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I own a lot of notebooks. Not the ones below…
but I do tend to get a lot of cheap notebooks and scribblers over time. I make notes to myself all of the time. Some of them turn into essays, blog posts, or other content. Some are just there to kill time. And, sad to say, some of those notes are desperate attempts to keep myself from falling asleep at times when I really, really should be awake. You can tell because these semi-conscious scribblings gradually trail off into illegible gibberish. But I digress.
A new notebook feels wonderful. It’s full of promise; of undiscovered words; of unseen ideas; of unknown adventures. Sometimes it’s hard to write the first words in a notebook because you don’t want to spoil the pristine pages, but then you get over that as you start writing, doodling, and otherwise filling in the space. It’s great.
Every now and then I go through the notebooks that I have on the go and see what’s there. A lot of it is unusable junk, some of it’s OK, occasionally there’s a little flash of insight that’s worth chasing. So I doodle, write, and add more to the notebook. More ideas come and go. Lots of fun.
Then I start noticing that there are more pages with writing on them than pages without writing. I start cursing the fact that I started writing a note in the middle of something else. I’m running out of room and the more that I look at the notebook, the more that a single thought starts to dominate: screw it. Use a different notebook, one that’s cooler and that hasn’t been marked in yet. Then I start thinking “most of this notebook is utter crap. I should just toss it and start a new one. I’ll just rip out the good parts and keep them to be reused later.” So then I go through the notebook, sometimes more than once, and I re-read the old stuff. Some of it’s easy to keep. Some of the stuff… well, I’m just not sure what to do with it. I don’t rip it out yet; I need to think about the content some more. I leave it for a day, even two, but the urge to get rid of that darn notebook and start into a new one starts to build. Finally I have to open the old notebook again and really, really decide this time what I’m going to do with the old stuff. So I look through it again and finally, finally decide that the two pages of notes that I taped in this notebook (from the last two notebooks that I had been writing in before this one) are just never going to make it into article or blog post form. So, with regret, I finally tear them up, trying to get them in recyclable form if at all possible. I rip them into strips, wad up pieces, and generally try to whittle things down to a few pages that I can fold up and stick into the pocket of the notebook, just so that I don’t ever forget about them or lose them. I might even write down a key idea or two instead of the whole bunch of stuff that I’ve written because, well, you know, paper is expensive and you really shouldn’t waste it, so I pare it down to a few words, knowing full well that six weeks from now I’ll look it at and think, “you know I had some good ideas here, I wish I hadn’t been so lazy to write them down at the time because it would save me a lot of work now…” But then I get another interesting new idea, find a page at random, jot down a few words, then get interrupted and come back two days later and think, “Hm, what the heck did I mean by that?” so I think and scribble a bit and the next thing you know I’ve managed to fill three and a half pages with… well, I don’t know what it really is, I think it’s something that COULD be useful someday but, well, I dunno, I’d better just leave it there in case I forget about it. After that I notice that there are only five blank pages left in the notebook. Suddenly I simply must finish the darn notebook. Its time is over. I can’t bear to think that there are only a few pages left that haven’t been written on yet. I start ripping pages out in order to give myself an excuse to finish off the notebook. I yank out the five blank pieces of paper and just doodle on them so I can say to myself, “Aha! Now I’ve got you! I’m DONE with this NOTEBOOK! Mua-hah-hah-hah! I win!” And so I quickly sort through all of the ripped and frayed pages, trying to decide what to keep and what to jettison to be returned to Mother Earth and recycled into wild strawberries, dandelions, and weeds. I throw the covers and (if applicable) the wire ring that binds it all together into the garbage and, at last, I am free of that damned notebook.
I breathe a sigh of relief. It feels good to be done with the notebook, even if I had to cheat to use up all the pages.
Then another idea occurs to me and I reach for a notebook to jot it down. And the cycle starts again.
# # #
I really do love writing in pen and paper. Notebooks are a great, if somewhat archaic, way to capture your thoughts.
OK, I may be a bit borderline obsessive-compulsive in the way that I treat my notebooks, but that doesn’t mean they’re NOT a good tool.
Over to you. Do you like capturing ideas in pen and paper? Are you a digital native that types everything into your preferred digital device? Do you ever blend the two? Do you massacre and abuse notebooks the way I do? Or am I just nuts? C’mon, tell us in the comments section!
Image by mrbill
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I’ve always used notebooks and have always blended the two (pen & paper and digital). I have three notebooks in my backpack – one large, two small and thin. The backpack is what I cart my laptop around with. And I have a closet filled with them (not to mention the ones scattered throughout the house). There is no organization to them and I seldom, if ever, tear out pages.
Often, the best way for me to get started is to start scribbling in a notebook. So that is what I do! The notebooks are filled with ideas, posts, stories — even cartoons. For example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piddleville/2717094920/
Where this stuff comes from is anyone’s guess.
Bill´s last blog ..The yin and yang of communications
I LOVE this post and feel like you were peeking inside my head.
