Editing The Pen Addict 62/transcript (section)

== Left-Handed Writing ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, but the left-handed readers always start out, hey, I'm left-handed, what pin is going to work best for me, right? I mean, it's a huge deal. I mean, it's a very, very important topic.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Well, and I think a lot of that comes from sort of pre-existing sort of myth out in the world that left-handed people cannot use fountain pens or they have to use special types of fountain pens in particular. And so I think that very much colors people's perspective to think that because you're left-handed, you somehow have to use a special left-handed fountain pen or, you know, something like that, which I am here to tell you is a lie.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, and we will definitely disprove that as we go.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So let's just get a few of the details out there for, you know, right-handers like myself who don't have to experience some of these challenges. Both of you, I know I've talked to you both individually, and I don't know if we've covered it before. I think we did cover it the last time you were on, Anna. Just how you hold the pen. How is your writing style different from, say, a right-hander on a, you know, just on a regular pen or a fountain pen? Do you have the, do you hold a gel ink pen one way and a fountain pen a different way? How, just explain about your writing style then, Myke, do you explain about yours? And so we can just kind of get a basis. Yes.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I'll just, just because I've done a lot of research over the years, I'll start off with sort of common terminology about left-handed writers, and that they tend to describe them as either overwriters, and there's several different ways that people do that, but it basically means that their hand is held above the line on which they're writing. So assuming you're writing on graph paper or on lined paper, your hand would be above the line that you're writing on. And then there's underwriters, which is very comparable in, in terms of hand position to what most right-handed people do, which is that their hand is below the line that they're writing on.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They also decide the price of your insurance premium. Does it really? That is a horrible joke.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I get it. I get it. An underwriter.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Such a bad joke. Oh, man, that was horrible.

'''Ana Reinert:''' It was really bad.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Can you tell I work in the finance industry or no? Well, I was wondering when you became an actuary, but I was just slow to the joke. That would go down an absolute storm at work. I need to try and find a way to bring that in.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Wait, is storm good? Sure. Okay, good.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I'm actually an overwriter, so I do hold my hand above the line that I'm writing on, and it's often referred to as a hook because not only do I hold my hand above, but I don't angle my paper in what is normally considered the correct angle, which is that I angle my paper the same way that a right-handed person would. So it's the top of the paper is angled up to the left and comes down to the right. And it's just probably because a right-handed person taught me to write, so they said, you know, angle your paper this way. And in order for a left-handed person to get the right angle, you kind of just turn your whole body around to make it work.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So do you change the angle of the paper when you're writing? Or, I mean, do you – is it something you notice? Like, you have to make a concerted effort to say, hey, you know – or, I mean, it's just – it's like a second nature type thing, right? When you're sitting down to write, it's just kind of shifted in the right direction, and you're ready. You're set to go.

'''Ana Reinert:''' It is. The only times that I really ever noticed it was, like, you know, in high school when they have those desks that had the arm that came up on the right-hand side so that you could rest your elbow and write. For a lefty, that thing was just in the way. It didn't do anything because my – you know, it was open on our side, so you kind of really – that was the only time I really noticed it was super awkward. And then at work when they were teaching me to do calligraphy, really fine calligraphy is very hard to do as an overrider. So when I do any kind of – if you ever get anything in the mail from me that's very filigree and more of a calligraphic quality, then chances are I actually changed my hand position and did an underwriting thing. But for the most part, I'm very awkward when I do that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you practice that?

'''Ana Reinert:''' I do practice.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I mean, I would think you would have to. I mean, you'd have to get that repetitiveness of the nib and the direction and the letters and – yeah. So, Myke, you're – just listening to Anna and talking to you, you know, over the years, you're pretty much the same style overwriting, right? And how do you – we've talked about it several times, but just give us a refresher on kind of how you're holding the pen to right. And especially – I want to know about the angle of the paper because I don't know if we've discussed that before.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I'm definitely an overwriter. And now I'm pleased I have a term for it rather than trying to explain it in a very abstract way. And I think that typically I have my paper either with the left-hand corner slightly lowered and the right-hand corner. So I tilt the paper ever so slightly down on the left-hand side. Or I will have the paper level with the desk. So straight. Straight on. Yeah. Which sounds – I mean, the straight on seems like a weird way to do things. But having – I guess having it tilted towards the left is probably a good thing, I would assume, with the way that I held paper.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Anna, just – is yours the same way? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because that's how – because essentially you're saying that's because a right-hander told you how to write. Because that's how a right-hander would do it too, right?

'''Ana Reinert:''' Exactly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Okay. Okay. Interesting. That's – That's –

'''Ana Reinert:''' And I think because Myke and I are a little bit older, we were probably taught in school to just sort of do your best to be just like the other kids. Where I think now a lot of teachers who are teaching young children to write are at least aware that a left-handed child may need to have their paper angled the other way so that they can write from underneath. And that helps to eliminate a lot of what lefties have issues with, which is smudging their writing as they go. Because when your hand is above, eventually you're two or three lines down the paper. And so now your arm is resting on what you've just written.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Like, I didn't come into contact with a left-handed pair of scissors until I was, like, 12. So it was kind of a bit late.

'''Ana Reinert:''' At which point they were useless, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. They'd be like, you can use the green and yellow-handed scissors. I'm like, well, okay. But now I can't cut anything. So you used them.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I don't think I ever used left-handed scissors until, like, I don't know, maybe five years ago. And I could kind of get the hang of it. But, boy, it was really awkward because I grew up with nothing but right-handed scissors. So I did learn how to use those.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, this sounds nightmarish. It sounds like such a challenge.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You have it difficult. It's a little monkey. You've turned into a left-handed sympathizer already.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Man, y'all are converting me already. Yeah, I feel bad. I feel bad. Now, one of the things very early on in my blog, and this is before, you know, I've given any thought to, okay, people write differently than I do. So one of my left-handed readers sent me a very interesting email, and one of the things he said has stuck with me through the years. And Anna has said the same things in some of the notes that she shared with me. And it's that lefties push the pin, righties pull the pin, right? Am I saying that right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.