Writer's Tools
What's in Your Wallet?
Are your pens and pencils important to you? How about your keyboard? I am so particular that somebody else might find it strange. I like a smooth writing implement. I like a dark, fine line. Sometimes, though, I revert to my younger years, where I flip out with a blue line. I would crumble with joy if somebody found a box of Foray stick pens in their closet, the ones with a fine tungsten tip. I have yet to find anything to compare to them. I do have some others that will do, but oh, those Foray pens that Office Depot made were the best.
I have found a couple of acceptable substitutes for the Foray pens. One is a Tul ultra-fine line. Another is called Chinco 0.35 mm Black Gel Ink Pen. These are advertised on Amazon as recommended for use in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean schools and offices. What I like about both of these pens is that they are a no-smear variety, and they glide smoothly across the page.
I also like a 2HB pencil. The best is from Ticonderoga. They don’t scratch. Nothing drives me up the wall faster than having a pen or pencil scratch on me. The tips of these pencils also need to be sharp. I keep a battery-powered pencil sharpener near me on my desk. A substitute pencil would be a mechanical pencil. The ones I like to use are the super-strong leads that don’t break under pressure.
Same thing with drawing. I would go to hell and back to find the old blue Berol 2HB pencils. They are no longer manufactured, and the only places you can find them are at yard sales or Goodwill thrift stores. The old, discontinued Berol drawing pencils are no longer available.
I like a notebook with lines all the way to the edges of the paper. I prefer college-lined paper and not the wider-lined stuff.
I like Moleskine notebooks, but I've also picked up other notebooks over the years. Some are decorated, others are plain. I used to think that I needed to use up one notebook before I started another. Now? I choose whichever one is closest to hand. What I did learn, though, is to date whatever entries I make. That way, I can see when I last used a notebook. It might have been six months ago. It could have been ten years ago. I suppose it’s sort of like looking at old photographs.
My keyboard has to be a Logitech with the wave in it. The ergonomic one. The keys need to click. I can remember when I first started using computers, and keyboards were silent. It just didn’t feel productive. There was even a program then that would allow your keyboard to make the old clackety clickety noises we all had when we worked with typewriters. I guess I wasn’t the only one who missed the sound effects.
Additionally, I become irritable if my fingernails grow too long. They need to be short with a slight tip to them. Useful for various activities, like removing staples, but particularly suited for a keyboard of that length. I know it is time to trim them when I begin to catch the keys above the row I actually want to be on.
I enjoy writing with my eyes closed. A person who types with two fingers wouldn’t be able to do that. They don’t know what they are missing. My husband learned to type with two fingers. That’s how he did it. Then, he became a reporter for a newspaper. He might have been super-fast, but it shamed him to be the only one in the newsroom who typed with two fingers. He set out to learn how to type. We had a program called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing that he used to learn how to type. As expected, learning how to use all of his fingers to type slowed him down considerably, but eventually he learned where all his fingers needed to be on the keyboard and became proficient. We don’t know how fast he is, but all that really matters is that he is fast enough.
The last time I tested my typing speed, it was 75 words a minute, give or take. My accuracy over the years has declined, but I also rely on the grammar and spell checkers that come with my word processing programs: Word, Scrivener, and Atticus.
Something interesting about keyboards that even people who know how to use all their fingers don’t always know is that you can find your home keys easily in a poorly lit room or if you’ve typed so much on a keyboard that half of your letters are worn off is that there are tiny bumps on the F and the J keys. That’s where your index fingers go when you lay your other fingers in line. The way I learned to type was from those home keys. Your left pinkie lay on the letter A. However, it reaches up one row to get to Q and down one row to get to Z. Your next finger, the ring finger on your left hand, has the home key of S, but it reaches up one row to W and down one row to X. Both of your thums can work the space bar, though I tend to use my right thumb to do that.
Have you ever heard of a keyboard layout described as QWERTY? Those are the letters your left hand reaches up to, and the index finger on your right hand reaches up to on the row above your home keys. Those are just factoids that an experienced typist is never going to consciously think about.
It’s like driving. Yes, once upon a time, you needed to know a lot of the rules of the road in order to get your driver’s license. In those early days of driving, an inexperienced driver needed to be aware of so many different things. I used to get terrible neckaches when I drove; I was so tense. But as time went by, I relaxed. I internalized all those rules, so that I was constantly scanning for kids and pets beside the road. I was always super cautious driving through neighborhoods near schools. I knew to stay way far away from anybody who was weaving because they were either high, drunk, old, or in some way incapacitated. Unfortunately, now what I see are angry drivers. These are the ones who race through traffic, who switch lanes often, who will exit a freeway from three rows across the roadway and who act like asses.
