into bookmarks and thinking about making notebooks for writers — a certain kind I’m fairly sure doesn’t exist in the handcrafted universe.

• Looking at online sales venues, trying out some sidegig Instagram handles…

Yes, it’s probably taken time I should have spent working on the novel. But I can’t get away from the idea that it’s been in service to that, too. At Writer Camp in August, I had two of the most productive days I’ve had in years. I’m certain that only happened because I stopped on the way there and bought a sketch pad and cheap markers to go with my laptop and Scrivener files. Both days, all of it was open in front of me and I never once thought what I was doing was a waste of time.

That said: I promise the next entry won’t be titled Crayola, Crayola, Crayola.

E