by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
We writers are sometimes referred to as odd, but I prefer quirky; sounds more French. One quirky tendency I have is to stockpile office supplies. Forget we are in a digital media age, I still enjoy Post-It Notes, medium point purple ink pens, pink paper steno pads and my favorite white-lined writing tablets. Part of this comes from my Army training as a supply sergeant; if you don’t have it now, you won’t have it when you need it.
This supply addiction appears when visiting my local office supply stores. While we writers want to mosey around and bond with the paper clips and new colors of erase pens for the whiteboards, perky sales folk can derail us. In one such visit a few yeas ago three salespeople in five minutes asked if they could help me find something. All I wanted to do was yell, “I’m just trying to enjoy the office supplies, okay?” Don’t go there anymore.
Being a tactile type, touching the products is great fun. A bright mauve fake snake writing tablet cover can send me into fits of joy. These simple pleasures are part of being a creature who brings worlds out of thin air; sometimes we just need to touch paper, a book or an eraser! Let us be.
Two staples for all writers are ink and paper to print out hard copies and edit our work. (Who hasn’t heard the midnight horror stories at writing conferences about ink and paper emergencies at the worst time?) There is just something about seeing prose in hard copy which makes the edits jump out at me. Scribbling on the manuscript also gives me a feeling of accomplishment. Old school paper also makes editing portable without needing batteries or a charging cord.
The more digital my writing tools become, the more I need hard copies to edit. Perhaps this is old school training or personal preference. Whatever it is, we writers must do what works best for us. Susan Wiggs writes her bestsellers long hand, then makes edits when she types them into the computer. Whatever method works for each writer, that is the best.
So what’s in your writing supply closet or shelf? Got office supply stories?
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