New Orleans Writing Marathon

Day Five, Friday, July 14, 2017

“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans.
Everywhere else is Cleveland.”
—-Tennessee Williams

Fish on the sidewalk,
Governor Nichols Street
New Orleans, Louisiana

Every day I have to select what I will be handwriting for the day. I carry a burlap zippered bag that used to hold five pounds of Basmati Rice that I bought from the local Indian market (a great bag, by the way) and into this bag I put one, two or three journals. I also select a couple of fountain pens, usually of contrasting ink colors, which I put into an Otterbox armored cigar case (two cigars) for protection.

Pens – I usually have about 5 in rotation – I may put a new one into or take one out (clean it of old ink, place it back in storage) rotation.

Things to think about:

• Value – Don’t want to carry an expensive pen someplace risky.
• Age – The older pens are fragile and won’t carry one if I’m going somewhere active (like on a bike)
• Line Width – If I am going to write a lot I’ll want a pen with a narrow line – wider lines are fun for short writing
• Ink Color – I like to vary this – for the heck of it
• Reliability – how long will I be gone? If more than a short time, I need a reliable pen.
• Amount of ink held – again, how much writing?

Journals:

• Bullet Journal – go to, usually carry
• Idea Journal
• Goals Journal
• Straightening Journal
• Fiction snippets journal
• … several others

This has to be done every morning before I leave the house. The rice bag will fit in my work backpack if I’m going to work.
I don’t know how to carry extra ink (bottle, cartridges, syringe?) – need to work on that.