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Like a lot of writers probably do, I like to jot down notes prior to starting a writing session or do story structure planning on paper. I’ve opted to use fountain pens and a range of colours to emphasise links between sentences, to highlight important sections and the like. I feel the whole visual effect works well to make sense after that whole brain dump. Linking and highlighting and prioritising and ordering sequences is easy to do quickly with different colours. Each of my pens has a different nib too, so they feel different, and the way the ink flows onto the paper is different. I like to write in blue ink and then underline in black, to link and order sequences in red and green ink.
I now have four LAMY fountain pens. It didn’t start off that way, not too long ago I only had my LAMY Safari (the silver one) and I bought a fountain pen converter and the bottle of Parker Black Quink. Then I bought another Safari, this time so that I could have a pen with blue ink, but it fell onto the ground in a car park, and I found it the next day quite flat, but with the nib intact. I decided to get a more upmarket pen, the LAMY Studio (the black one in the photo), so I was able to reuse the undamaged nib because it was broader and not so fine. I also purchased some Blue LAMY ink, and it has this cute blotting paper reel on the outside of it, and another ink cartridge converter so I could refill from the ink bottle.
I knew I wanted two more pens so that I could use red and green inks and bought another LAMY Safari, but this one was a bronze/red wine colour. The ink is a Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red which has a nicely rounded bottom, so the ink pools on the edges of the bottle once it’s almost empty. My green pen is a special edition LAMY Al-star Harry Potter, and I chose Slytherin because it’s green and has snakes drawn down the cap and body. It’s a cool pen and I like using it. The ink is another Pelikan, but this one is from their Edelstein ink collection – a beautiful Jade colour. The bottle is a completely different shape to the red Pelikan one, but it has this wonderful concave feel to all four sides, and the inside bottom is curved.
Is four fountain pens enough? Well, four colours might be, but I’m sure only owning four ink pens isn’t, and if I buy any more it will have to be because I have another colour in mind. Maybe a violet, or a Tanzanite Blue Black, or a Mandarin Orange, but like story ideas, the colours and shades are endless.
And if you like the book covers, you can find out more at: https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-Kernot/author/B00CJJP82K or Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5335438.David_Kernot