A Stationary 2020 of Stationery

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Here we are at the end of 2020, with 2021 looming. Perhaps rather than a sparkling ball, we'll be dropping the other shoe. But, as Galadriel says, "Hope remains while the company is true" and there's no better company than the stationery community. A lot of us have sought solace and sanity in our hobby and in each other this year, and despite my analog disposition, I'm so grateful for the tech that has kept us in touch.

Whether it was Twitter, Instagram, or Brad's Twitch streams, reaching out to my pen fam helped dull the sting of lost pen shows and clubs. And thank goodness for online pen stores and the mail carriers who make them possible. I didn't save any money by not going to a pen show, that's for sure. Instead of the Chicago Pen Show, it was the Sarah's Mailbox Pen Show. I regret nothing.

A number of my 2020 acquisitions deserve a special shout-out. And my first accolade goes to the noble highlighter. I started grad school this fall, studying Library and Information Science. As you can imagine, there's a bit of reading in that field. I burned through 2-3 highlighters a week for my 14-week semester. Some were too dry, or too wet, or too awkward to hold, or ran out too quickly--but they all were necessary and I never went anywhere without a few of them. I could not have functioned without them and they were absolutely necessary to a successful semester. I raise my glass to you, highlighters.

My highlighters' constant companion was the King Jim Magflap Clipboard. A lot of my reading was scholarly articles that I'd printed out, and this clipboard made reading them a lot easier and more comfortable. I could curl up in a cozy chair and still have a reading and writing surface, and it fit perfectly in my bag when I needed to take my work on the go.

My third accolade, also used for school, was the Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter. It held the notebooks I used for lecture notes. The clip system, which I expected to be obtrusive and possibly even annoying, is actually fabulous. It's much more secure than an elastic band notebook system, and the clips never got in the way at all. I've already got it refilled for next semester.

Clearly the majority of my praise is going to practical things--in the year 2020, I most appreciate the things that made my life easier. But don't worry, it's not all school supplies. My absolute favorite stationery item I got this year was my birthday/mother's day present from my husband, a long-coveted Galen Leather Writer's Medic Bag in crazy horse green. In the stationary year of stationery it mostly sits on my desk, holding pens and looking pretty. But it is SO pretty, and sometimes I carry it around the house with me. You know, in case I want to write upstairs, or in the kitchen while I make more tea. I can't wait to take it to a pen show, though I know that may not be till 2022.

My favorite pen of the year was the Spoke Roady, and I'm not just saying that because Brad is my friend. It's a phenomenal pen and I've used it every day since it arrived. If there's one thing to look forward to in 2021, it's more Spoke pens.

I think there's a lot to look forward to in 2021, though. Maybe not all the things we normally look forward to, but I know I'm looking forward to chatting with you all about pens and paper and ink for the coming year. Take care and Happy New Year!

Kokuyo Mark+ Dual Tone Highlighter Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

I love the idea of the Kokuyo Mark+ Dual Color Highlighter. I'm a fan of color-coded notes, and having two colors in one seems like a clever and time-saving trick. In practice, though, they fall a little short of the mark.

These highlighters have a wide, white plastic body with a clear plastic cap. The clip is also clear plastic, and quite bendy. The body does show the colors of the tips, which is nice. There's a lot of text on the body, but it's well laid out and doesn't detract from the appearance of the marker. It looks nice, like a fancy highlighter should.

The grip section is also clear plastic, and shows the double feed. It is slightly shaped and comfortable to hold, though a little slippery. The two chisel tips face away from one another and are separated by a clear plastic piece, so they don't touch.

The tips make nice crisp lines with consistent color. I had no ink pooling or smearing. It does bleed through cheap copy paper, but performs well on coated papers. I think it would work well in textbooks, but might have issues if highlighting in novels. I suspect they'd be great for planners. There was minimal smudging over fountain pen and rollerball ink, and none for pencil, gel, or ballpoint ink.

I like the available colors for these. They're not eye-searing neon, but more gentle tones. One issue, though, is that some of the darker shades are a bit too dark to be highlighters. The grey, for example, obscures text more than it emphasizes it, and it's very difficult to read pencil though it. Of course, on the body of the piece, they're referred to as markers, not highlighters. So perhaps there's some confusion of purpose at play.

Another issue I had with them is that you have to be fairly conscious of getting the right angle, if you're using the wide chisel to highlight. If you hold the marker too high, you'll get a thin line above from the tip of the other color. Which looks kind of cool, and would be neat for calligraphy, but would defeat the purpose of color coding. And I worry that, while studying, I'd be focusing on how I'm holding my highlighter instead of the text I'm highlighting. Or, more probably, I'd focus on the text and just end up making it messy with sloppy highlighting.

