One of the common terms you hear in the fountain pen, and really a lot of other communities, is the term ‘EDC’ as in everyday carry.
Now, one thing I did mention about my fountain pen vice/habit is that it’s encouraged me not to put pens in my pockets (unless I’m wearing a shirt with pockets in which case my Lamy or Pilots look kinda cool).
But you know, I like to have multiple pens on hand. And so here’s my usual set up for leaving the house.
The pen case is an iDream365 Hard Protective EVA Carrying Case . I got it off of Amazon and it’s pretty comfortable. Pens, I like to carry at least a combination of:
- blue
- black
- red pen
- ‘civilian’ pen
- and a midliner highlighter because they’re the most fountain pen friendly highlighters
The notebook is an Exceed notebook. Exceed is a Wal-Mart brand that is basically a Leuchturm1917 knockoff with a very limited color selection.
But
It’s actually a very solid little notebook. I normally have slightly larger versions of it for my school meeting notes.
School getup
I keep the first set up ,and then I add a Think Ink notebook from Target where I log my meetings. I also found a pack of small steno pads at Target ($5 for 5) because of COURSE I did that and they are great for quicker tearable notes. At the bottom is my Minimalism Art bullet journal. It’s a great brand when it comes to fountain pen-friendly (and really, all pens) notebooks and for the price it’s great especially when you compare it to equal-size Leuchtturm1917s or Rhodias that are a little pricier.
I don’t buy Moleskine notebooks because their paper is extremely thin, even for regular pens. I tell people they’re like loose-leaf paper notebooks with an impressive marketing arm.
I keep my small notebook and my pen set for arbitrary thoughts during lunch.
Out and About/Hipster Set
Because I can have more things to carry when I post up at a coffeeshop, I throw these in a leather college professor bag my dad gave me as a gift. I keep the pen case but add a pen wallet in case I want to switch out to a different color fountain pen.
I carry a small book with me from my to-read list (in this case, Rudy Francisco’s I’ll fly away) and a couple of notebooks. You’ll notice the notebooks have names and it’s…I don’t know. I name things. I don’t talk OFTEN about the things I name because then I’d be looked at as the kind of guy who names things.
But it started with what I thought was going to be the name of my first poetry collection but I liked the name so much it just stuck around as my all-purpose naming convention for my notebooks. Flash Floods and Revelations. Don’t ask. I just like the way it rolls off the tongue and HIM took the equally-aweseome Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights. My current lineup is as follows:
I – 2019 Bullet journal (Letterbox Notebook) – DONE
II – 2019-2020 Commonplace Book (Lemome Notebook) – DONE
III – Writing Project Journal (Leuchturm) – DONE
IV – Writing Project Journal (Minimalism Art)
V – Writing Project Journal (Leuchturm)
VI – Poetry Journal (Exceed)
Outside the Flash Floods series I have another Leuchturm notebook used for my homebrew DND setting notes/other assorted tabletop things; a standard notebook for my blog notes; and my 2021 Commonplace Book that I haven’t quite worked on this year.
Obviously, I don’t take them all out at once, I just pick and choose what I’m going to work on if I’m in my writer mode. In the picture above, it’s my set up for my long-standing fantasy project and the bones of my second poetry collection.
