Favorite Tools for Writing

Favorite Writing Tools

You may have guessed that I’m a writer at heart.

I love thinking about words and finding the perfect phrase for every situation.

As much as I love digital tools for writing (this blog, for example), I really love putting actual pen to actual paper. There’s nothing like analog for getting the ideas to really flow. The writing process forces me to slow down and really think about the words I’m writing.

I keep a bullet journal (see this post about my practice) that gives me a daily format for recording my thoughts and ideas, and I always make sure I have my favorite tools for writing on hand and ready to go. Here are some of my favorite pens and pencils, I’ll feature notebooks and paper in another post. (Take a look at this post about my favorite Rhodia Rhodiorama notebooks which are my favorite thing about lesson planning this year.)

Favorite Writing Tools

1. Pilot G2 Gel pen – This is my go-to everyday writer. I keep both the .5 and the .7 tips on hand but tend to grab the .5 most often. The ink flows smoothly, it’s comfortable in my hand and pretty affordable. I use black for most writing tasks, but these pens also come in blue, as well as fun pink, purple, green and other colors that I find useful for correcting.
2. Pilot MR Retro Collection Fountain pen – When I’m in the mood for a fountain pen, this is the one I go to. I’ve got a couple of different colors that I got on a Massdrop deal for about $14 each. You can also find them on Amazon for about the same price. The ink flows smoothly and the pen is a comfortable, slightly-hefty weight. I do wish there was a different grip on this pen. Sometimes my hand slips down the metal barrel. Still, I love using these pens, especially for main lesson book pages.
3. Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils – I buy dozens of these pencils at the beginning of every school year and I use them just as much as my students do. There is such a difference between Ticonderogas and store brand yellow pencils – it’s worth spending a little extra. And they’re still cheap enough that you can burn through them pretty quickly without worry.
4. Pentel High Polymer Eraser – I love these erasers because they are the only thing I’ve found to actually work on erasing colored pencil. Now, they’re not perfect – that vibrant colored pencil pigment won’t disappear completely. But these erasers do a pretty good job of fading those colored pencil mistakes so they are nearly invisible.
5. Pentel Arts Aquash Water Brush – So these pens aren’t for my daily journaling, but they completely satisfy my current hand-lettering obsession. This week I’ve used them for my students’ name tags, writing a title on a planner page and plenty of just-for-fun hand-lettering practice. The artistic possibilities that these pens and a set of portable watercolors provides makes me giddy with excitement. This year, each of my students will receive one and I plan on teaching them how they can use it for main lesson page titles as well as detailed work on watercolor paintings.

What are your favorite tools for writing? Share in the comments!