Point of a Pencil

  By Joy Bassetti Kruger

  Point of a Pencil

  By Joy Bassetti Kruger

  Copyright © July 2014 by Joy Bassetti Kruger

  Note: Point of a pencil, was written by the author after attending an incredibly inspiring creative writing course. And yes, the lecturer did insist upon us having 24 sharpened pencils, some of which are still in use many years later.

  POINT OF A PENCIL.

  By Joy Bassetti Kruger.

  When Alison received an e-mail listing the requirements for a writing course she was about to embark on, she smiled. The list read as follows: -twenty-four sharpened pencils, two large ‘Oom Dik’ writing pads, or three blank typing pads, one soft eraser, study notes, and a completed assignment of six pages.

  Now, why would anyone need twenty-four pencils? It seems far too many. I probably won’t even get through one pencil in the entire four-week program,” she muttered under her breath, deciding immediately to just take along her ‘fluffy pencil’ and another pencil that had a frog sitting on the top of it and maybe also a ballpoint pen.

  The first day of the course came around sooner than she’d expected and as per usual because she tried to get a number of important tasks done before leaving home, she had a rush to get to the class on time. The others in the group were already seated, but obviously not everyone had arrived, as yet. This was a relief, so she quickly unpacked her goods onto the desktop and then sat back and waited.

  After a moment, she took a look around at the other people on the course, deciding that they obviously felt equally as nervous and undecided as she was about a woman called Laura, who said she could teach them how to write their first novel. Alison had already seen several of the people present at other writing courses she had attended over the years, which, to say the least, had not inspired any of them to write a best seller.

  The lecturer walked in, she immediately called the class to order and within seconds silence gradually fell over the room. “I see four people have not yet arrived, but as there is a lot of work to get through we will begin immediately,” she said, rather pointedly.

  She then introduced herself as Laura Mc Donald and she had a broad Scots accent that suited her name well. She asked if anyone had any questions about the proposed program and then casually glanced around the classroom.

  One man put up his hand and asked, “Laura, do we really need twenty-four pencils?”

  She stared at him blankly and then hesitated a moment before responding, “Yes indeed sir, we do. But as I recall the instruction was not just for twenty-four pencils, but rather twenty-four sharpened pencils. So not just any old pencils will do,” she replied.

  “Okay, but why twenty-four of the blighters?” another man wanted to know and immediately before she could answer him, someone else added, “Yes, surely one or possibly even two pencils would be sufficient to get by with.”

  There was another slight pause while she considered this approach and then she replied, “Mmmmmm. Possibly. It is an interesting theory,” which was followed by a further pause before she then added, “But, in the end, we shall see who is right, now won’t we Mr. Jones?”

  Everyone giggled nervously but even while they were still laughing, the lecturer began to speak. Laura Mc Donald spoke at a cracking fast pace and all that could be heard in the room was the sound of people hurriedly scribbling away.

  The group was hard pushed to keep up at this frantic pace and soon plenty of words like bugger or drat or other colorful phrases could be heard emerging from the lips of the pupils as they broke the points on their pencils, or their ballpoints ran out of ink, and they rummaged around in bags to hopefully find another writing tool.

  About an hour after she had begun the lecture, Laura looked up from her notes, -“Is there a problem?” she asked, as a few people responded by saying they needed a sharpener for their pencil, or mentioned that their ballpoints had stopped writing, or the lead in their clutch pencils had broken and fallen out.

  “Oh, I see, -but I thought you all agreed with Mr. Jones here that twenty-four sharpened pencils were at least twenty-two pencils too many,” she said mockingly.

  With this, after casting an eye briefly around the class, she gave Mr. Jones a long meaningful stare, before beginning to lecture them on the subject of pencils.

  “If you buy a single pencil at the stationers, it is usually already sharpened, but if you buy your pencils by the dozen, they are usually all still quite blunt. Now why do you imagine this is?”

  As nobody offered her any explanation, she continued. “Well, it’s because they assume that anyone buying in bulk would probably have their own sharpener, or at least be prepared to buy one. But if you’re like me, you’ll insist that they do the initial sharpening and they will if you ask them to. In fact of late, I get my pencils sharpened at both ends, which is even better and all done at no cost for me. This way I have sharpened pencils at my disposal for a very long time,” she said, after taking a long sip of water.

  “As to the advantages of using a pencil over a ballpoint, or a clutch pencil, well, they never seem to run out and there is always another one handy to take its place if the point should break. While ballpoints, on the other hand, run dry, or just stop writing at very inopportune moments. And as for clutches, the lead is too thin and fragile, so it is always falling out and getting lost underfoot,” she added, after taking another sip from her glass.

