shopify analytics ecommerce tracking
Walsh and Bolton Twitter Unconference Advertise Facebook Book Zazzle Search

Pens, Ranked

By 24 Comments

*sense of humor required

Warning: Hacks for Hacks tips may have harmful side effects on your writing career, and should not be used by minors, adults, writers, poets, scribes, scriveners, journalists, or anybody.

Like cameras, umbrellas, and getaway cars, the best pen is the one you have with you. We writers tend to have a dozen pens with us at any given time, though—when the muse comes to you and whispers profundity into your ear, which pen do you grab to write your masterpiece? This month, the Hacks for Hacks team looked at hundreds of pens, from ball points to gels to smear-resistant models for lefties. Using our scientific rating criteria, we ranked the best pens available.

  1. Pilot Precise V7. I have one of these in my pocket at all times. Versatile and affordable, the V7 is perfect for everything from a novel to a grocery list. Don’t take it on an airplane, however, as the differences in altitude and cabin pressure will cause some leakage. As long as you’re on solid ground, though, the Pilot V7 will remain a trusty friend your whole life long.
  2. The fancy pen you got as a graduation gift. Doesn’t it look nice on your desk? Don’t you feel like an author just looking at it? These are stylish, and will never run out of ink because you can’t bring yourself to actually use it.
  3. The pen you swiped from work. Why buy a box of pens for ten bucks when you can get the same model that your boss overpaid for, for free? Didn’t get that promotion? Then by God, you can recoup your lost salary one ink pen at a time.
  4. The complimentary pen from the swanky resort you stayed at. What, this old thing? I saw you staring at it. It must’ve accidentally fell into my suitcase as I was packing up when I took a holiday there. You should definitely go, but you know, they don’t let just anybody into Cabana Bay Motor Lodge at Universal Orlando.
  5. The quill pen from your wedding guest book. So elegant. A perfect compliment to your special day. The classic style reminds you of how beautiful she looked, and the feather evokes how your heart still soared whenever you saw her. But the thing about quill pens is that the ink, like your love, runs out far too quickly.

[Read more…]

6
0

Finding Resilience: A Dog Story

By 36 Comments

Here’s a story about a little dog named Pippa. Pippa is a Miniature Pinscher, a breed originally designed for rat catching. Although she is very small – 2.8 kilos or around 6 pounds – she has the temperament of a mighty hunter. Or maybe Queen of the Universe might be more appropriate. (And yes, this […]

What I’ve Learned About Presenting Online Writing Workshops

By 12 Comments

Like most professional writers, I’ve always supplemented my writing income with speaking gigs—workshops, talks, presentations of all sorts, both for adults and for children. Although over the years I’ve presented the odd Skype or other remotely-delivered live presentation, the vast majority of my speaking gigs have been face-to-face and in person. They’ve often involved travel […]

Where I Ought to Be: A Writer’s Sense of Place

By 17 Comments

Please welcome longtime Writer Unboxed community member Elizabeth A. Havey to the site today! If you’ve spent any time at all in the comments section here at WU (if you don’t you should, as loads of wisdom can be found there), you’re sure to recognize Beth, who is a kind and insightful regular commenter. A […]

Take Five: Barbara O’Neal and The Lost Girls of Devon

By 15 Comments

    Barbara O’Neal is a long time contributor to Writer Unboxed. She is the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and #1 Amazon bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids, The Art of Inheriting Secrets, and The Lost Recipe for Happiness. She lives in Colorado Springs with her partner, a British endurance athlete who […]

A Visitor and a Sin

By 18 Comments

It came to me in a dream… Earlier this year (April, to be exact), I posted about the intriguing dreams I was having given the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately a month after that posting, I had a particularly curious dream in which I was wandering the basement halls of a vast hospital complex. (The real-life correlate […]

What About Book Two?

By 9 Comments

Please welcome longtime Writer Unboxed community member and author Melanie Conklin to WU today! Melanie grew up in North Carolina and worked as a product designer for ten years before she began her writing career. Her debut middle grade novel, Counting Thyme, is a Bank Street Best Children’s Book, winner of the International Literacy Association […]

Publishing in a Pandemic: An Insider Interview with a Book Publicist

By 19 Comments

The first half of this year has been a monumental test in flexibility and resilience for authors and everyone in publishing. My debut novel, The Kindest Lie, will release on February 9, and that publishing date has changed several times as the William Morrow team attempted to position my book and others in their catalog […]

Cooking Life Into Fiction: Writing From What You Know

By 18 Comments

We’ve all heard the injunction to “write what you know.” Well, yes and no. If it were true, unequivocally, a female writer would have no male characters, and there would be no fantasy or historical fiction. That’s obviously not what the statement is meant to imply. While the injunction has merit in important ways—including, for […]

On the Way to Jerusalem

By 13 Comments

As it has for most of us, COVID-19 upended not just my plans, but my schedule. In March, all three of my weekly volunteer opportunities were cancelled until further notice, which put me in my house for six more hours a week than I usually am. I can’t remember what I frittered away those hours […]