As any regular reader of my blogs knows, I LOVE typewriters. Or rather, I love the idea of writing a novel on a typewriter. When I began writing seriously, the typewriter as a writing tool had long since been replaced by computers. But there’s something comforting about the clack, click and ding of an old-fashioned typewriter, isn’t there?

My interest in typewriters comes from the fact that I’m fascinated with the process of writing. With how other people write. All writers have a unique process. It’s like a fingerprint. And we’re usually a pretty superstitious lot about our process. My own involves an iPad and then my MacBook Pro and Scrivener, the best word-processing software for large writing projects there is. I’m kind of a technology guy who romanticizes the writing tools of old but doesn’t use them.

I’ve found another to think about.

Recently, the New Yorker published an article called Back in Blackwing (a play on words on the title of the AC/DC tune Back in Black). In it is a detailed discussion of the new remake of the legendary original Blackwing 602 pencil:

Ticonderogas are perfectly fine, but when I worked in the fact-checking department, back in the nineties, and spent long days making diagonal marks and marginal notes, I grew fond of the Blackwing 602 pencil. It wore down more quickly than others, but it would glide across the page, and somehow would make the hours glide along, too. It also had a seductive slogan, in golden lettering: “Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed.”

The originals can list for as much as $35 a piece on Ebay. Seriously. Fortunately, CA Cedar Products is producing a decent remake for a lot less money. I ordered a box ($20) today of the remade Blackwings to see what the fuss is all about. I can’t wait to get them.

Rumor has it that Stephen King wrote all his early novels with Blackwing pencils. I know he wrote Dreamcatcher that way. At least that’s one story. Another story I’ve heard is that thriller writer Lee Child wrote the first of the Jack Reacher series, Killing Floor, in pencil. Elmore Leonard supposedly writes in pencil. And Joe Finder does as well. Some scenes, anyway. Hemmingway, Steinbeck and Truman Capote (a Blackwing user) were pencil writers all at some point in their careers.

So why pencils in this day and age of sophisticated computers and writing software? I can think of a few reasons:

1. There is something satisfying about the feel of paper, about working with the hands and simple tools.
2. Writing long hand, whether with pencil or pen, forces a writer to think about words more carefully before committing them to paper. Word processing software is wonderful, but it does have a tendency to produce word-vomit without good self-discipline. I’ve often thought that the number of unpublished novelists would drop drastically if agents and publishers forced hopeful writers to submit good old fashioned typed manuscripts.
3. We’ve all had the experience of meaning to sit down and “get some work done,” only to find that our wireless connection has gone down, our disk has crashed, or some other thing has gone wrong out of the half-a-billion things that can go wrong with our computers. One work day later, we haven’t accomplished anything except waiting to speak with tech support. This doesn’t happen with a pad of paper and pencil, although I suppose spilled coffee could derail the process for a few minutes.
4. Less distractions. Doodling is probably the writer’s biggest enemy using a paper and pencil. Or the fridge.
5. Writers are forced to retype their entire manuscript after committing it to paper via pencil. That’s a great way to catch awkward language and typos.