Kill your darlings. I write these words over and over with my blue ink refillable Pilot G2 pen in a college rule composition notebook. My thesis isn’t gaining any ground but at least I have a great pen. There should be eulogies for favorite pens when they run out of ink, particularly in the crafting of a dystopia scene when survivors in a quest for hope and salvation in a land of scarcity find fear in the effort.

There are worse things to be passionate about, for instance coveting the UPS man when he delivers Pilot G2 pens. Writers need pens - for doodles, inappropriate caricatures and cartoons between flashes of written words.

The G2 is The Pen Choice of Overachievers. Writer’s might benefit from the cushion to comfortably rest the thumb and first two fingers. Cursive writers will love the even flow, even the ugliest handwriting can be made beautiful with a G2. A clickable button at the top retracts the pen tip. The button discourages chewing. Clicks loudly in the café where writing coincides with coffee. The button also fits well in the hollow of a chin when mindlessly looking out the window when there is not ONE SINGLE WORD FORMING and a page remains blank.

There are occasions when ink smears from overanxious fingers or wrists that drag on the paper. There is no dishonor in the haste to get fleeting words onto the paper, smudges give written passages character. Pen owners should be aware that this is a pen often stolen by writer friends. Friends who have not sold their first novel or their first story. These friends are unable to purchase their own pen because $1.23 per pen is expensive. Sadly, they might not even be writing with a BIC ballpoint pen but something worse - the free pen from the bank. These pens are found on every counter, right next to the teller, imprinted with the bank logo and a teller who cheerily says, “Please, take one with you.” The bank account balance is still dwindling. Share your G2’s without complaint.

When it is time to kill your darlings, a two pack of red gel ink pens should be sufficient. Ample ink to revise. Again. And again. Finally, a first draft. But red is not the only option, there are a variety of colors, including purple, green, turquoise and orange.

I do have one criticism of the Pilot G2 pens, which I am hesitant to share. The packaging is very clear in its pronouncement of smoothness but that does not mean free from obstruction or difficulty for the writer, only the ease of ink from the conical tip. The G2 is the best pen to jot thoughts on scraps of paper, to fill reams of paper with beautifully written lines and grand penmanship but it fulfills not the dissimulation of well written words on the page. That, unfortunately, is the work of the writer.

Stacy Boone (Mountainview ‘23) mostly writes about water or what humans are doing to the landscape. Mostly though, she is just trying to find 20 minutes to write.