I've kept a cursive journal for a long time. My choice of tools is a #2 yellow pencil. When I'm on a roll I often let the point get pretty dull. A couple of years ago when I had finished and was reading over my work I recognized the penmanship. I'd seen it somewhere else. Months later I found an old photo my grandmother had written on and recognized a similarity to mine. When I enlisted in the air force she usually wrote to me every other week...with a #2 dull pencil. Is there such a thing as DMA memory? A Google search didn't answer that question. If I were a young man arriving for a PhD that subject might be worth my time.
I always wanted to journal, but somehow I never could come up with anything interesting to write about. I've always preferred a #2 pencil too, Eric. Also have an affinity for the old-style medium point BIC ballpoint pens, with blue ink. My husband's grandfather wrote his autobiography when he was nearly 90, typed the whole thing himself, then had bound copies made (actual hard-cover books) for all family members. I loved reading it and wish I could leave something as interesting for my own children. I suppose I could make mine fiction.
My mother, who had to drop out of high school and move to the city to work, wrote pages and pages of poetry. She used mainly pencil, as I recall. She had a hunger to write, even if just frequent letters to the editor. Just between ourselves her poems weren't all that good but she wanted us to preserve them. She was most definitely the source of the family intelligence (three valedictorians out of six kids, and no, I wasn't one of them ).
Many times I have nothing to write, but I write anyway. I begin with the weather, then what happened yesterday. Probably no will ever read these scribbles, so it doesn't matter that it's not a lot different from yesterday. My point is that my head is usually filled with white noise. It's like a ball of twine with no visible end. Sometimes, when I stop my mind is still filled with a zillion fragments of nothings. However, sometimes a gem comes tumbling out onto the page. Sometime these gems lead to a dead end, sometimes there's something to grab. I don't recall who wrote to whom, but the author said: "this letter would have been shorter, but there wasn't time." Let your pencil tell the first story. Some pretty cool things show up in the second draft. I've been writing amateur radio stories for the K9YA Telegraph, a Chicago e-magazine for five or six years. Sometimes I rewrite my submissions six or seven times.
Yes. Each molecule of DNA contains approx. 4 gigs of “entangled” memory much of which is suspected to hold experiences, likes, dislikes etc of those in one’s genetic line. About writing though, I used to love to write but I had to use a fountain pen. Call it a fetish of sorts, but it didn’t seem right to practice cursive writing without it. Now I just scribble with anything that’s handy at the time and generally just print to boot.
Writing for one's self is one thing; writing for others takes talent. Apparently my talent is reading, not writing. I envy your ability to write and I'm enjoying stories that you share.
Thanks for that info. Life is filled with twists and turns. Back in the late eighties I owned a Commodore 64. I joined a writing group and after year I learned what everyone else was using to scribble and I also saved a work sheet for developing a character. That alone made it a worthwhile exercise.
Actually, writing is hard work. If I were to base my hours against what gets printed I would stop. But I enjoy my character, especially when they tell what to write.