Editing The Pen Addict 281/transcript (section)

== Letter Writing ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, Jim just put in the chat room, how was the weather five days ago? Exactly, right? Because this is the problem. That is perfect.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But like, honestly, I think look for icebreakers. Like, just kind of the standard icebreakers that you would find in some kind of like, corporate thing. Because it's going to give you small talk openings. Because that's kind of what this is, right? Like, what is the small talk openings that you would use in general conversation? You need to, I think starting with some of those is a good idea. I don't know. I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, this goes to the bigger picture of why I have a hard time writing letters. Yes. Because it's pressure. What do you do?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a pressure thing, right? It's not the physical part. It's the mental pressure of what words do I put on the page. And the best letter writers don't have to think about it, right? The people who are best at what they do don't have to think about what they're doing. That's why they're good at it. And that's why I'm not a good letter writer. Because I have to think about what I'm doing. And it's a challenge. It's a very, very huge challenge. So, this is why I want to talk about this all the time. And we always talk about it in February. When InkoWriMo comes up, it's just like, I don't feel built for it. Like, it's a challenge for me that I would just have to like, force myself to do. And do I want to do that to myself? But I'm always going to talk about it because I think it's such an amazing thing to do, especially in this day and age. So, give us your best opening salvos of your handwritten correspondence. You know, tweet them. Tweet them at us. Email me. Handwrite them to me. You have my address. You know, I'd love to see it because I don't bring up these questions necessarily to joke because they're fun. I bring it up because I am a failure at a lot of these things. And I want to know how other people do it. So, it's really, really cool. So, keep these up. And I'm keeping the theme alive, Myke, with Alexander. Are either of you considering to attempt NaNoWriMo? Hell no. Are you drunk? NaNoWriMo.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, no, NaNo. I can't even write the opening salvo of a letter in Spencerian. I'm sure as heck not going to write a novel. I can't even tell you to write a sentence. But again, this is an amazing event, right? I mean, like, I'm fascinated by NaNoWriMo. I love Vito, our friend Vito from Swordsupply tweeted this morning. I love that so much. Already failed. I was like, I feel you. And Vito's a writer. Vito is the poet laureate of York, Pensylvania.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, my God.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I forgot that. So, it's like, I'm fascinated by all these things. Our good friend Jason Snell is on the board of NaNoWriMo. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is a big event, and I support everyone who does it, and I love seeing everything about NaNoWriMo. I love seeing people's word counts, who I follow every day. I am so impressed by all of this. But, like, I can't do it. Like, it's one of those things, you either have it or you don't. Like, I am a writer in that I write words, but I don't write stories. Like, I can't put together a novel. It's a different muscle. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely. Definitely. So, whew. Man. This is good stuff, though. So, all right, I think that's all of the things that I don't know about that I still love and why we do this. So, let's talk about one that I do know more about, but there's still no answer to this question. So, Clip Boy says, Is there a particular make and or model of pen which you consider to be a sure thing in terms of quality out of the box and long-term reliability?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' What a hard question to answer. So, if we have noticed in the past week or so, you know, there's been a lot of talk, like, in the Pen Addict Slack and, you know, the podcast. I'm blanking on the podcast. Our friends at Fountain Pens Oceana, their podcast, was talking about quality control issues with, like, Visconti and Nakaya and things like that. So, we were trying to come to a conclusion. Can you get to a point where you say, you buy this pen and it will be fine? And there's just not a fountain pen. Do you mean the nib section podcast? Yeah, the nib section. Yeah. So, it's like, do you have an answer for that that's always 100% right? And the answer is no. No. I mean, there's no such animal in fountain pens. And if you're looking for that experience with fountain pens, that's what kept me from getting into it for so many years, right? I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to deal with what a fountain pen could offer, like, on the downside of things. I don't want to deal with the negative aspects of owning a fountain pen. I agree with the argument that, well, I'm spending X amount of dollars. I expect perfection. I have no problem with that argument. I think that's a very fair argument.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But there is some give and take in the fountain pen world. Unfortunately, fortunately, I don't know. I don't know where you want to classify that, right? If I spend $600 on a Pelican, I expect it to be perfect.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' There's a 5% chance it's not. That's probably a larger chance than would normally be expected, I'm guessing. I don't know. I'm just pulling numbers out of thin air. There's always a possibility.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' From one person's point of view, they have every right to be ticked off if that nib is messed up. And, you know, especially if they don't have a lot of experience, it's going to be a bad buying experience for them. And that's completely fair. On the other hand, if I get that, I'll go, well, this sucks. I know how to get it fixed.