The eNotes Blog How to Write Like JaneAusten

How to Write Like JaneAusten Heres a tip: keep some sheep leather and blue gauls handy Yesterday we brought you the recipes to two authors favorite meals, so today I give you the recipe to one authoress writing success: a good leather bound book and a batch of homemade ink. For those Austen enthusiasts feeling particularly crafty, here is the exact recipe for the ink Jane Austen used, provided by her sister-in-law: Take 4 ozs of blue gauls [gallic acid, made from oak apples], 2 ozs of green copperas [iron sulphate], 1 1/2 ozs of gum arabic. Break the gauls. The gum and copperas must be beaten in a mortar and put into a pint of strong stale beer; with a pint of small beer. Put in a little refind sugar. It must stand in the chimney corner fourteen days and be shaken two or three times a day. This iron gall ink would then be applied to the page with an old-fashioned quill. But on the quality of the pages themselves, Austen was quite particular. One of her favorites was a quarto stationers notebook bound with quarter tanned sheep over boards sided with marbled paper. The edges of the leaves [were] plain cut and sprinkled red.   Better find yourself some quarter tanned sheep. No self-respecting Austenite would be caught dead without a sheep leather notebook! Me? I wouldnt spend two minutes mixing my own quill ink, let alone two weeks. I will however, take a moment to appreciate the end result of all that painful Georgian handiwork. From the ease of our computer screens, I give you Persuasion, Chapter 10: Phew, that was tiring just to look at. Yet, an alarming number of writers actually still turn to writing longhand. As Neil Gaiman explained in an interview from last year, writing a draft by hand is helpful because it is tedious. He says of writing Stardust entirely with a fountain pen: It was the first time I’d used a fountain pen since I was about 13. I found myself enjoying writing more slowly and liked the way I had to think through sentences differently. I discovered I loved the fact that handwriting forces you to do a second draft, rather than just tidying up and deleting bits on a computer. I also discovered I enjoy the tactile buzz of the ritual involved in filling the pens with ink. I wonder what tools Jane Austen would have chosen to write with in this day and age? Whatever it might be, Im quite certain it would be lacking in gauls.