How do you write?

I write with two inexpensive, fairly common fountain pens. One is a Camlin, the other an even more obscure and easily forgettable brand -- in a world of Parkers, Montblancs, Lamys and other collectible heavies.

But it wasn't always so. For most of my initial days as a Copywriter, I used to write with pencils. And I still have fond memories of my daily "getting-down-to-work" ritual. The sharpening of 4-5 pencils (with a blade) in a frenzied abandon that used to leave the area around my desk littered with shards and shrapnel of wood.

Typically, before getting down to writing copy, I would also normally sign my name on the numerous scribble pads littering my desk. And recollect and rewrite quotes like -- "I am a pencil".

Looking back at those days, one reason I can think of -- for persisting in writing with pencils -- is that, when writing with pencils, editing becomes a matter of just erasing out what is errant (for the client or the client-servicing person) and the copywriting gets done without turning the page into a battlefield of scratched out and crossed out words, something unavoidable when writing with pens.

And one consumes less paper, even if it is one-sided paper.

But then, coming back to the reason for writing this post, I write with fountain pens these days and I am high on ink. Which brings me to another ritual that I have been following for most of the last three months.

My pens bleed ink.

No, they don't just leak ink, there is no leak as such, the nib and the feeder are fitted just fine. The pens just bleed ink and I have to clean them up and leave them to dry (without the cap on) before I can get down to doing anything else.

Is it because of the high humidity levels thanks to the profuse rains we have had over the Deccan? Or is it that, for the pen -- bleeding ink is release?

I don't know, but either way, its a good problem to have and smelling ink is a good way to start another day of writing.

Then of course, there are the bonuses. Poetry has come to me thanks to the persistent inkbleeds and the smell of ink. Poetry that demands immediacy and is jotted down by me (in ink) as yet another scrap, yet another note, as the welcome flight of yet another stray bird....

Poetry like this

We dry,
my ink pens and I

Do I write all day with pen and ink? Unfortunately no, I tap out most copy on a laptop. But even for work purposes, sometimes writing in ink (on one-sided paper) helps.