The Talking Quill Pen

Some of the greatest written works of humankind were written with a feather dipped in ink. Nations were created, wars were explained and novels were written with nothing more than the simple quill pen in the skilled hands and razor sharp minds of the people using them. For the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, and Edgar Allen Poe - to name just a few of the many - the quill was the only tool available. A good portion of the world's body of literature - the letters, the literary masterpieces and the general writings of great minds down through the ages - all flowed meticulously and painstakingly from this humble device.

Not only did the writer have to crystallize their thoughts, they also had to master the elaborate and beautiful cursive scripts of the day. In many cases, the words on the page not only convey dramatic and powerful meanings, but they are beautiful to behold as well. Writing in those days, using nothing more than a quill, ink and parchment, was truly an art, an art that even exceeds the tremendous literary power of the words that were written, if that is possible.

Needless to say, it's different today.

People only use pens or pencils and paper when they don't have one of the many keyboards they use everyday closely at hand. On top of that, more often than not, the words put down on paper are merely notes, or temporary drafts. Ultimately, those words are then rewritten - typed in, in other words - into the device of choice. In fact, many schools are abandoning the practice of teaching handwriting altogether, instead offering classes in "keyboarding."

And why not? The keyboard makes things so much easier. If you spell something wrong, it gets automatically corrected. If your grammar is bad, the computer gives you suggestions. And if you get stuck for ideas, the Internet is right there, a few keystrokes away, ready to offer up an entire universe of new concepts, similar works, and yes - diversions from the arduous task of writing. It's amazing that anything coherent gets written any more.

Imagine if Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or Edgar Allen Poe had talking quill pens. When they weren't quite sure how to say what they wanted to say, instead of going online and surfing the Internet for an indeterminate period of time, they could have simply started a conversation with the quill pen. Imagine the impact that ability might have had on documents like the Constitution of the United States, or perhaps the Gettysburg Address. And would The Raven turned out the same way?

J.K. Rowling actually used a talking quill pen in one of her Harry Potter books. The pen was used by a journalistically challenged reporter to embellish quotes for her stories. Fiction yes, but the concept was interesting.

The point is that if you write anything in the course of your day - whether you do it as a part of your job, or simply because you love to write - remember that the computer is simply your quill and ink bottle. Use it to convey your thoughts, not to create them.