What does it mean to write? Writing is a very simple task one can do with only a pen and paper. And yet, there’s an incredible amount of power to it, such as expressing your feelings to someone, gathering your thoughts into one place, leaving behind a record of present events to look back on in the future . . .

We’ll be using the Hobonichi Techo 2019 release to take another look at the action of writing, pondering and discussing what makes it so fun and what makes it so mysterious.

In this special article, we’ve taken a closer look at 10 people who draw and write in their professional or personal lives, checking out their favorite writing tools and hearing all about their writing process. We hope you enjoy reading all about the wide variety of approaches to writing.

What does it mean to write?

vol.8

Zenta Nishida

“It’s more important for my projects that I make a note of off-the-cuff keywords that are forgettable if I don’t write them down.”

This editor for the Japanese magazine BRUTUS from Magazine House writes down ideas that come to mind and lays out contents for articles in an easy-to-understand way. What kind of tools does he use for the job? We’ve visited Zenta Nishida in his office to find out!

ProfileZenta Nishida

Born 1963. Graduated from Waseda University. Joined Magazine House in 1991 as a copywriter. Took on role as deputy editor for Casa Brutus magazine, then became deputy editor of Brutus magazine in March 2007. In December that same year, became head editor of Brutus magazine. Currently serves as the fourth editorial director of Brutus and Tarzan magazines.

ーー: Thank you for letting us come visit you today in the Brutus editing department. So this is your desk, I see.

Nishida: Sorry it’s so cramped in here. Please, have a seat.

ーー: What kind of pen do you usually use at your desk or out on the job?

Nishida: I have fountain pens and mechanical pencils, but this is what I use the most. The name is really long, though, so I can’t even remember what it’s called. (Laughs) I use the black and red Energel Tradio pens from Craft Design Technology.

ーー: Ah, it’s a water-based pen. The dark green body is really cool.

Nishida: They actually retired these pens at one point. It’s what I’ve always used, so it came as a shock, but recently they’ve gone into production again. I was so happy I ended up buying a whole set.

ーー: Wow, that’s great news. Maybe there were a lot of people like you who wanted them available again.

Nishida: Nowadays, you can buy anything, not just writing instruments, wherever and whenever you want at a very low price. There’s something enchanting about a pen that, despite all that, is really hard to find. So now I’ve got a big stock of them both at home and at work.

ーー: Is it comfortable to write with?

Nishida: Extremely. I’ve always loved stationery, so whenever I found a good pen, I tested it out and bought a lot if I ended up liking it. But nothing ever quite hit the spot until this. It’s so smooth and pleasant to write with. I’m uneasy without this pen, and it’s calming to have it on me.

ーー: That’s so nice!

Nishida: I’ve never really liked my handwriting when I write with ballpoint pens. People with good handwriting can use anything and their writing looks nice, but for people like me it can depend on the pen, so we’ve got to choose wisely.

ーー: I see.

Nishida: I might be so picky about the way my pens write because I’m so self-conscious about my handwriting. I’ve always assumed my handwriting would improve as I got older, but it didn’t change one bit. (Laughs)

ーー: What does writing by hand mean to you?

Nishida: Nowadays more people type up their notes during meetings and out on the job. I was in a meeting the other day with at least 70% of the participants taking notes on their computer. But it’s easy for your focus to switch to your typing, so you lose the opportunity to speak up, and you might not have an answer if someone calls on you to ask something. I also assume people typing their notes are reading emails or doing other things on the computer that have nothing to do with the meeting. I feel a little weird about people having accepted that nowadays.

ーー: Yeah.

Nishida: I gave a lecture once where about half of the audience was taking notes on their computers. But as they typed on their computers, they missed any subtle cues I was making as I talked, such as looking a certain direction or having a certain look on my face.

ーー: So they ended up spending more time looking at their screens than they did looking at you at the podium.

Nishida: So if that’s the case, why not just get the information secondhand later on? If you’ve come to a lecture to hear it firsthand, you might as well take advantage of that and limit your note-taking to important keywords.

ーー: That’s a good point. When I think of what it would mean for a person to be good at note-taking, I see them pulling out the most important parts and consolidating them nicely.

Nishida: For example... (pulls notebook from shelf) Here’s a notebook of mine. I used it once to take notes when listening to a lecture about a movie. I wanted to summarize it as best I could. This is what I think notes should be.

ーー: Wow, it’s lovely!

Nishida: I don’t take notes like this all the time, but this would be enough to capture what’s being said while also remembering the lecture when looking back on the notes later on. I’ve got to explain connections between separate concepts, so I can’t write something like that on the computer.

ーー: Yeah, it takes writing by hand to be able to circle things and highlight them with arroes and such. Is this the kind of notebook you use when coming up with magazine articles and features?

Nishida: I use notebooks sometimes, but this is what I use the most.

ーー: These business-card sized cards?

Nishida: Yeah. When I come up with ideas for the magazine, I write out whatever comes to mind, then set the cards aside and look back at them once in a while. Even if I’m thinking about a big special feature, I’ll keep the notes limited to a single card.

ーー: So these cards are the origin of what we read in Brutus.

Nishida: Humans aren’t capable of constantly pumping out good ideas. But once in a while something really good will come to mind. By taking notes when that happens, those notes come in handy later while I’m coming up with a new article. I’d even say the actual words that I jotted down end up being the main pillar of what that content becomes.

ーー: The main pillar!

Nishida: It usually turns out that when I jot down words that seemed forgettable, those words end up serving a huge role. When I write pieces that are meant to persuade other people, for example, it all originates from these notes, which I wrote before I even sat down to really think it through. That’s not something you can get from sitting in front of a computer screen, and that’s why I think it’s so important to take notes by hand.

(Next time we’ll be talking to Yuuko Higuchi)

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The interviews in this article are edited versions of those on display at the “Write!” event hosted at the Ginza Loft in September 2018. You can read more about the event here.