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that's extra work, extra time, extra money for me. But then I know it'll be perfect. And is it fair to me just to just accept that and say, just deal with it? I, not really. But I guess I'm used to it by now. It's kind of like part of the deal with fountain pens, unfortunately. You know, it's sometimes not going to be a perfect experience because everyone writes differently, uses different paper, uses different ink. You know, you and I buy the same exact pen on the same exact day from the same exact vendor. We can have a different experience. So, to circle back to the original question, if I was forced to pick the company I have the most success with straight out of the box nearly every time, it's Pilot.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I was going to go Lamy, but I would also agree with Pilot.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, see, I don't have great experience with Lamy. And I'm not even talking about the 2000. Sometimes, I have a pretty wide variance in their extra fine nibs. Which is a little bit weird. But see, we all have different experiences. Like, Kaweco and Twisby are two well-known kind of brands that have issues. I have almost no issues ever with Twisby. And I've only had, like, maybe one bum Kaweco nib. So, it just depends, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, it's a tough question. Like, no matter if I say I never have problems with these pens, lots of people have an opposite experience that's just as valid as the good experience that I had, right? So, it's hard to say. You know, just buy from major brands. It's going to be the best way to go. All the big Japanese brands. All the big German brands.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think there's another part to this conversation, though. Which is, like, the reason that I think that me and you have gone with Pilot and Lamy. Where, like, people are saying in the chat, like, Sailor, like, Franklin Kristoff. Like, the thing is that, like, what I feel like in this question, like, what's not being said is what pens am I safe with? And I am more inclined to say pens that have, like, companies that have a more wide price point range for this answer. Because Sailors might be fine every time, but you're dropping for three figures every time, right? If you want to go, you know, I know they have some lower stuff. But you kind of get where I'm going. Like, Franklin Kristoff, like Visconti, right? These are, Omas, like, these are really expensive. And even if they're perfect every time, that one in a million chance, that's a problem. But if you're going with something like Lamy or Pilot, they have way more in the lower end. Where if there's a problem, it's not so much of an issue financially. That's kind of why I was thinking Lamy. Like, I know that the 2000 can have some problems, but that's one pen in their entire lineup. And their entire lineup tends to be under $100 for most of it, right? So that was kind of where I was going with that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. So, you know, and, you know, this type of thing has kept me away from Visconti. Specifically, right? Because they have so many nib issues. I've wanted a Homo sapiens for years, but I'm certainly not going to buy a new one. If I ever buy one, it'll be secondhand that I know someone's, you know, looked at the nib and they can tell me about it. But, you know, a lot of people have had perfect Viscontis, right? So is it fair for me to, like, say that about Visconti? You know, I've seen some really, really bad Visconti nibs. Other people don't have that experience. So, you know, this is a tough question. I don't know that there's a really great answer to it. You know, we all have our brands that we have favorites of because they seem to work best for us. So you'll just have to see what works best for you. You know, you might have some not so great experiences along the way and it's going to happen. So it's a tough thing to give this a 100% guarantee answer because in the fountain pen world, it's just kind of not, you know, is that fair or not? I don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's tricky.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is tricky. It's tricky.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because it's always a problem for me and you, I think, when given a question like that because you kind of feel a pressure that it has to be okay. You know, like, when you're kind of given an answer like, oh, buy this, it's always good. It has to be good because otherwise we told someone, go and buy this type of pen, but then the pen's bust. You know what I mean? Like, it's a risk sometimes. Well, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, my Optima's the perfect example.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Like, I can't stand it. I can't go near it. And I'm sure there's many people that are like me, right? Like, I used it and it was terrible. They're just terrible for me because I'm left-handed, right? Like, it's, you know. And mine literally broke in half. Yes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's even a better reason, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' If your pen spontaneously combusts, you've bought the wrong pen. But I still love that pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like, it's one of my favorite pens. Like, I don't, it's hard to quantify that on an individual basis, right? I was like, you know, if someone asked me for a roar recommendation, I'm going to give it, like, high praise. But by the way, at one point, my pen, like, broke in half. Like, so, yeah. FYI.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's something to look out for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And I'm not the only one. So, like, it's a thing. So, like, what do I do? Like, I still love the pen. I don't know. It's tough. Tough, tough, tough. So, Pilot. Just stick with Pilot. I don't know what the answer is. All right. Last one.