Or is it just me?
Apologies for the opening crudity, but is there another word that describes so comprehensively the lascivious way writers behave in a stationery shop, let alone if there’s a sale on? Forget Christmas, we want the Back to School sales. Fondling journals, cooing over different coloured copying paper and insisting on trying out all the pens for the right feel. It would be downright obscene if it wasn’t such a guilty pleasure.
The level of excitement it generates is almost sexual, and in fact one writer admitted to me that she’s told her boyfriend a trip to Officeworks counts as foreplay. I kid you not.
These are the tools of our trade, sure, but is that any reason to get so excited you buy post it notes in bulk packs more suited to a corporate office? Notepads. Dear lord. When they have sales of Spirax I get dizzy. There are so many sizes, thicknesses, and some have pockets at the back. How can I possibly know which ones I’ll need for which project? There’s no option but to buy a couple of each type.
Envelopes. Ahhhhh. Is there anything more beautiful than those pearlised baby-pink envelopes with the matching A4 paper? Perfect for composing love letters on. Assuming you have a love. One day. And so here’s a thought, maybe it’s more about the anticipation of using this stationery that makes writers stock so much of it. Pens! Every time a new type hits the market I want to try it. The pens I already have are fine, and really, an ordinary Bic will do when you’ve got a brilliant idea and the need to scratch it down. But is there anything nicer than curling up in the corner of the airport bar with your Moleskin notepad and a sparkling Swarovski crystal pen to document your journey? I think not.
T
hen there are Padawans learners who come to us seeking the arcane knowledge of how to write a stationery list, a highly advanced discipline only used by those writers with the greatest self control. A dying art to be honest. A dead art in fact.
So is this is a girl thing, or are male writers equally afflicted? And do readers have stationery fetishes? Why do we do it? Is it all about the writing? Or is there some couch we should be lying on to talk about our troubled childhood…?
Feedback definitely required.
Mmm, Lou, I know exactly what you mean. I’m often inspired when I get my hands on a delicious-looking notebook… not that writers can’t do great wordsmithing on the backs of envelopes, napkins and recycled paper… but I have to confess that this obsession lurks deep inside me.
Ooooh … and here was I thinking it was only me. I look in the drawers in my office and wonder what got into the me when I bought those notebooks I’ll never fill, the fancy paper I’ll probably never use, the biros that the ink will dry up in before I’ll use them all. To justify my urge I even buy notebooks for other writers as birthday presents. I guess there’s no hope. Is there a Notebooks Anonymous?
At least you’re buying the notepads, Sandy. I came back from the RWA conference in Melbourne to find twelve Hilton biros rolling around the bottom of my bag. I must have taken one from ever panel/workshop I sat in on, not to mention the one in the hotel room! Didn’t even notice I was doing it. Serious stationery addiction…
I think it is a girl thing. My husband once observed my daughter and I being in heaven in a smiggle shop. He sat outside sipping his coffee and commented that only females followed us into the shop, any males had somewhere else to go!
Even when I go shopping at Coles or Woolies, if I spy a new post it note (I love all the different shapes) I have to add it to the weekly shopping. When Bic brought out their coloured biro’s, I bought two packets because I didn’t want to share them with my daughter. I will share gel pens as they dry out quickly, so we enjoy them together and buy more as we go. The opaque ones are great on black post its, or notepads!
Then the journals…my favourite at the moment, is a bright red vinyl (very me).
I also love to adorn my pages with bright stickers, to bring out my inner child for writing children’s stories!
Then there are the wonderful pieces you get at scrapbooking shops….oh Louise, you certainly have made me excited just thinking about this…I may have to buy something new tomorrow!
Oh, yes. I want what they’re having! Cannot get enough of stationery. Love the potential of an empty notebook whatever shape, size, colour or brand. Pens! I have so many and as you said, I love to play with the testers to see how they work. Perhaps not so much slut as connoisseur!!
I’d love to be a connoisseur, Raelene, but I’m afraid my lust for stationery is too visceral to claim any intellectual interest. Even driving past Officeworks makes me tingle with excitement 🙂