PS: My notebooks get better thoughts when I write with my Lamy AL-star pen and green ink. I don’t know why. But they do.
Bob LeDrew´s last blog ..Where have you gone, Technorati-oh?
Well, I do not abuse my notebooks
Actually I can never ever throw one away. And I have a lot of them by now.
But for the rest I pretty much use them the way you do. Including the writing into already used pages. And I also really love to use pen and paper to write down every thought.
Lately I am more and more using my computer though. I use a paintprogram so that I am not limited by words alone. And the more I use that, the more I love it. Because I also can use colours and easy copy and alter what I am doing.
So in a way it is all getting more structured then by using pen and paper. Although I have so many maps by now that it is still very hard to find something back.
Annemieke´s last blog ..Creative Development
Anymore, I can’t stand to write by hand. It feels like moving through mud. And then, I can’t port that information anywhere else (would be easier if I had an iPhone with Evernote, I guess).
I still like to draw on paper, but even then, for something more serious, I would start in Photoshop or at least scan a drawing into Photoshop to paint it.
My “notebooks” anymore are index cards. Just grab one and jot something down, good for grocery lists, etc.
Michael Martine´s last blog ..How to Increase Blog Traffic by Over 100% In 3 Days
I love notebooks and the feel of sliding my pen across paper, but I have to admit, I am using them less and less now as I enter more information directly into my computer.
I sometimes wonder how simple and wonderful life would be (utopia) to return to the day when there was no alternative to a paper notebook. I am not a digital native so remember that “once upon a time” situation. Now, there are so many ways and places for information.
John McLachlan´s last blog ..TIP Use Contrast In Your Typography
LOL… I think you and I have much the same “process” when it comes to notebooks.
I generally keep at least one small Moleskine reporter notebook handy (as a lefty, I prefer flip-top notebooks). I tend to be a visual thinker, so my notebooks are as likely to be full of drawings, sketches and doodles as writing. Usually a blend of both. I tend to capture keywords, phrases, encapsulations on paper. Much as I’ve tried to get into morning pages, writing lengthy stuff longhand has never been particularly comfortable for me (like Michael). That may in part be attributable to the left-handed thing, too.
Then again, you never find that you forgot to charge the batteries on your paper notebook when you need it.
I’ve got a tendency to write in a leather stationary folder when doing client consult. Nothing says classy like an excellent, heavy pen and clean graphing paper in professional-looking bindings. I have the feeling Moleskine nuts feel the same way.
But then there are composition notebooks. I have, like, ten. None of them are full. Most of them feel exactly like yours – insane, half-baked, by turns epiphany material or circular-file fodder.
I love pen-and-paper notetaking. It requires so much more attention and engagement than typing, and has no battery life to worry about limiting meetings.
That said… I never paper journalled. Wrong venue for that kind of thought. For me at least. Odd how that works, hm?
Ian M Rountree´s last blog ..Amazing Things: Writing Books
Holy cow, it’s a veritable cornucopia of responses!
OK, let’s get into some individual comments:
@Bill – after reading about your closet full of notebooks, I don’t feel quite so obsessive-compulsive…
I really like the notebook doodles!
@BobLedrew – I WAS peeking inside your head; you need to clean up in there! Seriously, this was a really cool comment to get because it shows that a) I’m not the only one who does this sort of thing and b) the pen and ink comment was priceless!
@Annemieke – one of the things that I expected in these comments was for some people to express a preference for using the computer, so it’s interesting that you commented on that aspect. I actually have copies of paper journals that I kept in my teens and my 20s, so I don’t throw everything away. I also have a bunch of file folders of loose pages of writing that I’m keeping above and beyond what’s in my notebooks.
@Michael Martine – another computer writer, eh? I certainly tend to write a lot on the computer as well, but the paper notebook’s portability is hard to beat. And concerning index cards, do you remember Merlin Mann coining the phrase “hipster PDA”? It’s a bound stack of index cards. So you have some of that coolness in you, too.
@John McLachlan – sometimes I think it would be much simpler to be back in the days of the paper notebook. Unfortunately, that would probably make me unemployed, so please be careful what you wish for!
@KatFrench – there’s a nation of angry notebooks that’s going to terrorize you, Bob Ledrew, and myself if they ever find us… You bring up the left-handed thing, which is something that I don’t have any experience with, but I’ve heard lefties talk about some of those pages. Whenever I did morning pages, it was always with pen and paper. I think the physical activity of that mental and emotional exercise is an integral part of the experience, but to each their own. Also, I just bought my first little Moleskine notebook a few weeks ago (it’s 3.5 by 5.5 inches) and I don’t think I’ll ever willingly buy a different kind of notebook (unless money is a problem, I suppose).
