On my table I have a leather-bound journal, a kindle, and several yellow stripy Hb pencils. I write in longhand and in pencil. They are my old friends. I mastered the use of this technology at about the age of three and since then I haven’t looked back. They require no special consideration or concentration. They require no power outlet and in special circumstances they write upside-down whilst I’m watching TV.

This is my preferred method.

If I am sitting in my kitchen away from my desk then I have my laptop. It is bright and shiny. It is capricious. We eye each other with suspicion. Sometimes it pings grumpily at me and I mutter

” Pencils don’t ping! “

I don’t think this is making the relationship any stronger. You see the laptop will always be second in my affections. It is my second draft workhorse and not the playground of my imagination.

How do you write?