Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Being a scribe gives great words and you new life.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Sometimes I have to turn down the lights and the noise, push aside the mechanical pencils and ballpoint pens...and be a scribe.

My scriptorium is my desk in my bedroom, my light a kerosene lantern. Though my pen isn't a quill and I haven't the antique inks, I do make the setting different enough that it becomes meaningful not only in what I am copying, but in the act of doing it.

I have copied chapters out of the Bible, poems, grand quotes, scenes from Shakespeare - what catches my imagination soon becomes committed to paper my way.

The act of writing becomes the act of learning: the repetitive motion of dipping a pen into ink, the tilting of it at an angle so that the nib doesn't cut into the paper and splatter ink across the paper - this, the dim light, and the old yellowed ledger from 1914 in which I am writing, are the school I enroll myself in to get away from the noise of modern life.

This takes practice, it requires patience.

Any old handwriting will do for the sincere heart, but I know I am not satisfied to scrawl across the page an Emily Dickinson poem in the choppy modern writing of half-cursive half-print. I found myself a Palmer penmanship book of my grandmother's and, along with handwritten letters of hers in which to familiarize myself with the way writing used to look before it was simplified and mauled into something of ease and speed in which to keep up with computers and laser printers, I taught myself to write all over again. I learned that the letter "t" looks differently when it comes at the end of the word. I found a new way to write the letter "r" and a way to increase the beauty of all uppercase letters.

If you use pen nibs and an ink well, you will have to re-learn to write. The modern pens and pencils have allowed us to sloppily use pressure, cramping our hands and our penmanship instead of letting the words flow out of the pen with the ink.

Think I'm waxing a little too poetic? Those of you who regularly write with an ink-dip pen know what I am talking about.

If you're serious about this, find good source material to copy. Find a great book to write in, be it an old find at an antique store or garage sale or a blank journal from the local bookstore. Find some ink and a pen and practice your penmanship. Work to improve in all areas, from source material to writing style. Welcome to the slow school of loving paper and ink and words.

More should enroll.

Going about it:

Ink: I use Higgins waterproof brown #4295 or Higgins fadeproof brown #44705, available where art supplies are sold. I like the aged look of the brown. You may use any brand and color you wish, obviously.
Book: I am currently using a 1914 ledger. Its used pages had been removed when I came into possession of it. You may find old books in secondhand stores and antique shops for reasonable prices. The pages at the ends of old novels and books are also a source for aged paper. You can assemble these into their own mismatched-matched work of art; size need not match. Find book-making tips here.
Pen: I use a standard drawing nib in an antique pen of my grandmother's. Nibs and pens are available where art supplies are sold. You don't need something antique to get started.
Inspiration: Any book of poetry, essays, and other sources will do. You know what inspires you! You learn what you write, so choose wisely.