@IanMRountree – not to over-obsess on this (too late, perhaps), but I’ve really come to appreciate the whole idea of heavy (thick) paper stock as well, particularly when using a felt tipped pen and seeing the ink absorb through to the other side on lighter paper. Moleskine notebooks aren’t quite thick enough in that respect but they are much better than most composition pads. I see you and Kat both commented on the “battery life” of pen and paper. And yes, your comment about paper journaling did surprise me, especially the bit about “venue”. To me, electronic means a much greater possibility for the material to go public, so I don’t think I’d ever publish a truly personal journal entry electronically, unless it was a Word document securely locked down within my own hard drive or something like that.
Now, I’m a weird case for this journaling thing. Mostly because I keep WAMP on my computers (it’s a virtual server) so I can do theme development for WordPress – so, strangely, I do what personal journaling I do in a locked down environment… But it’s still a wordpress install? I know, super geeky. I used to journal online with LiveJournal and keep the account locked.. But I realized after a few bad instances of copy-paste madness that a locked blog was still silly.
…
To tell the truth, I mostly write on keyboards because my penmanship is utter crap.
Ian M Rountree´s last blog ..Amazing Things: Writing Books
There’s something about good, high-quality paper and a top-notch pen. The creaminess of the paper, as the pen flows across it with ease…
I definitely understand the appeal of the paper notebook. I’m a bit of a notebook geek myself, having purchased my first Moleskine about a year ago and suddenly understanding what all the hype was about and why paying more than $2-5 for a notebook wasn’t so insane after all.
I generally don’t rip pages out of my notebooks, though. I may think the majority of what I’ve filled a particular book with is garbage, but I can’t bring myself to start tearing out pages. I guess I feel like my notebooks are a bit of personal history, so I hate to get rid of even the stupidest ideas that I’ve jotted down.
Adam Snider´s last blog ..Work-From-Home Productivity Tips
@IanMRountree – but if you’re the only person that you’re writing for (on paper), does it matter how bad the writing is? Although (as an aside), something about four years of university REALLY caused my penmanship to dissolve into utter awfulness. So maybe you’ve got something there.
That’s much of the reason. My writing is often so bad that I fail to be able to decode it myself – so I took to writing on screen as a stopgap, just to keep myself writing. I limit the time spent on personal journaling, and I find that the more I blog the less personal writing I’m doing.
Never hit University. Though the last two years I was in high school handwritten papers were actually outmoded by the school board in my district, for uniformity bias issues. Bad handwriting got worse marks – it was a level playing field thing, and it helped. I went from low 60s in English to high 80s. In one semester.
I’ll keep the self-encouragement. But I still love my leather stationary. Messy “artistic” handwriting sucks, but messy artistic sketching sells limited edition prints
Ian M Rountree´s last blog ..Amazing Things: Writing Books
@Adam Snider – somewhere along the way I think I became a paper notebook snob, of sorts, and I totally get what you are saying. As for ripping pages out of notebooks, I think a big part of it is try to get everything relevant and useful into one single notebook, but that rarely seems to work the way that I’d like it to work.
@Ian – outmoded? No way. That’s bizarre.
Really? It was written on the wall – er, typed there – almost. At least in Manitoba.
Keyboarding was mandatory when I hit grade 9 around 1996. By the time I graduated in 2001, all of my final year work had to be submitted in Courier 12pt, double-spaced with set margins. Uniformity was more important than cursive skill. For the last two years, my store sold more 4gb flash drives at school time than TI-83 graphing calculators.
Talk about trending. It’s bizarre for a number of reasons, though, I agree.
Ian M Rountree´s last blog ..Amazing Things: Writing Books
@Ian – oh, I get the outmoded thing now. I finished grade 9 in 1984, so the standards were a little different back then.
I like moleskine notebooks, the small ones that will fit in a jacket pocket. I have a datebook that I use for appointments and to-do items, a sketchbook that I bring with a brush pen when I know I will have time on my hands, and some older ones kicking around that I discover once in a while filled with scribbled ideas for plays and comics and such. I don’t like trying to do these things on the computer- yet- because I can’t always be online and can’t always lug a computer around. Maybe that will change once I get an iPhone. Is there a Moleskine app for them, I wonder?
@Scott M: I bought my little Moleskine on a recent business trip and I just love it. It just feels like it’s worth the extra expense. Interesting thought that you had: maybe someone should put a Moleskine app in the Apple store if they haven’t already.
Hey Mark – Thought you’d appreciate this: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/02/24/122-moleskine-notebooks/
@Kat – yeah, that’s a good one
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Yes! This is how I treat most of my notebooks. Some notebooks are special and receive favored treatment, but most are abused by me. I have no plans to reform my ways.
Great blog post.
AnotherCounty´s last blog ..Drawing
@AnotherCounty: you are not alone.
Dude, I thought I was the only one this neurotic about notebooks. I found this page googling “how to keep a paper notebook” because I thought maybe someone like Thomas Edison had written down guidelines for organizing the notebook to keep from going crazy. On my desk I have 7 open/started/ notebooks, 3 more floating around somewhere. It’s insane.
@Patrick – cool, brother!