There’s no escaping the fact that digital is king in this day and age. Letters are composed via email, to-do lists are ticked off in online productivity tools, and many of us forgo writing down what we need at the supermarket in favour of using the Notes app on our phone.
Despite this, though, there is something to be said for tradition and craftsmanship, and the more tangible pleasure of committing thoughts to paper. Many a writer has relished finding the perfect pen, so we asked two storytellers to choose theirs at Montblanc — a leading purveyor of writing instruments (as they prefer to call them) since its inception in Berlin, Germany in 1906 — and report back. Here’s the verdict from FQ’s Sarah Murray and Saraid de Silva, the inaugural winner of the 2021 Crystal Arts Master of Creative Writing Prize, currently working on her first novel.
SARAH MURRAY
MANAGING EDITOR, FASHION QUARTERLY
Pen pick: Montblanc ‘Meisterstück 145’ rose gold fine-nib fountain pen, $995.
It was the process of choosing a pen that I liked most. In the elegant Montblanc store on Auckland’s Queen Street I was asked to test several pens with different looks, weights and nibs. For me, Montblanc’s broad nib felt too broad, the oblique nib too heavy, but the fine nib was just right. Because I chose such a classic nib, I went with the classic and possibly most widely recognised Meisterstück pen in an elegant rose-gold finish, and had it monogrammed with my initials. It feels important in my hand. It makes me want to write more. It makes me want to create.
SARAID DE SILVA
WRITER & PRODUCER
Pen pick: Montblanc ‘Meisterstück 161’ gold ballpoint pen, $760.
I wish I was a fountain-pen person, scratching away in pretty cursive, immortalising my thoughts and ideas with zero hesitation. When Montblanc invited us into the store to take a look at their selection, I picked up the fountain pens hoping to meet the version of myself that would be poised enough to use them — but, truthfully, I’m a ballpoint pen girl to my core. Give me the easiest instrument to reach for, a pen I can communicate any old thought with, tweaking and refining until it finally feels like something I might want to hold on to.
