[ noun ] the act of creating written works <noun.act> writing was a form of therapy for himit was a matter of disputed authorship
Pen \Pen\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Penned}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Penning}.] To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet. ``A prayer elaborately penned.'' --Milton.
Pen \Pen\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Penned}or {Pent} (?); p. pr. & vb. n. {Penning}.] [OE. pennen, AS. pennan in on-pennan to unfasten, prob. from the same source as pin, and orig. meaning, to fasten with a peg.See {Pin}, n. & v.] To shut up, as in a pen or cage; to confine in a small inclosure or narrow space; to coop up, or shut in; to inclose. ``Away with her, and pen her up.'' --Shak.
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve. --Milton.
His off-duty hours are spent penning a diary and compiling existentially gratuitous 'lists' (famous people whose eyes don't match, famous left-handed people).
Writers Andrei Plesu and Mircea Dinescu were under virtual house arrest after penning protests, while another writer, Dan Desliu, spent two weeks in a Bucharest madhouse for his dissent.