Pencil and Paper?

[MarjaE]

So what do you find helpful when writing with pencil and paper?

I need a pencil and a hard surface to write. Usually a clipboard. I can also use a hardback notebook. I would like a hardback binder, so I can move pages, remove them and scan them, etc., but so far I've only found soft plastic or soft cardboard ones. A lap desk can also be very useful.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

So what do you find helpful when writing with pencil and paper? [...]

Someone else to do the writing.

My handwriting has deteriorated to such an extent that I have trouble reading it, so I keep it to a minimum. I generally use a felt-tip or roller-ball styled pen (rather than a pencil) and just scratch out mistakes. These pens need almost no pressure to write so that you can get away with writing on almost any surface and it's easier on the hand. It often needs considerable imagination when it comes to interpreting the result, but that's okay too.

[MarjaE]

Ah. I've always had trouble with pens, they're too slippery.

[pdurrant]

Do you like a traditional hexagonal pencil, or one of the new-fangled triangular ones? Or perhaps you have one of those triangular rubber grips for ordinary pencils?

Standard HB, or you you prefer something softer - 2B or even 4B?

And as for paper - loose, or a notebook? Laid or Wove?


Then again, I'm not a writer, so perhaps I should stay out of this.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

Ah. I've always had trouble with pens, they're too slippery.

Is the pen surface too slippery in your fingers, or is the nib too slippery on the paper? For the former you can get silicone sleeves (searching "silicone sleeves for pen" gave me a lot of results). For the latter ... well, that's the price of not needing to apply pressure to write. I think it's something you can get used to, and I find it better for my hand, less tiring, but all this stuff is a matter of personal preference.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[...]Then again, I'm not a writer, so perhaps I should stay out of this.

Lots of people besides writers have reason to take notes. It's all just words, whatever we are recording them for.

[Quoth]

I mostly do handwritten annotation and notes on diagrams. If it's text, I type. I take notes on the phone or tablet with "Jota", which makes files easily imported to anything. Either a plain text editor on laptop, or else LO Writer if I want headings etc.

I might use a spreadsheet for timelines.

If I want to check in the shop that I don't have a title, I look at a phone picture of that part of the library. I've done document, book library, video library and inventory/consumables software for others and I have two kinds of barcode scanners apart from the phone. However, nearly 35 years later I've still not even started a catalogue of my physical media.

[MarjaE]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Do you like a traditional hexagonal pencil, or one of the new-fangled triangular ones? Or perhaps you have one of those triangular rubber grips for ordinary pencils?

Either round ones or hexagonal ones.

Standard HB, or you you prefer something softer - 2B or even 4B?

#2 or HB is fine. #2.5 or F is a bit better for me. P.S. And with pens, it's the alternately slippery and sticky ball points. Either way, I have coordination problems, have all my life, and don't expect more practice to do what years of practice in school could never do.

And as for paper - loose, or a notebook? Laid or Wove?

In the past I've used notebooks, but so I can replace pages more easily, scan, then, and so on, I think I should go back to a binder if I can find one which is hard enough.

Then again, I'm not a writer, so perhaps I should stay out of this.

I'm mostly doing research game writing, and looking into solo games too. So not conventional writing.

[Deskisamess]

I take handwritten notes at church. I use Pilot G-2 mechanical pencils, on half-sheet size unlined paper. My biggest challenge is finding decent paper with good "teeth". What I'm using now is a tad too slick.

I need to be able to erase, and when writing (printing) quickly I'm much neater with a pencil than a pen. Part of that is from working at a salon that used a paper schedule. You had to write small and neat, and be able to erase for schedule changes.

I may just cut and punch my own 24# paper from now on. I know I could buy decent lined paper, but lines are too restrictive. I usually fill both sides of the paper with no problems keeping the lines straight.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

So what do you find helpful when writing with pencil and paper?

I need a pencil and a hard surface to write. Usually a clipboard...

I don't use paper and pencil for much besides crossword puzzles, but my brother turned me into a mechanical pencil collector for a while – he collected for years – so I've got a bunch of them. Probably my favorite, the one I use the most, is a PaperMate Cassette Advancer Pencil 0.05mm. (Say that with one breath.) That, and a cheap Saunders "made in the U.S.A." clipboard from Walmart and I'm good to go.

I like the weight and feel of the PaperMate Advancer. For a while there were a lot of cassette mechanical pencils. Scripto, Berol, Sanford, PaperMate, Schaeffer – and probably several others – sold them. I guess the idea was that you never had to touch the lead. These were all either manufactured by (or licensed to) Kotobuki, a Japanese pen and pencil company that holds more mechanical pencil patents than any other company in the world.

https://data.epo.org/publication-ser.../document.html

You can still find these Advancers. A stationary company has been selling them for years on eBay and Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Papermate-Cas...7364593&sr=8-1

Finding the original cartridges is about impossible, but you can refill them.

What I did, though, is bought these cartridges (you won't be able to use the cap). 600 leads for about $8.50 and it's good, high quality, smooth lead. The erasers are dried up though, so you'll have to find another source for them.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Paper-Mate-...b341%7Ciid%3A1

The clipboard...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Saunders-...Clip/130584306

As usual, I ramble way too long on these things. Sorry.

[hobnail]

I also rarely use a pencil. I'm still working my way through the cheap ball point pens I accidentally took home from the office. Maybe I should get a real pen:

https://www.montblanc.com/en-us/foun...411778572.html

And $20 off if you sign up for their newsletter; what a deal!

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I also rarely use a pencil. I'm still working my way through the cheap ball point pens I accidentally took home from the office. Maybe I should get a real pen:

https://www.montblanc.com/en-us/foun...411778572.html

And $20 off if you sign up for their newsletter; what a deal!

Yeah, but where's the matching pencil?

But $20 off if I sign up for the newsletter... hmm... that's hard to resist!

[MarjaE]

I would get disposable pencils and reload through the tip.

[GlenBarrington]

I use the pencil to press the keys, and I put the paper in the printer!

[crich70]

For a good part of his writing career Piers Anthony used a piece of paper on a clipboard (with a storage area for paper) and a pencil for his first drafts. He found it easier at the time than trying to find time at the typewriter (one of his daughters was a baby at the time).

[crich70]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

I use the pencil to press the keys, and I put the paper in the printer!