I've been considering writing a book about this. An ebook, that is. The question comes up a lot on Reddit and I have a zillion links to those threads as well as other forums and blogs on what to do with one's pens. The short list:
- Collect, clean, repair, and admire (and trade / buy / sell / give)
- Use them for non-marking purposes (so far, the only one I can remember here is someone who makes costumes for them and uses them to act out little plays)
- Use them to make marks on paper
The last item can be divided into categories:
- Writing
- Drawing
- Marking
- Practicing
- Reviewing
Reviewing pens, papers, inks, and / or accessories.
Practicing would be your handwriting, of course. Learn a new "font" or lettering style, improve one you already know, learn to write backwards, whatever.
Marking would be things like editing, grading papers, doing puzzles, or filling out forms.
Drawing can include doodles, Zentangles, and sketching, as well as drawing.
Writing can be further divided into things you can write (in):
- Letters (whether to pen pals, politicians, newspapers, or, for example, seniors in nursing homes - there are charities which ask people to do this)
- Cards (thank you, thinking of you, get well, holiday, etc.)
- Journal / diary (could be about you, could be what you remember of last night's dreams, childhood memories, about your great-great grandfather as you research his life, ...)
- Original work (poetry, fiction, non-fiction; essays, short stories, scripts, novels; articles; etc.)
- Copying (lots of people do this, copying lyrics, the Bible, or some literary work they enjoy)
- Copying recipes onto FP-friendly index cards...
- Study (taking notes by hand of whatever you're learning, exploring the dictionary)
- Notes (in meetings, from observation, quotes from shows or music)
- Plans (for world domination, of course; a pad of A3 paper is fabulous for brainstorming on)
- Planner / Diary / Agenda -keeping
- Lists (grocery, favorites, contacts, things you want to memorize, bucket list, post-bucket listª)
- Responses to forum posts
- Keeping the books (paper ledger for all your financial transactions)
ª I'm going to start a new trend. If the "bucket list" is things you want to do
before you die, the "post-bucket list" would be things you want to do
after you die. There's a strict rule that the Post-Bucket List (the PBL)
not be used for procrastination!
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