  “Also ballpoint can never be erased, so if you make a mistake, you have to either do that bit over again or cross words out, which makes for a messy paper. While pencil, on the other hand, does not penetrate the paper, so after a couple of swipes with an eraser the mistakes are all gone, permitting you to have another try and hopefully get the phrase right. Or if you should go on to make any further mistakes, you can just rub them out again and again, until you are satisfied that what you have written is correct.”

  Laura paused momentarily and then after taking another sweeping look around the classroom, she emphasized the point she was trying to make by saying,” Blunt pencils are a nuisance and of no use to anyone, so hence the request for twenty-four sharpened pencils. On my desk, there is an electric pencil sharpener and at regular intervals during the lessons you can come up and use it. It is noisy though, so it must only be used during our chat times, or the free time, please.”

  “Now, hopefully after hearing my explanations you will believe me and go out and splurge on some more pencils! If not twenty-four pencils, then maybe just twelve, or at least six pencils. One other thing I should perhaps mention here is that pencils were the first writing or drawing instruments you were taught to use. You also used them on blank sheets of paper to begin with, as you were not expected to adhere to straight lines. In other words, you were given the freedom to experiment. This is why I insist on blank paper, as I want to urge you to tap into your original creative energy again. I don’t want you to stick to the rules. Instead, I want you to challenge the rigidity of formal writing practices and allow the words to flow from the very center of you being. I want you to write in your own unique manner. Express yourself in ways the world has not yet seen. Feel free to write corner to corner-diagonally across the page, if it seems right to you, or even backwards, in which case you will have to read it out to me. So if you now do as I suggest and push the envelope to the limit, I suspect there is the possibility of a good best seller emerging from your writing, in the not too distant future.”

  After she’d stopped speaking, there was a moment of silence as they all took in what she had told them. This pause was followed by some spontaneous clapping and cheering. She had managed to achieve the impossible, where many previous teachers had failed. She had captured their attention and now their own imaginations would follow on from there.

  It was amazing how much she could say on the subject of a simple pencil and before she allowed them to leave the class, she reminded them to always keep their pencils sharpened as blunt pencils would tend to stunt their creativity and prevent them from writing well. For bluntness, like dullness, could stop the flow of ideas from the mind to the hand, she told them.

  Several people rushed forward to make use of the electric sharpener on the desk after this talk. While Alison, who only had two miserable pencils just packed them away and decided she would rather sharpen them at home, in her small blue plastic sharpener. She also made up her mind that next time she would be first in the queue with a whole bunch of brand new pencils.

  At the next session, written up on the blackboard were the following words of wisdom: -

  Write with integrity

  Use your craft honestly

  Be professional in your approach

  And success will be yours.

  Once they had all read the words, Laura underlined what she called the keywords, which were, integrity, honestly, professional and success. She then asked them to write half a page on how they intended to use the ideas behind these words in their own work.

  What emerged was an unusual mix of ideas, but obviously everyone had tried hard to make their contribution meaningful.

  While they took turns to read their individual contributions aloud to the class, Alison looked around and took note of the unusual assortment of containers the others now stored their collection of sharpened pencils in. There was a fig jam tin, a small pottery jug, several assorted beer mugs, a few cups without handles, and then there was hers, -a silver christening mug, tarnish and all, that had once

belonged to her grandfather.

  Laura caught Alison daydreaming and asked her to tell the class what she had been thinking. Alison giggled foolishly, but then mentioned what she had noticed. Laura seemed pleased and pointed out that she was obviously becoming more observant of the things going on around her, which was a very necessary quality in a writer.

  Laura then went on to say that Alison’s observation had proved that people were all individuals and she suggested this was the element that would make certain that each person’s work would be different, interesting, and hopefully even excellent. She also said that individuality, together with excellent writing ability, would ensure that their work was also publishable.

  Needless to say, the class all went away from the course with many creative ideas swirling around in their heads. Personally, Alison barely managed to write her own ideas down quickly enough, before they all became vaporized and were lost in cyberspace perhaps forever.

  Once back in her own environment, Alison became pensive. Then as she sat one morning, thoughtfully twisting a strand of her long blond hair around in her fingers, she thought, -Do I now dare to hope that one day a best seller will emerge from an idea that was brought to the surface by Laura, a woman who was so much more than the average teacher, and also a woman that inspired all of us to do our very best. And then try again, even harder, until we produced a piece of creative writing that readers would love to get lost in for a few hours.

  As she explored these ideas further, she glanced at the christening mug, now polished to a high gleam with special silver polish and filled with a colorful assortment of newly sharpened pencils. And for the first time in a long while, Alison began to feel hopeful that she’d soon be a published author, a dream she had cherished for many years.

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