Unwrapping a writing rhythm for 2024

Consistency is a song. A procedural rhythm that’s catchy enough for me to repeatedly fall back into. Like the hook in a great beat or a sticky melody.

I’ve struggled to find a writing rhythm since my July move. Infrequent reflections on my process coupled with the lack of a writing rhythm. New places, new spaces and drastically new schedules. I don’t yet have smartly used places, intentionally organized spaces, or writing times ingrained in my weekly routines.

Changes manifested a lack of personal writing and an absence of outward-facing writing, like posting here on mnmlscholar. My reflections on the year highlight changes I aim to transition into for 2024: changes to places, spaces, and timings.

Place. Locations conducive to thoughtful writing and engaged reading. Corners of shared rooms work best for me. A corner table distances me from distractions like a passing partner or whining puppy and encourages a healthy level of background noise. Two places work, if imperfectly.

A dedicated desk in our study and a transitory writing space atop our dining table. Perfect on paper. I need to make a conscious habit of visiting this room as my primary thinking location in the early mornings and late evenings.

My kind of moonshine

A secondary place is the dining table. A more sociable location near the kitchen and within view of the TV. The table at our prior home could not see the TV, but was easily within earshot for listening to music.

The new arrangement adds the tempting option to both hear and see videos. The past six months reaffirm what I already knew about places that work best for maintaining my focus: audio is excellent, but visuals buoy me above deep focus.

Space. My study is dark and cozy. Books line the wall behind my desk as a sound-break. Citations are easy to reach by simply turning around. And the room enjoys minimal daylight. Somber intellectuality for thoughtful thinking and, ahem, nonfiction writing.

The dining room, on the other hand, is bright and airy. The table sits right in the open. Sociable and cheery. The polar opposite to my writing desk. Sunlight and night lights for creative writing.

Breathable space

An atmosphere for any headspace.

Timing. The most challenging dimension to divining a new writing rhythm for me. I don’t yet have the muscle memory of using the study — which is by far our quietest, out-of-the-way room.

Evening journaling at the dining table is, I’ve learned, too distracting. I wind up watching whatever my partner has on the TV.

So: it seems sensible to flip the times I use each place.

I would be better served settling into the study for evening journaling in 2024. And then returning to the living room for lovely and loving company. Our dining table now receives wonderful morning light. A space tailor-made for creative morning pages and dawn-adjacent planning.

Most Inked Tines updates include the prior week’s currently inked writing tools. This week, though, I’m reflecting on a surprise inky sextet.

Toolset

Pens. The Pilot Custom Heritage 92 stood out last week. Combining an EF nib with a shimmer ink invites challenges with clogging and inconsistent writing. The Pilot’s soft gold nib allows for enough ink flow to head off clogging issues — over an entire week. Praise. Task management, scratch notes, some reading notes, and D&D notes. 1/2.

Diamine’s Days 7-12 … That Velvet Emerald is fabulous …

• Able Snail Powder Blue Classic (B) — 4/5. Excellent, reliable performance. Smooth writing. The round B nib writes at forgiving angles — perfect for scratch notes. But requires a secure pocket given the Snail’s lack of clip.

• Jinhao 82 “Mint Julep” (B SIG) — Sweet Dreams performed well on Tomoe River. The B SIG ensured fun line variation throughout my writing. The 82’s narrow section is comfortable over short bursts of writing: short-form journaling.

• Nakaya Neostandard (Mini Naginata-togi) — 4/5. Velvet Emerald is a sleeper great from 2023’s Inkvent. Strong shading with subtle, infrequent gasps of sheen. Comfortable in my hand over both short and long writing sessions. Journaling.

• Jinhao 9019 Transparent Green (Bu-di) — Full. Unused through the week. Unfair on my part. This fun combo of Bah Humbug and bent nib deserves a more respectful run. Bah Humbug, indeed.

• Nahvalur Nautilus Caldera Sea (BBG) — Full. A matchy-matchy pairing that accents the Nautilus’ blue trim. A light, icy blue with minimal shading — even in the BBG’s generous flow. Another pairing that received minor attention taking notes on a call last week.

Notebooks. Work bujo. The work notebook rested quietly in my bag. The interior pages will next see the light of day in 2024.

