Writing is a tactile activity. Although I often pound away at the computer keyboard, I also do a lot of writing in longhand, depending on where I find myself attempting to produce. I prefer composition books and rollerball pens. Everyone has their favorites but I’ve become unreasonably snobby about writing tools. For years I wrote with actual fountain pens because the flow of ink is unrestricted and rich. Alas, they lack a certain practicality, as does using an actual quill which is darn near an artform all its own.

I’ll mark up a cocktail napkin, scribble on receipts, and sacrifice half the checks in the checkbook if I’ve got to get the words down – but it has to be with smooth flowing ink. Hand me a cheap ballpoint pen and I’m mentally thinking about thrusting it through your neck and wondering how I could work that into the next chapter of my WIP. It could be a sickness. I dunno.

Don’t touch that one either.

The fancy pens provide unparalleled tactile pleasure but truth is, they’re heavy to hold and they suck ink like it’s red wine on Ladies’ Night in a pub come Friday evening. For me, pens are talismans. They’re physical manifestations of the conduit from which insight pours out of my mind – or some such nonsense.

I’ve had my eye on a lovely one for a while but it’s so heavy my fingers ache after writing even a memo. The one covered with Swarovski crystals was like writing with a small skinny porcupine. Ouch.

What spins your top when it comes to writing? Anything make you go Gollum? Come on…share a pet peeve, a quirk, a habit…you know you’ve got one, right?