I was scribbling a shopping list in my moleskine this morning with my favorite Pilot G-2 0.5. A bit later I went back to make an addition, and discovered that the pen wasn’t writing anymore. Closer examination revealed that the tiny ball had popped out of the tip, and a little spring-loaded wire was sticking out in its place. Strange! Alas, finding a ball that measures less than one millimeter in diameter in the carpet was utterly hopeless, not to mention the challenge of putting it back, so I gave up after about two seconds.

I grabbed another G-2, and was quite unsatisfied with how it wrote — scratchy with poor ink flow, which probably explains why that particular pen wound up in the drawer in the first place. (I have found that about one out of every four G-2s doesn’t write well.) So I was off to Staples to obtain another package of G-2s. I also grabbed a Dr. Grip while I was there.

Actually, I’ve spent the last few years at work filling engineering notebooks (and occasionally writing code, too). I’ve kept notes on every bug and piece of code I’ve touched in that time, which now amounts to three complete notebooks dating back to 2001, and almost half of a fourth one. My engineering notebooks are all Roaring Spring marble cover quad-ruled notebooks purchased from Cal Poly’s bookstore.

Recently, writing in my engineering notebook began hurting my hand. I attributed the pain to two major factors:

1. gripping the pen/pencil too tightly;
2. my blocky, ALL-CAPS handwriting.

To address the first point, I consciously began holding my writing instrument more loosely. I have found that larger pens make this easier. Now, whenever I notice that I’m holding my pen or pencil tightly, I take a second to loosen my grip.

The second point was more challenging. I decided to completely change my handwriting from blocky all-caps to a smoother, mixed-case style. This page on handwriting tips was my inspiration. My handwriting has become more fluid, with loops where there once were sharp corners. I’m also beginning to join certain characters together, though I still consider my handwriting to be printing rather than cursive. It took a couple of weeks of intense practice, but the end result is much easier to write without stressing my hand. There was also an unexpected benefit: my handwriting is now much easier to read!