Dear Lemmy fountain pen community,
I’m well over 50 and I started using a fountain pen in school, when I was still a little kid learning to write. That was back in the 70s. All those years, I’ve always been using a fountain pen of some sort for most of the stuff I write, and sketch.
I was wondering how many of us were still using a fountain pen to write long-form content? I mean, are you using one to write letters, keep a journal, or for any other form of content?
Even though I don’t have a nice handwriting, I know quite a few people who like receiving my handwritten letters more than a neatly typed letter, and so do I. It kinda feels more personal and unique.
Beside the now too rare handwritten letter, sketching and keeping a journal another thing I like doing when I work on a long text is to draft it using a pen. Only once I’m done with that draft I will switch to the computer for the final typed version. It sure is much slower to write longhand which is exactly what I’m looking for: less speed, aka more time to (try to) think. And less distractions too ;)
My grandma is hard of hearing so she prefers written correspondence. I like using my fountain pen to write postcards because there’s something about the tactile feedback of a fountain pen. Like typing on a nice keyboard. Also I can change the color of the inks to match the season, stamps, and whatever.
Getting older myself (worse eyesight and a much worse hearing) I would not have thought about that but that’s a good point you’re making.
I also appreciate a nice keyboard but I also have a hard time finding anything that suits my needs. My granddad taught me to touch-type when I was still a little child (even then, I wanted to write stories and make ‘magazines’ for my friends) and si I learned on his old full-mechanical and full-metal typewriter (an Olympia SG1, if anyone is interested). Compared to this wonder, all keyboards do feel a bit plasticy and lightweight to me ;)
Younger I liked doing that too. Nowadays, I use two, three inks at most.