I wrote a novel entirely by hand with fountain pens (why I did it and lessons learned)

A few weeks ago, after 172 days, I finished the first draft of my second novel. While that’s a cool feat all on its own, the real treat was the fact that I hand wrote the entire manuscript on paper with fountain pens.

Why?

I had made a habit of writing one A5 page per day in my Hobonichi Cousin earlier in 2025 as a way to develop a consistent practice of writing prose. Once I decided which book idea I wanted to draft next, I realized I could pivot my daily writing habit for the first draft of my book. If I was writing daily anyway, why not use that time to work on a longer-term project? So on June 18, I started dedicating my daily pages to my next novel.

How?

Before I started actually writing, I counted the number of words I wrote on one of my previous entries. It was around 300 words, so I knew it would take roughly half a year to write a 50k first draft if I gave the project one A5 page a day. I am an underwriter by nature, so ~50k is an appropriate first draft length for me.

I also timed how long it took me to fill a page (around 15 minutes) that way I knew the type of time commitment I’d need per day. There were some days where I could spare more than 15 minutes, so I used those days to write extra pages. This was very helpful on days that became hectic and allowed me to comfortably skip a day.

I recently became a fountain pen enthusiast, so I used them exclusively through this process. I switched ink colours and pens every chapter so I could easily see when chapters started and ended (and I get the added bonus of having a fun colorful flip through at the end).

I marked the monthly pages with when chapters were written, which also helps show which chapters are longer at a glance.

What did I learn?

The biggest lesson: the best way to write a novel is the way that will make the story exist.

My first novel’s first draft was written in 30 days during, what was formerly called, NaNoWriMo. At the time, this was the best way for me to get a book to exist. I needed to get it out as fast as possible, with as much momentum as possible, to prove to myself I was capable of writing a book.

For the second book, my life circumstances were different. I don’t have the ability to block off 2+ hours a day to sprint as many words as possible like I did with book #1. By adapting my current daily writing habit, it meant I could ever so slowly chip away at my manuscript with as little as 15 minutes of writing a day. Finding time is always hard, but what I could find I adapted to fit a personal goal. It made the goal achievable with a realistic end date.

From an actual writing perspective, I found writing on paper gave a few other benefits:

1) Forced forward progress.  Writing with pen and paper meant no delete button. While I could cross out words, or use arrows to indicate I wanted to move paragraphs, I couldn’t actually delete anything I wrote. I focussed on moving the story forward so I could fill up the page. This meant I didn’t get bogged down by trying to edit an incomplete story. It also meant I left (what could be) good words on the page. Even if they got crossed out, they still existed for future me to reference when editing.

2) Progress bar. It is incredibly satisfying seeing a page physically fill with words. I wrote my first novel in Scrivener’s typewriter mode, which is essentially a never ending scroll of text. You have to rely on the word count to conceptualize progress.  With seeing a physical page fill with words, it was so much easier to see how much left I needed to write to reach my daily goal. It was also very helpful on days where it was hard to write because I could physically see how much is left to do. Plus, since it's only an A5 page (roughly half-letter size), I never felt like I was emptying the tank to the point the next days felt like a slog.

Would I do it again?

Absolutely. I took a few weeks off writing after finishing the book to give myself a mental break, but in that time I really missed writing with my pens. I think I will write all my first drafts this way in the future, but I do see myself transcribing throughout the process instead of leaving it all at the end. It’s a little daunting having 27 chapters to type right now, not gonna lie.

I don’t plan on drafting another novel until I finish editing this one, but until then I’ll devote my writing time to short stories and random prose.

If anyone is interested in writing a story this way, I highly recommend at least giving it a try. If you don’t like it, you can always stop and go back to typing. I’m very happy I did this experiment, and only see it as a positive in my writing journey.