Production reason: without a stylus it looks like he’s reading, not writing. Without one, dialogue like “I’m writing a book” would come across as lying, which can completely change a scene for the worse.
In-universe lore reason: Jake is a romantic and probably feels that the more tactile approach is better for his creative process.
I mean, we’ve still got authors typing up manuscripts on mechanical typewriters and GRRM writing ASOIAF on a DOS computer. Jake wanting to use a pen is possibly one of the least weird things about Trek tech.
Production reason: without a stylus it looks like he’s reading, not writing. Without one, dialogue like “I’m writing a book” would come across as lying, which can completely change a scene for the worse.
In-universe lore reason: Jake is a romantic and probably feels that the more tactile approach is better for his creative process.
I mean, we’ve still got authors typing up manuscripts on mechanical typewriters and GRRM writing ASOIAF on a DOS computer. Jake wanting to use a pen is possibly one of the least weird things about Trek tech.