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Which means of writing should an amateur writer embrace: the keyboard or the pen? For thousands of years mankind has written with the best and most convenient instrument it could create. From bones to chalk to a stylus, our species has always had a need to express itself. Now that I’m feeling the familiar urge to write the great American novel, I’m not sure which tool set will best capture my need for romance and utility.

Should I put pen to paper or fingers to keys? As the debate raged in my addled mind, I decided to give myself a research assignment. With a spectral Leonard Nimoy playing ghost to my Hamlet, I began to research the history of the pen. So far, the fossil records says the Purana tribe of India started the ball rolling, so to speak, nearly 7,000 years ago with bird feathers and bamboo twigs.

Reed pens came into fashion during the Egyptian First Dynasty (circa 3,000 BCE). Of course, the medium of choice was papyrus. In other parts of the world, timber boards and stone tablets were also utilized. The reed pen was such the rage, that it was used well into the European Middle Ages.

A few thousand year later, the quill pen became the tool of choice. Think of the quill as the new iMac — scribes in Judea wrote some of their best work using the iQuill (like the Dead Sea Scrolls, for starters). From the Roman Empire to the American Revolution, the quill pen remained in vogue. It wasn’t until 1827 that writing would take one step beyond. Petrache Poenaru, a Romanian, took out a French patent for the world’s first fountain pen.

Let’s forget about the horrendous ballpoint — I’m not fan. This brings me back to my dilemma. Now, with a word processor, I am saved a great deal of transcribing down the road. I can just type and dump my impending novel into an online data storage device and be done with it. I could send it to friends online and have them proof my various drafts. You see, it’s hard to argue with the march of progress. So, with fingers to keys, I type on.

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