Writing Intentionally

100 handwritten words

I usually sit down at a keyboard and throw about 108 words at the screen … it just happens that way. An idea forms, the words flow, and I have a sense of ‘about the right number’. Then a quick edit … down to 97, back up to 103, then sharpen it to 100 precisely. Ebb, flow, ebb. The tidal patterns of writing.

Today I had a notion. I rummaged through a box of neglected fountain pens and picked a nib that looked like it might flow over the page. Pressed an ink cartridge into service. I shook the pen until a blob of black ink appeared, probably 100 words worth. Not Wordsworth, no poems today. But words, of course.

Everything was different. It was intentional. More thoughtful. Measured. I wrote some words and felt a story unfold. I was handwriting it so there had to be a fountain pen in the story. I needed an unexpected user of a fountain pen. That’s the way the story evolved. I wrote more words. Counted them. Checked where the tale was up to. Plenty of words left. Wrote a few more, set the scene, coloured in the character.

Count.

Time to wrap things up. No margin for error. No scribbling out, no overflow.

Count.

An ending in mind. Mentally count the words as I draft in my head. I could have done with one more word, an extra ‘The’ just for the flow of it … I would have taken it from the beginning if I had been typing. But this time I just left it out.

Count. 100 words. One take.

---

---

---

Image: Barrie Thomson

Handwriting: Author’s own