Pencil, pen or word processor?

Ink pens are a great tool for some writers, the bane of others. Some prefer pencils, others word processors.

When I was a young writer, I lived and died by my Smith and Corona typewriter, but once I reached my teens and was able to buy my first computer and word processing program … on a Commodore 64, by the way … that became my tool of choice.

For some reason, for me at least, writing prose just seems most natural sitting at a desk with my hands on a keyboard. Poetry is different, though; for that, I definitely go the pen or pencil route.

I always feel more comfortable with a pen than a pencil. Although some mechanical pencils are OK, my hand just feels more at home wrapped around a pen with a comfort grip. My favorite is a Uniball Power Tank RT.

Still, it’s all a bit relative. Whatever tool makes you feel professional and inspired is the right one to use.

Data entry may be boring, but not draining

For some writers, a job in data entry would be like signing up for a lifetime sentence to Alcatraz. Not so for yours truly.

I’ve been working a data entry job for over a month and, to be honest, I couldn’t be happier with my daytime job. It’s a steady income with full benefits, and it’s not a job that leaves me creatively drained at the end of the day.

It’s far superior to the sales jobs I did most of last year. Whether it was selling funeral insurance, cell phones or spa packages, I just didn’t have the right set of gifts to scare people into buying something.

These days, I go to work early, I’m done by 3:30 or so, and I come home ready and able to write. That wasn’t always the case with sales positions. Data entry is routine as routine can get, but it provides time for your mind to work out character, setting, plot and more. It’s something you can do without putting your creative spark into the task… meaning you have creative energy left to spend at the end of the work day.

It works for me.