My Favourite Writing Tools

Well hello there! So I figure if I’m going to write about planning, and all the things I love about planning, I should probably include what I write with. This has been a constant evolving process for me over many years. That should always be the case with anyone (if you’re a writer - by that, you’ll understand if you are one). Experimentation is key until you find a selection of tools used for writing that are your absolute favourite and ones you can’t live without.

So first of all, I use different pens for different things, mostly based on the different types of paper I enjoy using. I’ll talk about fountain pens, ballpoint pens, gel ink pens and more than specific brands, I’ll also talk about the shape of pens I look for when searching out new tools.

Journaling:

Recently, I started a new type of journaling which I’ll talk about in a minute. For basic journaling (writing in a lined notebook), I prefer blue ballpoint ink pen. I don’t know why this is, but it just is and I find black ballpoint ink abhorrent for some reason. Sometimes I like to use colored gel pens. My go to for both these types are Bic Velocity 1.6mm Bold in Blue Ink and the Papermate Inkjoy pens in 0.7mm.

For the second type of journaling, I recently started to use a Hobinichi. For those of you who don’t know, a Hobonichi has a type of paper called Tomoe River Paper. It is very thin and almost transparent, and was used in the making of Japanese Bibles. It is used in the Hobonichi to fit in a great number of pages without the planner becoming too thick.

This is a very recent find for me and has opened up an entirely new journaling world for me. So far, I really enjoy using fountain pens in this journal. I started by using a medium nib fountain pen, but find that fine nib works a lot better. I also prefer different types of writing in my journals. For instance, in my regular lined journals, I prefer to print if it’s with my blue ballpoint, but in my Hobonichi, I prefer using cursive. I find using a fountain pen and writing in cursive in tandem gives something flowery and unique to my journaling spreads.

Another type of instrument I love using in my Hobinichi is my glass pen. I have some random ink bottles that came with my glass pen, and they seem to work well with the thin Hobonichi paper. The current inks I have are sparkly, and vibrant. When you use a glass pen however, similar to a dip fountain pen or quill-type pen, you will have more vibrant ink in some spots than in others. This is because as you write, the ink is used up and the line becomes less wide.

The benefit of using a glass pen compared to a fountain pen is that there is no need to fill it up with ink. In my experience, I’ve had many a fountain pen dry up on my if left unused for an extended period of time. When you use a glass pen, you only use the ink you need and you can also change the color of ink as often as you would like, since it’s not being “filled up”.

Planning

Before coming across fountain pens, my pen always within reach would be the Pentel Energel in 0.7mm size. For some reason, I can only use black gel ink in my planner (other colors, especially blue bother me). I like 0.7mm because it’s not thick enough to bleed through (sometimes there is shadowing depending on the thickness of my planner pages), but it is dark enough for me.

The benefit of the ink that is used in these pens is that it dries super fast (I find it dries even faster than that of a Pilot G2), and it doesn’t smear. You can use a highlighter over top of it right away and the ink doesn’t smudge. I prefer the heavier weighted Pentels, with aluminum body. They are available in a variety of colors and you can find them on Amazon pretty easily.

For highlighting in my planner, I prefer Zebra Mildliners. You’ll find that I don’t let politics get in the way of the products I love to use. I will continue to use products that I enjoy despite what other people (or the planner community) says about them. I love these highlighters because the colors are muted and not “highlighter colors”. There are many different colors to choose from, and Zebra has added a variety of neutral colors to their lineup recently. The highlighter itself is thin enough to add to your pen loop in your planner, and they have a double marker-end tip as well as the highlighter chisel tip.

More recently, I have discovered the wonderful world of fountain pens. I own only a handful, and have not been able to compare super expensive brands, but my favourite by far is my TWSBI. You can order them directly from their website. They are a bit thicker than a normal pen, but the smoothness and refined feel of them is beyond compare. If you are looking for a good quality, reasonably priced fountain pen, you should check these out.

I still enjoy a medium nib in my planner. At first I was afraid of bleed through or excessive shadowing, but surprisingly, this pen held up even on the thinner Franklin Covey Planner pages I enjoy using.

If I’m writing on a sticker material that you cannot use gel or ballpoint, I prefer the Sakura Microperm pens over Sharpie. I find that Sharpie ultra fine pens dry out really fast. The ink in this type of pen is permanent like a sharpie, but you can find the fine liner pens in different sizes: 0.1mm, 0.3mm and 0.5mm which makes them more versatile for writing on small stickers compared to the Sharpie.

Every day Use/Other Uses

I would have to say I still enjoy using my blue ballpoint ink when I write in general. I’m not sure why that is, but it all comes down to how it feels on paper for me and how it feels in my hand. I also enjoy the Papermate Inkjoy black gel pen in 1.0mm the I’m in my budget planner. I printed mine out myself and use HP Premium 32 Paper.

I’ve alway liked the idea of using fineliners for every day use, but I find the tips get pushed in too quickly, or they dry out too fast. I did however enjoy using Sakura Microns in my bullet journal on a daily basis. Other comparable brands are the Mary Le Pen Drawing Fineliners, Faber Castell Artist Pitt Pens, Tombow Mono Drawing Pens and the Staedtler Pigment Liners. Copics are excellent as well, but tend to be a bit pricier.

For brush lettering, whether you are doing card making, simply practicing to improve your skill, or doing specialty products, my favourite go-to for larger lettering are the Tombow Dual Brush Pens. There are so many colors and they have a fine bullet tip as well as the brush pen tip. Tombow also makes alcohol markers in the same size pen. (Those are used for specialty colouring projects, or in artist projects). They blend really well but cannot be used with water. For smaller brush lettering, I love the Pentel Fude Touch. Compared to the Tombow Fudenosuke, they stay a bit more juicy because they use water based ink. They also come in a wide range of colors.

Thanks for reading along today! I like to think that my pen choices are good ones, and maybe you will come across ones that you love as well. Thank you so much for reading and we’ll see you again!

Sandra