“It’s probably comparable to finding out that your doctor grows blood-sucking leeches in the basement,” says Scott McLemee: “My friends and colleagues are occasionally nonplussed to learn that someone trying to make a living as a writer actually spends the better part of his workday with pen in hand.” In his newest column for Insider Higher Ed, McLemee discusses his process of writing first in long hand, in the age of digital text. It is, McLemee says, a mental process in which the pen itself is intrinsic, and he quotes one of his literary heroes, Roland Barthes, explaining to an interviewer that “desire is invested in a graphic impulse.” Barthes explained, “I often switch from one pen to another just for the pleasure of it. As soon as I see a new one, I start craving it. I cannot keep myself from buying them.” And not just any pen will do, either — says Barthes, “I would even say, a bit nastily, that there is a ‘Bic style,’ which is really just for churning out copy….”