What do you write best with or on?

[AChild]

I like moleskin books and drafting pens with .5 cm tips from the art store. They're gel but not runny, always work, and only come in black.

 

[Liar]

My nice and shiny new Palm TX PDA. It makes me feel embarrasingly geeky, but at least I can read what I've written, which is where a pen and my handwriting fails.

 

[DeepAsleep]

Some of my favorite stuff was written on barnapkins. I've got little mininotebooks full of barnapkin poetry.

But I prefer writing on the flesh of virgins with the blood of the damned.

Or using a keyboard. Only way I can keep up with my brain, most times.

~R

 

[WickedEve]

I like moleskin books and drafting pens with .5 cm tips from the art store. They're gel but not runny, always work, and only come in black.

When I'm not at the computer, I use my kids' crayons--because they take all my pens. I prefer blue or purple. I usually write on the back of bills and their ripped open envelopes. Right now I have a poem in my purse that's written on the back of a grocery receipt. When a poem wants to be born, a poet will find a way to birth that fat baby.

 

[Tzara]

What I like best for writing is my ThinkPad, because it has a great keyboard. My Vaio desktop is OK too.

I rarely write anything by hand. Maybe make a few notes on the back of an envelope or something. So handwriting implements are pretty much catch as catch can.

I do like the pens in Hilton hotels, though. That probably sounds odd, but I do.

 

[annaswirls]

I am not sure what a Barn Apkin is, but I never write poems on them.
I did write love poems on my grandmom's farmhouse walls in red crayon the year we wallpapered her house.

I often write poems in the margins of church programs.

I have a hard time writing on anything besides my computer because in pen, my hands cannot write as fast as my brain. I do some of my more serious editing with pen and paper, though. Shut up Patrick, I DO edit my stuff. A lot. I have been working on one poem for 2 years now and I think I finally have it right.

I do write poems in a black leather notebook, but I always forget they are there, and rarely take them to completion-- it is just part of the fermentation process.

 

[wildsweetone]

i think deep inside
we are all suppressed
stationery addicts.
one day we're simply
going to explode.

i thought moleskin
was what came inside
jackets or boots,
not books.

i'd like a PDA thingamiebob
but knowing my luck
it would go to the same grave
my mp3 player just relocated to,
somebody else's pocket.

i write on pc and paper
which is best? whatever
is handiest when i have the urge.

 

[Sex and Death]

Computers. Laptops...PC's...at home...at work...

ocassionally, in the wilderness, on a journey, at a workshop, I write in notebooks, the black and white tape-bound lined tablets...college ruled...composition books, they're called...scratches, lots of cross-outs and tilted margin notes...word collages...

I miss paper, mostly. But word processors are efficient and handy.

 

[clutching_calliope]

I'd love to

.....

 

[eagleyez]

Since the days when I received a portable Royal typewriter, I can hardly bring myself to write longhand. It must be something to do with the staccato rythym of the keys and the sound. That said, Ive scrawled upon bar napkins a few times in my days, winesoaked etchings, preferably a dry Cabernet or Zinfandel, as these contrast legibly against the whiteness of a porous napkin.

I fell in love at an early age at the "ding" of the carriage as it neared the line-end, and then the pull-back and advance of the paper. Single, Double or Triple space, all these had meaning for me, and since the onset of computers, I miss that rudimentary mechanism, but admit deleting whole paragraphs is a wonderful thing, and I utilize this option more than I would like to admit. I'm not much of a reviser, which you all may have figured out by now, judging by the tripe that gets left like shitstains on my silky white paper.

My penmanship is horrid, another reason I rely on typed words. I write too fast as my fevered brain is light years ahead of my actual ideas. I write longhand like a speed junkie who's been up 3 days staight.

I once dated a true calligrapher, a marvel with a rapidiograph. I envied her patience and results, in many styles and forms. So be it.

 

[Guest]

My laptop. I blame it for my bad spelling. (damn, spellcheck--you make me lazy!)

 

[flyguy69]

write only on skin, but editors are far too fussy fussing about sending back humans through the mail.

Seriously, skin for the URGE phrases and relying on the brain to tumble-dry the good ideas back to the top when I need them to come out the fingertips on the laptop that keeps warning me it has no more room at the inn.

I do print out the keepers and edit them within a cut and pasted journal of poems and related magazine photos. (Thank heavens for Playgirl....kidding).

I know a place that delivers.

 

[The Mystery Valiant]

Everywhere, everything

When the words hit me, I have not time to run and go find what I need to write with. So just generally, I write with what ever I can get my hands on.

 

[The Mutt]

My best poems were written on loose-leaf notebook paper on a clip board. I like to write on my feet. And I like the feel of balling up a page and shooting it for three.

 

[Hooper_X]

My desktop computer (with 2 30" widescreen monitors*.) I went through a five year laptop phase, but now I'm spoiled by the power of power of desktop computing (+4 cores and an obscene amount of, now, cheap RAM) to the point that I don't use my laptop for much other than watching movies while lying in bed. Plus, I like to smoke cigars when I write, and the only place that I can do that is at home. So, I might as well use the desktop.

Of late I've been using a freeware text editor called Q10. It's pretty basic (but does have a few writer-specific features.). The thing that hooked me is that it pretty faithfully copies the sounds of my old electric typewriter. I didn't realize how much I missed the sound of a typewriter until I started playing around with this thing.

The program is a year old and was written for XP. However, with a little massaging here and there, I got it to work with Vista 64 SP2 beta.

http://pimpandhost.com/media/simple/24593/bbaed2d2a313.jpg
One annoying thing about this program is that it runs in full screen mode, with no easy way to run it in a window (in a virtual machine, the typerwriter sound lags just enough to be annoying.) The developer mentions this on the program's web page. He/she seems to think that is a feature (and a philosophical issue) rather than an annoyance. Of course, if you are using two or more monitors*, it's no big deal.

http://www.baara.com/q10/

 

[bflagsst]

short poems

I like writing short poems so i can memorize 'em and delete em from my wordprocessor. I usually only remember lines and pieces, so then I write those into new poems and try to memorize them. I don't have the best memory, so I've always got new poems to write from the recycled bits.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

My best work is done with lipstick on mirrors, but I also enjoy writing on the lizardskin underwear of a blind magician, using a number 2 pencil which has been chewed on by albino ferrets.

bj

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Depends where I am ..... if I am on the internet I type them into emails and send them to myself. The house is often littered with wild bits of paper but they usually wing their way to the computer room and flitter around waiting to be pinned down

 

[IsabellaKing]

My laptop. I blame it for my bad spelling. (damn, spellcheck--you make me lazy!)

I was going to say this, but also that I blame my laptop for my appalling handwriting and the fact that, when I write a text, I expect it to get spellchecked.

 

[Hooper_X]

My best work is done with lipstick on mirrors, but I also enjoy writing on the lizardskin underwear of a blind magician, using a number 2 pencil which has been chewed on by albino ferrets.

bj

Montblanc albino ferrets?

 

[AChild]

-------

^ that's a big 10 on the awesome scale.

 

[vampiredust]

I like to write on the PC and in my notepad, as well as the backs of envelopes, napkins etc

I'm a bit scatterbrained and often forget to carry my pocket notepad whenever I go out, so I end up writing drafts on my walks on whatever I have on me.