The pain is so bad, I cannot hold a pen to write.
Roger's hands are still too bad to hold a pen.
From about 1873 he was hardly ever able to hold a pen.
"If you're going to do this, she has to be able to hold a pen."
He was holding a pen and pad, all ready to write me up for something or other, I could see.
Anyone who could hold a pen was having a go.
If his uncle wrote to him it must be because she was too ill to hold a pen.
Each hand held a pen over a tablet of paper.
"I notice that he can hold a pen, and he's starting to put things away."
He had set a slip of paper on the counter and held a pen.