cashew | More thoughts on Fountain Pens™ (Reply)

tanithryudo brought up a point in my ranty long post about the economy of fountain pens: What about those people who no longer use writing utensils?

That reminds me of another peeve I have with fountain pen hobbyists.

Fountain pens are, first and foremost, a writing tool. The purpose of promoting fountain pens is to encourage others who write to use fountain pens over their current writing utensil. Those who have, like

tanithryudo, switched over to a purely digital lifestyle are not the target audience. Therefore, I find it extremely aggravating to read fountain pen guides that seem to go out of their way to explain why one should use a fountain pen without acknowledging that a very large portion of the population no longer even use any analogue writing instruments.

Anyway. Because of this, I'm delving into the other end of the fountain pen discussion: Why you should NOT use a fountain pen.

I have seen way, way too many comments in fountain pen forums/reddits/blogs that amounts to What do I use my fountain pens for? This is not a question that I should be seeing on a pen blog. So, let's get something clear here:

Fountain pens are for serious writers. Sure, you can use fountain pens because you like to whip out a $700 phallic symbol to show off your manliness, but ultimately, the fountain pen was not developed to help you in a dick measuring contest. If you are not a serious writer, I highly recommend against getting a fountain pen.

Here's how you can know if you're a serious (hand)writer.

Spend more than 5 hours a week writing.
Writing ergonomics is a genuine concern in your life.
You have a writing callous on your finger.
You seriously debate the merits of rollerball liquid ink pens vs. micron gel pens when in a stationary store.
You are involved in academia.

If any of the above applies to you, you are probably a serious writer and should consider the merits of a fountain pen. If none of the above applies to you, you need to seriously examine why you want to invest in a fountain pen. Do you just like to collect pretty things? I mean, I guess there are worse hobbies. Do you want to be a serious writer? Fountain pen ownership is not going to make you a serious writer, consider investing in establishing a writing habit first. Do you just enjoy the romance of analogue tools and want to be part of the hipster new age cool kids clique? Try a different hobby, like political activism. More people will benefit from your interest.

In short, fountain pens are meant for Serious Writers™. Being a Serious Writer™ is a habit formed over the course of a life time. There's nothing particularly special about it. And yes, you can be a Serious Writer™ without a fountain pen.

With that established, here are the reasons that I, personally, find far more convincing for making the switch to fountain pens for those Serious Writers™.

Creative writing is greatly impacted by the mood of the writer and the mood of the writer is, in turn, greatly impacted by the environment, which includes the writing tool. Fountain pens are aesthetically pleasing and can help put the writer into a more creative mood. My personal experience is that when I put pen to paper (as opposed to typing), I'm just more productive. This may be due to habit, but there are also some evolutionary reasons, one of which is that our brains have been heavily selected to react to physical stimulus to our hand. We actively think more comprehensively when composing by hand than typing on a computer. (In fact, musicians compose more complex scores when composing by hand compared to when they compose on a digital composer. The physical aspect of moving our entire hand is pretty critical to our brain's creative neural processing.) Are there writers who prefer typing? Yes, but it does not invalidate the fact that the majority of people simply compose better by hand than by typing.
Fountain pens are definitely cheaper than rollerballs in the long run. And if you are a Serious Writer™, then you are probably burning through hundreds of dollars of rollerballs already (I spent so much $$$ on those damn things until I was informed of fountain pen availability online). You might as well save some money by switching over the fountain pen, which literally offers you the exact same writing quality (liquid ink) with lots of ink shades that you don't get via rollerballs. (Again, going back to point #1 about fun environment for writing.) Yes, the upfront payment is slightly more expensive, but soon the only thing you'll be shelling out for is new ink, which isn't nearly as often. (I haven't bought any new ink for about three years now.) BTW, anyone who says more expensive fountain pens write better is straight up lying. Unless it's a sub-$10 pen, they all pretty much write the same. (With the $50+ only slightly smoother in terms of writing quality.)
Fountain pens respond to hand pressure. It's a bit of a unique experience that cannot be reproduced in the ball-based ink dispensing system. So, if you enjoy that particular response from your pen...um, well, you're pretty much only going to be able to reproduce that experience in a fountain pen. In fact, the fountain pen becomes your only choice in this matter. (And yes, I do know that the ballpoint pens can also put down a lighter line when gently stroked across the page, but it's not the kind of pressure response I am talking about, and further more, that particular quirk is far more applicable to artists than Writers™, so it's kind of like comparing apples and oranges. What artists need are often so specific to the type of art that it's near impossible to "recommend" a tool and artists are better off experimenting until they find the tool set that they enjoy.)

Anything else, I find to be utterly unconvincing. Why do I need a fountain pen to seem more professional? (You don't.) Why do I need to write in a unique ink color? (You don't.) Why do I need to practice my penmanship? OK, well, actually, you DO need good penmanship. That's because if your writing is ugly, no one feels good reading it, not even you, and then you don't want to go over your work and edit it and whoever you're submitting your work to also hates it and it's just a downward spiral of pain for everyone involved. For pete's sake, practice your penmanship and improve your handwriting.

Now, of course you can still collect fountain pens without being a Serious Writer™, but you are less qualified to really discuss the advantages/disadvantages of the pen and probably should not be chiming in on these discussions. Your reasons are usually not particularly convincing and are highly personalized to you. And the thing about personalized reasons is that they are often not applicable to anyone else other than yourself, so.

Back off on pushing the fountain pen agenda. Just tell me what the new models are, what their pros and cons are, and I'll decided if I need to buy them for myself.

(This rant brought to you as

cashew looks for new fountain pen models to decide if it's worth shelling out $$$ for a more customized writing experience, but mostly because eye candy is nice. Personally, I'm still looking for the perfect fountain pen that suits my specific set of needs; needs that are currently being fulfilled by multiple pens and rotated depending on what experience I'm looking for. The perfect pen might not exist, but it doesn't stop me from looking. Also, did I mention eye candy?)