2026 Will be the Year of the Pen

Most of you know 2025 was “Year of the Pencil.”  I journaled in pencil. Took work notes in pencil. I researched pencils and tried many brands, styles, and quality levels. I enjoyed the nuance of sharpening and shading. I liked it. It was a nice year. I’m not anti-pencil, but I think I need to revisit ink pens.

Do you think about your pens and pencils? Well… I do.

I like writing in my journal. I like making notes and sketching and doodling. But I didn’t like the bleed-through (or “bleeding” …which is the ink going through the paper and showing on the other side of the paper). Hence, the Year of the Pencil.

Lately, I’ve been reading about pens and maybe the “bleeding” was all my fault. I got away from ball-point pens. I went with gel-based pens. I tried the Sharpie S-Gel. A great pen, but very inky. I also have an affinity for .7mm tips or … gasp … 1.0mm tips and recently learned, duh, means more  ink coming from the tip of the pen and, on a microscopic level, pooling on the page and … bam … bleeding.

So, as much as I love the pencil-life and I’m not swearing off pencils forever, by any means … I’m going to try pens again. Starting with my Cross pen. Ahem. I’m embarrassed to say my co-workers once bought me a Cross pen (the Townsend Medalist, to be exact), an amazing writing instrument and has been a pen standard for decades and a couple years ago when the ink went dry, I put my Cross pen in a drawer and forgot about it. Ink for a ballpoint, especially a Cross quality ink, does not bleed through a page. Similarly, going to a .5mm pen tip (currently using a FriXion) means less ink and, thereby, less bleeding.

Starting with my Cross refill and .05mm FriXion but if you have a pen recommendation, leave a comment.

Stay tuned for updates. The next phase will be choosing the right journal and paper quality.