Stationery Quiz

Pencil

You sharpen your own point by hand, and write and erase as many times as it takes to work your ideas out.

Write it outKeep it undoableYour own way

A pencil's lead is graphite mixed with clay and fired until hard. The more graphite, the softer and darker the line; the more clay, the harder and fainter — which is what the letters B and H on a pencil tell you. You sharpen the wooden casing to expose the lead, and the pencil gets a little shorter every time you write.

A pencil line is just graphite powder sitting on the surface of the paper, so it can be erased. That's why pencils are so often used for sketches and first drafts. You write and erase as many times as it takes, working your ideas out as you go.

With a pencil, the way you sharpen it changes the shape of the point, and the way you hold it changes how the lead wears down. Some people keep a sharp tip to write fine lines; others let it round off a little for a softer line. Shaping it to suit you as you wear it in is what makes a pencil fun. But as the drafts pile up, it can be hard to decide when to move on to the final copy.

Strengths

You can deepen a single idea by rewriting it again and again
You can shape your tools and methods to suit yourself
You're not afraid of mistakes, so you can start with a rough draft

Where you may stumble

You keep revising the draft, and the finishing date keeps slipping
When you're told to follow a set procedure, you want to rework it into your own shape
Knowing you can always fix it, you're not sure where to call it done

Sounds familiar, Pencil?

In the back of a drawer, you've kept things that got too short to use but you can't throw away
For a long message to someone, you draft it somewhere else first, then copy it over
Every time you make curry, you tweak the flavor a little more toward how you like it

Where you shine

When you want to rework an idea again and again, gradually shaping it by hand at the draft stage, that's where the Pencil's character comes through.

Tips for “Pencil”

On your draft, write a finishing date: “Final copy here”
When you're working on something with others, check with them before you rework it your own way
Keep your earlier version next to the new one instead of erasing it

Matches

See every match in the Stationery Quiz compatibility chart →

Easy together

Fountain Pen — The Fountain Pen chooses its words slowly and writes the one version that will last. For the Pencil, who goes through draft after draft, having someone to take on the final copy means you can keep working your ideas out with peace of mind.

Easy together

Eraser — The Pencil and the Eraser are a pairing as old as they come. You can take your time talking through which parts of the draft to keep and which to erase, so every rewrite takes your thinking deeper.

May clash

Stapler — The Stapler binds things with one snap and moves straight on. To the Pencil, who wants to keep refining, that's binding things far too soon, and to the Stapler, the Pencil's draft looks like it will never be finished.