Ever since I earned my pen licence in grade 3, I’ve had a melancholy longing for the simpler days of the lead pencil. I feel that I write neater in pencil, I can correct mistakes easily and I feel more creative overall.

And apparently I’m not alone in this sentiment! Many of history’s notable writers, including but not limited to Margaret Atwood, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, David Mamet and Henry David Thoreau, seem to have a preference for writing in pencil. Earnest Hemingway famously wrote in A Moveable Feast, “the blue-backed notebooks, the two pencils and the pencil sharpener, the marble-topped tables, the smell of cafe cremes, the smell of early morning sweeping out and mopping and luck were all you needed.” He emphasised that “wearing down seven number-two pencils is a good day’s work.”

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I go through seven pencils in a day! But I can’t deny that I definitively agree with Hemingway on the superiority of the pencil. Pencils don’t leak, burst, dry out or freeze like pens do. Taking a pen on an aeroplane is a sure-fire way to end up with ink all through your bag. There’s also something primal about a pencil that grounds and connects me to my own creativity.

A Faber Castell HB pencil is often my go-to, but I also love using mechanical pencils as they don’t need sharpening. I use a J.Burrows 0.7mm or a Staedtler Mars Micro if I’m feeling fancy.

Do you like writing in pencil? Tell me about it in the comments below!