THE WRITERLY LIFE--Pen Musings

Ballpoint pens. One of those things you probably use every day but don’t give much thought to. As a writer, I am (seemingly by definition) a ballpoint pen collector. At any given moment in time, I probably have more than one hundred in my inventory. (It’s not “hoarding” if you actually use them, correct? Just checking.)

Pens are everywhere! Tucked in spines of notebooks and journals; stuffed into coffee cups throughout the house; MIA somewhere in my car (I usually harvest at least twenty from underneath the driver’s seat every time I go fishing for a dropped French fry); and often i have at least one jammed into a sweatshirt pocket—which I will hopefully remember to remove before sending the shirt through the laundry.  

Why so many pens, you ask? I need them handy for when I experience a writing epiphany, as those things happen at the most inopportune moments. These sudden spurts of creative brilliance are often fleeting, and I will forget them if I don’t write them down. Toute de suite. So I make sure a writing implement is always a mere arm’s length away.

I also use them when working a word puzzle or Sudoku, which is what I do when my muses take their required-by-law fifteen-minute break after an hour of writing. (These muses have a strong union behind them.)

I can’t live without my ballpoint pens. In the old days I had to settle for black, blue or red ink. But now? Oh, the rainbow of colors available fairly takes my breath away. I use the bright or pastel hues to help plot stories or highlight problem areas in print versions of manuscripts. When taking a workshop, it helps me organize my notes by using different color pens. Must be the artist in me. (That’s a joke…I have zero artistic talent.)

So where is all this talk about ballpoint pens going? Why, to National Ballpoint Pen Day, celebrated on June 10^th this year. (It’s a real thing. But go ahead and Google it if you don’t believe me.)

This got me to thinking (as Internet research often does) as to the origins of these wonders of the modern age. Of course, they have always been a part of my life, but I discovered they are a fairly late arrival on the writing-implement front. Fountain pens had been the only way to go, up until about eighty years ago. Seems the hypnotist/racecar driver/ Surrealist painter Laszlo Brio became annoyed when his fountain pen’s nib splattered ink or tore his paper. He found a fast-drying ink, but it was too thick to work with a nib. Yada yada yada, he invented the ballpoint pen. It took a savvy accountant to realize the brilliance of this invention, showed it to someone high up in the British military forces during WW II. Seems the ordinary fountain pen wasn’t good at high altitudes, where note-taking by navigators was a necessity for survival. But the ballpoint pen worked! They ordered 30,000 pens.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Consider this your reminder that National Ballpoint Pen Day is only six days away. Be sure and mark your calendars. Please, celebrate responsibly!