Editing The Pen Addict 718/transcript (section)

== Starting and maintaining a journaling habit ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, for sure. So, you had started journaling. You found that pen. Did that journaling habit continue? Like, here's a great question. This is like a TikTok question. Did the fountain pen make your journaling better, Derek? Derek? No. Because it was a medium.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' Absolutely not. That's the correct answer. I started it with a Pilot G2, like you do. That's what I knew. And it was a medium nib Waterman. And you know me well enough by now to know that a medium nib is a fire hose for how I write. So, I dealt with it until I got the Sailor, which was an extra fine with some oxblood after the Ackerman Shocking Blue. So, once I had a proper nib size for how I write, that's what changed the journaling. And the journaling did continue on and off. When things were going good in life, I didn't really journal. It's when, oh, this is happening, this is happening, you kind of go back to it. Hey, I should get caught up in this. And now it's kind of the opposite of, now that I'm keeping it more up to date, it's something to use, you know, all these pens and papers and washi and stickers in a different way. So, I do still journal, but now I've added in typewriters and other stationery items to the journaling. So, it's not, oh, I need to empty my brain out. It's, oh, I want to empty my brain out.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's a great way to put it. And I totally subscribe to that. How we use things is going to constantly change. But in the end, if you're someone who's listening to this podcast or watching Derek's videos, in the end, you just want to use your stuff and you should use your stuff. And finding the best way for you to use your stuff is key. And one of the things I wanted to circle back on, which is similar to how I got into fountain pens, and I'm repeating kind of what you said and relaying this story because I think it's helpful to listeners to understand because we have a lot of non-fountain pen listeners. And I'm a huge standard pen person myself. I'm maybe 50-50, if not 60-40 standard pens versus fountain pens. I'd have to do the math one year and track it all. But it's a pretty even mixture. And until I was told by someone else that I could take my small writing and translate that into a fountain pen nib, that unlocked everything, to your point about the sailor and the extra fine nib. Because as small writers like you and I are, even having like a .7 Pilot Precise, like a V7 Pilot Precise, was like, if I don't, it's 0.5 or nothing, right? And to learn that, in your case, in person, is just like a great way to think about it. And I do get those questions from people. That's why I'm reiterating this. Hey, I love the .38, you know, whatever, Signo DX or Pilot High Tech C. Does a, is a fountain pen, can it even be in that realm? I was like, ah, you can get pretty darn close, if not better than that. Might take a little work. You're not going to walk into Staples and get that. But, this community and this industry, there is something there, even for us tiny writers. So, I appreciate you sharing that.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' No, and the thing that goes along with that, too, is it's different for every person. How you hold the pen, the paper, the ink, and people new especially. That's why I love having a pen club, because if someone's like in our pen club Discord, hey, I need something that writes finer. I'm like, okay, let me stock up the pen cases for next pen club meeting with, you know, extra fine or smaller, and then just put them out on the table and say, write with them. They're all inked. Write with one that you find that you like, and then we can talk about what it is and where you would want to go being new of what would be similar or, you know, to kind of help guide. Because I didn't have that really at first, because the extra fine nibs, they're not the flashy thing. They're not going to show the shimmers and the sheens the same way. So on social media, you see the double broad or the crazy grinds with the shimmer, and you don't really see the small print writing with extra fine nibs. And that's kind of what kicked into the, I'm going to make a video on this, because there's people out there I know who like it and like to write small. But like you said, there's not as much content about that because, you know, oh, fountain pen, you must be writing cursive or all this beautiful script. No, my cursive is terrible. As much as I try and bring it back, it's not going to happen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I think about all the time doing more just like tiny writing content. And like my tiny writing would like lose any tiny writing contest. But related to like what people see, you know, in just the general writing population, it's super tiny. So how, so you transitioned it perfectly into, it's like, well, I don't see the thing that I'm interested in necessarily. Let me make a video about it. Is that kind of how thinking about moving into, you know, creating a YouTube channel, eventually, you know, having the podcast, things like that. What kind of got you motivated to take this like next step?

'''Derek DeWeese:''' It's Joe Kreis' fault without him realizing it. So the gentleman stationer had just opened up the physical store in October. So I was like, oh, that's great. I've been following Joe online. A store I can go to and look at pins, I'm in. And then I go there and my wife, she was not really into pins at that point, but then she saw a traveler's notebook. And then we got the color vent calendar and the diamond. I was like, I'm going to make videos of swatching all these inks, one every day in November and then one every day in December because I didn't want to try and do two at once. And in general, I used to do photography as a hobby and I did some video, but I hated editing videos. So on this iteration, I actually enjoyed the editing process and looking at it and doing it. It was just something a little bit each day until I realized, man, I can't do this each day. So I had to start staging him a little bit to, you know, get ahead of the game. And that kind of led into, oh, wait, people are actually watching this and commenting. It's, they like seeing it. It's a different take because I'm not doing the same kind of swatching or whatnot. I'm more utilitarian in how I use a lot of my stationery stuff. And then that kind of led down the, oh, well, I also got this new pen. I should make a video on that. And, oh, look, I found this new paper. So it just kind of led down to where we are.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' When you're discovering, like the Gentleman Stationer opening up a little bit before then, have you started to like expand your collection of fountain pens, like your personal stuff that you were using or not even just fountain pens, stationery as a whole? Had you, you know, over the previous years leading into that, did you start kind of like getting into like a few more things?

'''Derek DeWeese:''' I was pretty good with my collection because I was a user in that, you know, I had the platinum desk pens at my office when I worked in an office. I was traveling about a week for work and I kept a bottle of Roshizuku in the desk drawer in case I needed to refill. But I was taking my brass town with me, you know, traveling around the country for work at the time. And then when 2020 hit, I was a little bit of the opposite of most people. I stopped using a lot of my pens because I was working from home and didn't have stuff to write for work how it was. And that's when a lot of people found the hobby. So I was the opposite. I had about a five-year kind of, you know, sabbatical of not really doing much writing or using things. And then when Joe, I saw that he was opening up the store, I was like, oh, well, that'd be interesting to go look. And then, you know, getting Beth involved, that just opened up the hobby more because we do a lot together. And she had started her side venture of, I'm going to write some romance books. So she needed a journal to write down and draft out stories. So that led to the travelers, to the store. Now she has her own collection of pens. And, you know, our ink collection has a lot more colors because she has some that, oh, I want that or this. And then it's been a great thing, but it's also nice having our own collections because she doesn't like the extra fine nibs. She wants the mediums or the broads to see the shiny shimmer inks and things like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So in the end, this really was Joe's fault. So I'll have to thank him later. I don't know if you'll thank him or your wallet will thank you, but, you know, I'll thank him later that, you know, we got you in the community sharing all your content.

'''Derek DeWeese:''' So I go there just about every weekend anyway, you know, with him and Lisa, Vanessa going to Japan. And I'm kind of being an extra person to pop in the next couple of weeks on Saturdays in the store just because that's a great thing. Nashville was in need of stationery stores. And now we have a couple over the past, you know, five years and they're all constantly busy. And it's been nice and also scary when I can walk in there and have someone ask a question and go, oh yeah, I bought that. And you realize, man, I own a lot of the stuff in this store. Yeah. It's a good problem to have, but it's also helpful in that trying to explain what's what to someone coming in off the street looking for maybe their first pen or their first, you know, gel pen or things like that.