Oh, because I am a psychic channel, I want to tell you a channeling funny. Years ago, I was driving to work. For whatever reason, I was surrounded by people who should never have gotten driver’s licenses. They were constantly tailgating me, driving erratically, flipping the bird at me, slowing down, and speeding up. I felt like I was in some horror movie, and these people stuck with me the entire time I was driving to work. I was both frightened by and angered by their behavior. So, it happened that I started verbally cursing at them. I remember saying something like, “Where did all these assholes come from?” That was when my spirit guide, Seth, said to me, “Yep. Everybody’s got one.” And that took the wind out of my sails. I also had to laugh.
Another tool I've recently begun using is listening to what I’ve written. I can do that in Word. You go to the Review tab, and about five selections in from the left-hand side, I find the Read Aloud tab.
I have also recently begun seeing what ChatGPT.com can do. Evidently, they offer up five different sorts of editing for the stuff you write. It’s pretty amazing. What I especially like about the piece I submitted for review is that ChatGPT will also read your selection back to you. It is 100 times better than the voice in Word. Additionally, you can capture the voice file, upload it to Audacity, and then download it as an MP3 file to your computer to use in the YouTube video you are creating. Currently, I create my audio files using ElevenLabs.io, which costs $22 per month. To create videos, I use Canva.com. I’ve only done it the one time, and I haven’t gotten as far as uploading it to Canva, so personally, I can’t tell you if that actually works. In theory, yes, it should work. In actuality? We’ll see.
One last thing about writing tools. Sometimes I like to listen to music while I write. You can find writer’s rooms on YouTube that have a timed piece of music playing while you write. Or you can go to Spotify. I’ve also begun using writer’s rooms on a program from MeetUp.com that is called Shut Up and Write. They’ve got moderators who host the gatherings all over the place. I chose one based in Santa Cruz, California, about 2 ½ hours or 70 miles from where I live. Not that proximity has anything to do with it, because the members who attended the two writing sessions I joined were in different time zones and even different countries. Free. Did I mention that?
You can look on YouTube and find any number of writing rooms. Here’s one by Abbie Emmons that lasts two hours. There are others. She likes a 25-minute sprint with a 5-minute pause.
Everybody in the Shut Up and Write group was working on their own projects. We would go around the room and introduce ourselves by stating our name and where we were from, and then mention what we planned to work on over the next two hours. The session then began at 10:00 am and lasted until noon. Then, at the end, the moderator again went around the room to see how everybody did. I remember one lady said she hadn’t gotten anything done because she was nursing her baby. Another said she answered her emails. I remember another working on editing her book. It was all supposed to be writing-related, whatever you worked on. Lately, I have been writing articles primarily for Substack and Medium. I also write scripts for YouTube on the three different channels I have. The links will be listed below the article. Perhaps, this year, I will dig out one of the books I wrote a while back and see if I can’t get them nearer to a published state. This particular group had a Zoom meeting room, and you could either turn your camera on or off. I noticed as we were all writing, there was only one person who kept her camera on.
Having a group of people to write with is somehow comforting to me. Or, perhaps it's a case of misery loves company. Except, I’m never miserable when I write.
But all these are the tools I use to help me write. Additionally, I have some documents on my computer that I use to help nudge me into a more enthusiastic or writerly mood. One of them I call the Do Good File. My rule is that I will write something relatively short, maybe 250 to 400 words long, that is either encouraging or motivational. I had initially called it my Do Better File. Whatever works. Often, these mini pieces of writing end up as a Facebook post or a YouTube Short. YouTube Shorts can now be up to three minutes long.
It’s interesting to me that my Do Good File evolved from a suggestion made by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. He encouraged people to say something uplifting or motivational as they swung their feet out of bed in the morning. Many times, I was too sleepy, confused, or already in a bad mood to come up with anything worth saying. It’s like trying to feel gratitude about something when you really can’t whip up a lick of gratitude. Writing these smaller pieces allowed me to get up, clean my face, make some coffee, and generally wake up a little bit. Many times, I would focus on one word in the file for a few weeks because I couldn’t think of anything right off the bat. That word for me has been Hope. So, if ever I am bereft of words, I think of hope, and magic happens.
So, as far as I can tell, these are the tools I use as a writer to keep me motivated and productive. What do you rely upon? Do you change up your routines? Do you write around a job, or are you retired, like I am, and can pretty much write at any time you like?
Thanks for reading.
Love,
🌺Pauline Evanosky
🌺My Other Links:
The Best Stuff for Kids on YouTube
Just Passing Through on YouTube
Talking To Spirit on YouTube
Talking To Spirit on Substack
Talking To Spirit — my website
My Table of Contents for Medium — Updated monthly - Articles are available for Non-Medium members.
Pencil Stubs Online