“Rockabye Kokuyo,” said the nanny gnome.

Journal. I waded into two journal entries last week. Each is a complete single page of writing.

The first is a one-page scrawl reflects on the relief in receiving my official military ID card in a short paragraph. Then, in a far longer paragraph, I think through the connections between a series of new encounters I wrote for my D&D group. A straightforward recap.

The Jinhao 82 is a dream writer equipped, as it is, with one of Franklin-Christoph’s B-SIG italic grinds. Diamine’s Sweet Dreams carries the page.

A blink in pink

I wonder if there was a quality control issue with Sweet Dreams as my bottle produces crisp lines with fun shading — in addition to the ink’s sugar-sweet fragrance. A stark contrast to the feathering experienced by other folks. Jackpot.

The second entry is a Nakaya affair. The Nakaya is a pen that draws writing from me: I enjoy holding the pen. And CY’s excellent Naginata-togi grind begs for scribbling. Wide enough to show line variation. Narrow enough to keep tiny handwriting legible. A happy middle.

I sketched plans for a newly planted fish tank — which is my non-stationery hobby.

Emerald felt appropriate for an evening brainstorm

Written dry. I wrote minimally last week. As such, all six pens are nearly full upon week’s end. A quiet voice on my shoulder whispers that I should return to my favorites come mid-January. Good idea, conscience.

Newly inked. Having six fun Diamine inkvent choices on my desk kept me well-entertained. Entertained enough that I felt no compulsion to add to the week’s planned sextet.

Happy happy

The collection

Incoming / new orders. The Christmas holiday introduced multiple exciting additions into my stationery collection. Paper is queen.

The Yamamoto Paper Tasting collection includes three papers: their Glassine (49), Tracing Paper (50), and Kinshachi (30). Yamamoto’s packaging suggests that the Glassine and Kinshachi are strong choices for fountain pen inks. The Tracing Paper is likely best for gel pens, like the G2 refill in my Tactile Turn.

The clip is clutch

My partner knows my minimalistic penchant. So they gifted me a sticker sheet from Dotori Designs. Planner tabs in blacks and greys. Black tabs. Grey highlights and separators. Sleek.

I also opened a Kleid Notes notebook with a 2 mm grid. The B6 size is excellent for holding plenty of writing while encouraging my journaling with small-sized pages. B6 sized pages balance well the ability feel progress in filing pages alongside holding meaningful amounts of writing.

Outgoing / trades or sales. Vindication. I sold all of my used pens. The happy result is a healthy pen budget line and two slots in my pen case for new acquisitions, should promising additions come across my feed.

Three limited edition Lamy Safareis (my plural for Safari pens) are on to new homes: the Petrol, Dark Lilac, and All-Black. The TWSBI 580-AL in Silver now resides on an eager writer’s desk. The vintage Parker Vacumatic was also purchased over on eBay. And the KACO pens have moved on to more attentive homes. A success in sales. And a boon to my stationery budget.

Currently reading and listening

Fiction. I started and finished Jane Lindskold’s Library of the Sapphire Wind. Fun world building.  333 pages of light-hearted fantasy hijinks. On a world where people sport animal heads and magical abilities.

Honestly, I’m romantic on the use of three 60+ aged protagonists. What a fun romp through adventuring in an age when your knees grind and your wisdom demands the magical kids slow down and think once in a while.

I also finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s novella, Elder Race, on Sunday night. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of fantasy and science fiction that Tchaikovsky jumps between. Best of both genres. Tchaikovsky’s portrayal of depression left me feeling seen.

All read in Apple’s Books app on my phone. Reliable software with a fully functional dark mode.

Nonfiction. My forays into light-hearted fiction left my nonfiction to-read pile sulking on the bookshelf behind my desk. In due time, dear ones.

Music. A contingent of my musically-inclined friends have spent the past few years building a Spotify playlist of holiday songs. Our only rule: no traditional versions of holiday classics. Originals or liberally-changed covers only. The result is a cooky, eccentric playlist of holiday songs that carry us through the winter holiday season.

This playlist swam from my living room to my car speakers and back all week.

A word to the courageous: some songs in this collection contain explicit lyrics.