Graphite Smears and Transfers
Your writing is priceless and a work of art. It should be treated with the highest care and respect. However, there’s the belief that mistakes and blemishes ruin the enjoyment of writing.
When you write in wooden pencil on paper, the older pages smear and fade. And when you write on the left page of a notebook or journal, the graphite transfers to the previous left page. It makes your paper look dirty and unsophisticated.
It’s understandable. After all, would you write in charcoal, chalk, or ink pads? Of course not. So you write in pen like a respectable adult, not a kid trying to learn their ABCs. But I don’t like the pressure of no-mistakes writing and bleed through from a pen. Nothing loses my interest more.
If the pencil transfers bother me that much I can erase them or use archival spray. Not so much with pen. But why do I like graphite smears and transfers from a wooden pencil more than pen?
Not only do I love the scratches of pencil to paper, I love the way it leaves a mark when you smear the graphite with your hands. And how it transfers to the other side of the page. It’s like a shadow. It’s there but doesn’t intrude on you as much as the loops and dots from pen. You might as well be writing in your own blood.
You may think the graphite makes the paper dirty and unsophisticated, but I see a beautiful legacy. It reminds you of your pencil’s lifespan. How it starts off new and whittles down until its usefulness ends. You come back to your notebooks and can see all that hard work with the help of your pencil’s essence. Just one of the more beautiful things in this life.