Two days ago, I googled something any five-year-old wouldn’t need to: How to hold a pen correctly. I found a forty-second YouTube video that was very helpful. In it, a man explained how to place your fingers for what they call the painless grip: the tripod. Three points of contact with the pen using three fingers. I tried it immediately. It felt strange and uncomfortable. In a way that won’t sound coherent to you now, the guy from the YouTube video turned to me, “Why are you learning how to hold a pen on the day of your thirty-two birthday? Shouldn’t you be celebrating? Shouldn’t you already know how to do it? Aren’t you a writer, Miss?” I told him he wasn’t asking the right questions. He shook his head, mocking me. “Okay, Miss, then what would the right question be?”
“Why have you been writing in such pain all these years? That would be the right question to ask me today, sir.”