Re: Writing

Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Fri, 31 Dec 1999 16:31:29 -0500

On Fri, Dec 31, 1999 at 02:07:25PM -0500, William Hochman wrote:

> In the late eighties my furture wife and i wrote over hundred letters in
> four months but now we sign our email affectionately...I even used to
> correspond by letter with my office mate at NYU and yet with all my love
> and fondness for letter writing have to admit email makes sense to me
> now...I'm glad I'm a "hybrid" letter writer and keep my fountain pen at
> the ready, will

I still write all early drafts on paper and only type them once I have
a rough idea that I have it right, and while for a period I typed
letters, I now only handwrite personal letters.  I'm also very
particular about what pen for what assignment.  Sometimes a roller ball,
sometimes a ballpoint, most times a fountain pen.  I love the feel of
paper, metal, ink.  I guess I'm one of those loonies for whom they make 
the Levenger catalog.

A good friend, also a writer, gave me a cut-down shuffleboard that had
belonged to his father and at which he wrote several of his books.  A
loved one, as a birthday gift, put legs on it for me, so now I have a
six-foot flat surface with one of those flat writing cushions, like a
giant blotter; it gives your pen or pencil a smooth and uniform backing
as you write.  I settle for anything that gets me into that hypnotic
state that allows me to get work done.

Ah, the secrets and peccadilloes that leak out....

--tim