Fountain Pens, Notebooks, and the Daily Journal I Started

January 12, 2025 · 2 min read

I bought a fountain pen last month after spending about three weeks deciding which one to get. I was actually worried this was going to be a classic case of researching the gear for a hobby longer than the hobby lasts. LAMY or Pilot. Fine nib or medium. Cartridges or converter. I was deep in it, but the pen was just the gateway, and what I actually wanted was to write stories.

A few months ago I started filling my evenings with writing courses. Udemy has a short story class, Coursera has a whole creative writing specialization, and North Seattle College offers something too. I’ve been wanting to be a storyteller ever since I realized that telling stories is the most powerful way to enjoyably share information, teach others, and communicate feelings and ideas. However, the whole thing felt like putting together a costume of a person who writes, hoping the habit would follow the outfit.

Alongside the courses, I started working on my handwriting. Repeatedly practicing the same letters, focusing on using my wrist and arm instead of my fingers, trying to unlearn the death grip I’ve had on pens since grade school. It felt meditative in a way I didn’t expect. Just me and the page, slowing down. Somewhere along the way, the practice sentences turned into full paragraphs, then into stream of consciousness, and then I realized the handwriting notebook had become a journal.

Nothing ambitious in it. Just whatever came to mind. I would wake up at 4am and write for hours before the day started. I picked up a Moleskine at the same time I bought the pen, and somehow the combination was enough. The pen is nice to hold. I’ve been writing in it every day for over a month now, which is the longest I’ve held any writing habit since finishing college.

While the courses didn’t make me a writer, the journal did something the courses couldn’t. It made writing a default instead of a project. The real value isn’t the notebook itself. It’s that the notebook creates continuity between days in my mind, pressing me to continue working on things I worked on yesterday and habits that I want to build. Without it, each day feels independent and habits I want to build risk being forgotten. Moreover, I can look back and see what I was thinking about on a random Tuesday three weeks ago, and that alone is worth the price of admission.

I don’t know if this leads anywhere. Maybe I’ll write a short story eventually. Maybe I’ll just have a really nice pen and a stack of notebooks. Both outcomes feel fine.