A question of pens...

Not that he reads this, but Happy Birthday M-Moose!

This post is all about Zebras - I swear!

I went shopping online today for a very important implement; A new pen for NaNo.

This can be no ordinary pen. It has to have ink that flows quickly and freely across the paper I most prefer using so I can write at the speed of my brain. It has to have a non-slip grip so that when my fingers start getting sweaty, with the stress of keeping up with my mind, I don’t loose the pen. The same grip has to be comfortable and slightly giving so I don’t end up with ridges or blisters on my fingers from the extended use I make of it. It has to have a large diameter so that when, in my panic to get my word count up, I grip too tightly I don’t give myself cramp. It also has to have enough ink to last me for at least 50,000 words. No mean feat I can tell you.

The search has been long. Over the years I have survived many inferior pens. When I was at school I liked Schafer pens, tapered and angular, but these actually gave me blisters somehow. After I had started writing regularly I spent years using uni-ball micro roller-ball pens, bog standard and relatively cheep, which were great for easy-flowing writing and weren’t too uncomfortable although the finger-ridges thing happened regularly. Only problem was the damn roller-ball point kept detaching itself with my vigorous use. I would always manage to break the pen well before it ran out of ink. I went through at least thirty before giving up. I tried Bic four coloured pens as these were slightly more chunky than the usual pen, hoping to overcome finger cramp, but they have no grip and my fingers just slid right off.

And then about five or six years ago I started using PaperMate’s four-coloured multi-pens. Really nicely chunky, a soft, non-slip grip, a lot of ink (four times as much!), comfortable... But it just didn’t flow as quickly as I wanted, and it’s standard nib-size (1.0 I think), is too thick for my preference. I like a fine line.

Well, they don’t sell PaperMate’s here, so last year in Plymouth I went looking for a substitute and discovered a Zebra brand four-colour pen. I had already fallen in love with their Tapli Clip pens as work-pens in Canberra (unfortunately TapliClip are now discontinued :S) so when I saw the four-colour ones, I grabbed the very last two in the WHSmith in Plymouth.

And right there, for me, heaven in pen form had been discovered. The nib size was perfect, the ink flowed beautifully, the grip was great and NaNo was a breeze – well, I notched up 100k words, so yes, it went well!

Unfortunately, I never saw the pens in ‘Smith again, although I looked routinely hoping to buy more. My current two are all but out of ink now, so I have been studiously looking for replacements. I couldn’t find them anywhere. I searched Plymouth, I searched London, I searched Melbourne over Christmas, I searched Aber, I searched Shrewsbury, I searched Birmingham: No Zebra four-colour chunky pens did I find. So I went online. I went to the UK Zebra website and the US Zebra website and even to some websites in Japan, Zebra’s home country, but they no longer make them.

*deep groan*

I was properly horrified. My favourite pen has been discontinued! Even worse, they haven’t (as yet) come up with a replacement for it! I am devastated. Why do these companies have to keep improving and re-inventing the wheel? Have they not heard of the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’?

*sigh*

I discovered a sort-of substitute four-colour chunky pen from a company I have never heard of – Reynolds – which works ok, suffering from the same problem as the PaperMate pens being not-flowy enough and a bit too thick for me. And although they’re good enough for everyday writing, they’re not good enough to survive NaNo. Not as I do it these days at any rate.

So I went searching today for substitutes. I looked under ‘4-Colour’ and ‘Multi-pen’. I found bic's but steered well clear of them. Then I thankfully discovered a good website selling hundreds of different brands of pens. I found three four-colour pens that look like they might be chunky enough to be comfortable. Actually, there were only three four-colour pens on the site! Two Pilot pens – the Feed GP4 and the BegreeN Feed GP4 and something by a company called Tombow – their Reporter 4-Colour Pen. I thought I’d try out each, so I bought all three. They were dispatched almost immediately. I should get them in the next day or so.

And then of course this evening when I got home, I looked at the shell of my favourite pen and realised it wasn’t called a multi-pen or anything nearly as snazzy. It was called Clip-On. Just that. How very undescriptive.

So just on the very off chance that they might exist in some hereto-undiscovered corner of the universe, I went looking for the 'Clip-On'.

And guess what they have up on the WHSmith website at 10% off right now?

You guessed it, the Clip On! I bought six, which is all I can really justify at the ‘mo as at over 3 quid a pop, they’re not cheep. But they still exist!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

*Kat Happy Dance*

Of course, they are still discontinued, but ‘Smith have a surplus supply so yay for me! When I feel sufficiently extravagant, hopefully before WHSmith run out, I will buy some more.

But for the meantime, I’m very happy. I have discovered a supply of my favourite Zebras and they are on their way to me right now!

See, I told you this post was about Zebras! NaNo 2010, Here I Come!