Today's writer is Amitav Ghosh whose novels include "The Hungry Tide" and "Sea of Poppies."
Mr. Ghosh writes by hand, then types a manuscript onto his laptop. Every morning, he revises what he wrote the day before. Every sentence that appears in his books has been through at least 20 revisions, he says.
Mr. Ghosh, who is now working on the sequel to "Sea of Poppies," which is part of a trilogy, is particular about everything from his pen to the type of paper he writes on. He insists black ink Pelikan pens are the best, and buys white, lined paper from a French manufacturer. "If you work on paper so much, you get obsessive about even the spacing of the lines," he says. "I need them to be fairly widely spaced."
I've been using the same pen type for over two decades: Pentel Rolling Writer (black). I'm actually rather obsessive about it. I like it because the ink flows freely which helps because my writing hand is always trying to keep up with what I'm hearing in my brain. Fine line pens slow me down. How about you? Favorite pen?
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3 comments:
Pencil for drafts. Weird, I know, but I was just messing around with it, and found tools I just love.
Specifically, 0.9 mm lead mechanical pencils, in the 2B hardness - the softest, darkest lead Pentel makes in that size.
Narrow ruled paper.
Pilot Precise Bold pens in a spectrum of colors for corrections and notes in the margins, as well as for writing short scenes before they're integrated into the full script.
It helps me get the pages done, obsessive though it may seem.
Right now (and for the past couple of years) my favorite is a Pilot Precise V5, Extra Fine black pen. I can buy them in bulk, which is good since they tend to get lost. I've had a couple go through the washer and they don't seem to bleed, otherwise I probably would.
Odocoileus, I like your idea of using colors. I'll probably take that up.
I don't have a favorite paper, although I tend to use 3x5 Post It notes for jotting down most ideas.
For pencils, I use Bic MagiC Grip 0.7mm #2 mechanicals. I also use them for rough sketches in the field before I paint.
What I find funny, though, is that through the years, I've had a variety of different writing tools that I will use for a a couple of years before going on to another. Maybe it's because when I was a stock broker wholesalers constantly gave pens as gifts - everything from cheep ball points with logos to engraved Waterman fountain pens.
I only use Paper Mate Flair felt tip pen. They make various colors, and I have them all, but I only use the black for working on ideas & scripts.
Seems to be the right thickness & color of black. "Black" actually comes in various shades.
And that snippet made me think-- I'm also kind of obsessed with line spacing. I like the spacing of the lines on my paper to be on the skinny side.
I recently made up some 4x6 index cards b/c I didn't like the spacing of the lines on reg store bought cards. Store index cards have 15 lines, mine have 18. I can now fit more info on one card. I also put the lines on the back so I can use both sides & they are both nice and neat. I really hate messy writing that goes all over the place.
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