I still like the idea of these, and the lighter colors are lovely tones. Perhaps, with more use, I'll get used to holding them at the correct angle and won't have to think about it anymore. At $2.50 apiece, they're right in line with other specialty highlighters, and the dual-colors gives them a bit of added value.

Ultimately, these aren't flawless, but they're still clever and useful. My schoolwork is already encroaching, with enrollment and advising already underway. It's definitely time to stock up on highlighters, so having two in one sounds like a good plan.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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The Five Best Tools for Outlining Your Next Novel

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Not every writer outlines, but many do--especially if there's a deadline involved. Outlining is very much a discovery process and employs just as much creativity as the writing itself. Sometimes the brainstorms involved can be messy. So what's the best way to keep those ideas roped into a useable order? Some proper stationery tools can help. Everyone's process is a bit different, so ymmv.

A good notebook. For my outlining, I usually use a slim book that becomes my planning, research, outlining, and editing guide for the whole project. That's a tall order, so it must be durable. It needs to last for years! My current one has been in use for two years and five months. Grid rule is ideal, if not essential. It allows you to easily level your indents for different sub headers. I prefer fountain pen friendly books, even though not every page will have fountain pen ink. My favorites so far have been the Graphilo and the Midori MD. Both have just enough pages for their purpose, while still being easily portable. I can slip the notebook in behind the back cover of the journal I'm writing the book in and carry them as a set.

A set of color-coding pens. It's very handy, when outlining, to be able to color code your notes. Whether it's by setting, character, timeline--all of these in conjunction... You may need only a few colors or a LOT of them, depending on the scope of your project. I would suggest a basic set of black, blue, red, and green at the very minimum. You can find those colors within many brands. But if you're penning an epic legend that spans generations of warring houses, you're probably going to need a set with more variety. I prefer gel pens, as it's easier to find large and varied sets with that ink type. My favorite ones to use are the Pilot Maica because of their bright colors, excellent flow, and fine tips that allow me to add notes to margins easily without cluttering the pages too much. Pilot Juice, Uni-Ball Signo, and Zebra Sarasa Clip are also excellent choices. You could use an array of fountain pens all inked with different colors of ink, also, but I found that the difference in line width between pens added some confusion to my notes. For example, pens that wrote more boldly seemed to be emphasized in the text when that information didn't necessarily need to be emphasized. Consistency of line width can be an important factor in keeping outlines tidy. Which brings me to my next point.

A bold pen for headers. When you're scanning your outline for important information, it can be very handy to have important key words and headers written boldly, so they're easy to find at a glance. Character names, places, themes, or scene headers might be good candidates for this. I use either a thick-tipped fineliner in black, like the Sakura Pigma Micron, or a fountain pen with a stub nib to add a bold emphasis to those notes. Either works, but try to stick to the same tool and color throughout, for ease of scanning.

Notecards. Writers love to follow outlines, but characters rarely do. Sometimes seeing the structure of your book on paper isn't enough. Sometimes whole scenes need to move or the plot structure needs to be adjusted. To do that, I recommend making a brief additional outline on notecards (sticky notes work, too) and spreading them out where you can rearrange and shuffle them as needed. Any scrap of paper will work, but my favorite tool for the job are the Nock DotDash note cards. They're fountain pen friendly and have a grid pattern on them, so they work great for mini scene outlines.

Highlighters. Even with color coding and bolding, you're likely going to need another level of emphasis. Maybe to highlight (literally) plot twists or foreshadowing, themes or critical character development. Highlighters are the classic best tool for the job. I don't care much for the typical marker-style chisel-tip highlighters. They do work, but too often I dislike the way they bleed through paper or smear ink. Neon colored pencils are good, but aren't as quick, since it takes some scribbling to cover an area, instead of one swoop. My favorite tool for the job are the Staedtler Textsurfer Gel highlighters, which are basically super-soft gel crayons. You can highlight in a smooth swoop, and the soft wax doesn't bleed through paper or smear ink. One downside, though, as the wax makes it impossible to write over that area again at all.

And of course, the non-stationery ingredient to this list is flexibility. Outlines are the best example of the "guidelines not rules" adage. You're in charge of your story and you can change your mind anytime. Make your story work for you. And if your outline isn't fitting, change the outline! I have three outlines for my current novel, where the story trajectory changed and I needed to re-route things. Maybe add some scissors and scotch tape to this list, too. And a glass of wine.

Tell me your favorite tools for planning your writing projects! Everyone's method is a little different, and I find them all fascinating.

(JetPens provided these products at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)