Writing pens and stationery and Victoria, oh my!

So far, the only article I’m really enjoying in the premiere issue of the new-and-improved Victoria magazine is that of Alexandra Stoddard and her writing room. Which isn’t to say that it’s a dud, because the article alone is worth the whole issue. I can totally relate to Ms. Stoddard’s love of pens, as my home office desk is practically groaning under the weight of all the pens I have stacked everywhere. Free pharma pens, cheap Bics, tradeshow giveaway pens, the pretty Schaeffer pen my mom gave me for my college graduation, pens I’ve bought at different stationery shops in Europe and Asia…

Yeah, I love pens.

Of course, the only time I use pens is when I’m writing a letter (Yes, I still write letters! Except most of the responses come back as emails. Oh well.) or perhaps writing in my journal or datebook or making one of my endless lists. I don’t actually use it with any of my writing projects, as all of that actual work goes on my laptop. Even when I was a kid, I wrote all of my stories on a typewriter. My mother gave me a pale-blue Fisher-Price typewriter (a real one! with ribbons!) when I was eight, and I’ve been banging away on a keyboard ever since. I’m proud to say that I can type 100 wpm, averaging 2 or fewer errors. That typing speed alone is probably responsible for helping me graduate college, as I never failed to procrastinate when it came to writing papers.

But with everything else, I turn to my vast collection of pens to help me craft the rest of my prose. In London, B. and I found a shop somewhere between Picadilly Circus and Charing Cross devoted exclusively to pens. Imagine that! A shop whose inventory consists solely of writing instruments. I could’ve spent the entire day just wandering its tiny aisles, inhaling the funky aroma of all that ink, but alas, B. thought the day would be better spent browsing through the British Museum. Whatever.

Japan has the coolest stationery shops, overflowing with beautiful papers sporting all kinds of colors and textures, gorgeous letter seals and stickers, hancrafted greeting cards bursting with color. But their pens are what I most lusted after, with their sleek designs and unusual colors that I could never find here outside of an art supply shop, and even then…

When I write a letter, I choose my stationery carefully. I go to my filing cabinet and pull out the special drawer that holds my stationery collection and sift through them until I find just the right card or paper. Some of the cards have Parisian motifs on the front, others have unique designs or drawings that just happened to have struck my fancy at the shop. I then scribble my message, sometimes scratching a line through a mistake or two. I used to do drafts of letters as I didn’t like seeing strikeouts in the text, and then I realized that those mistakes actually gave the letter a more authentic touch and made it seem more personal, more heartfelt.

I then seal the letter or card, sometimes with a gold- or silver-foil letterseal, and then carefully address the envelope with a special calligraphy pen. Sometimes I’ll even do a bit of simple calligraphy on envelopes addressed to my doctor’s office, with my check for the latest bill enclosed, just for fun. I love that it stands out and looks like a personalized letter instead of just a hastily scrawled check shoved into the envelope. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I do like to inject a bit of civility and grace into even the most mundane transactions, especially in this age of automated bill-payments and credit card transactions.

Depending on the recipient, I’ll write the letter in black, blue, green, or lavender (my favorite ink color), although it also depends on the color of the cardstock or paper I’ve chosen. I always try to get envelopes with thick, sturdy paper — linen, if possible — but those can get expensive, and one can’t always choose what goes into those boxes of multiple cards. I then get out my box of stamps, always a variety at hand, all chosen at the post office from their enormous collection. I love the special edition stamps, most of which are the same price as a regular first-class stamp (exceptions being many fundraising stamps, such as the Breast Cancer stamp and the 9/11 stamp).

Do I ever get letters anymore? Nah. I think the last actual letter I ever received came in the mail about 4 years ago. We’ll occasionally get the odd greeting card or two, but even many of those have been discarded in favor of the more environmentally-friendly (not to mention procrastination-friendly) e-cards. I don’t send many of those myself, preferring instead to send actual cards, but I don’t begrudge the senders. They’re free, fast and terribly efficient, all of which appear to be the most important criteria people have when deciding on their correspondence.

Still, it does bother me that I never get letters anymore. In 1993 even the most ardent email writers among my circle of friends sent me the occasional package with a nice letter enclosed, but now I’m lucky if they sent email. But I continue to hand-write my letters and cards, sometimes enclosing a bookmark or sticker, in the hope that one day I’ll get a response in my mailbox rather than my Inbox. Hasn’t happened yet, but I dare to dream.

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