notebooks can be a quick way to get out a thought without preamble -- helps get straight to the point, it can be introduced, hedged, contextualised later, and sometimes may be reworked as unrecognisable but sometimes it was important to get it down, there and there, unselfconsciously. But lots of notebook notes are process, practice. The building blocks of externalising ideas so as to be able better to put them together later with other ideas, on previous pages, in other notebooks. You can think in your head, but not write in your head, not sustainedly, not for very long or with as much progression as you can muster using notes to take snapshots and mould more extended work. Just think how many notes lie under the surface of completed chapters.
on the practical side: Moleskines and fountain pens don’t work well together (lots of bloating, feathering in recent times, i believe they downgraded paper quality). I’ve switched to Leuchturm and/or Tomoe River.
I’ve always used black Moleskine Cahiers (xl 19x25cm) because my hand doesn’t fall off the page as I hurry along. I like the creamy colour of the pages; not harsh on my eyes and I prefer this narrow feint as I don’t feel so bad about alternate line spacing if I can still contain a page of writing on an actual page. Uniformity is everything as is containment. A few years ago, I bought a zipped leather cover (Hide & Drink) to prevent pen, pencil and post it notes from escaping and because I don’t want pages curled. Opening and settling is important, private and part of the process. (Bit like a traditional tea ceremony but with a better biscuit option.)
One problem with uniformity and habit is the sense of loss when a notebook walks. It doesn’t matter how many notebooks there are, I know that nos 6 and 12 are long gone and that they’re irreplaceable. That’s another boulder of grief in my pocket.
notebooks can be a quick way to get out a thought without preamble -- helps get straight to the point, it can be introduced, hedged, contextualised later, and sometimes may be reworked as unrecognisable but sometimes it was important to get it down, there and there, unselfconsciously. But lots of notebook notes are process, practice. The building blocks of externalising ideas so as to be able better to put them together later with other ideas, on previous pages, in other notebooks. You can think in your head, but not write in your head, not sustainedly, not for very long or with as much progression as you can muster using notes to take snapshots and mould more extended work. Just think how many notes lie under the surface of completed chapters.
on the practical side: Moleskines and fountain pens don’t work well together (lots of bloating, feathering in recent times, i believe they downgraded paper quality). I’ve switched to Leuchturm and/or Tomoe River.
I’ve always used black Moleskine Cahiers (xl 19x25cm) because my hand doesn’t fall off the page as I hurry along. I like the creamy colour of the pages; not harsh on my eyes and I prefer this narrow feint as I don’t feel so bad about alternate line spacing if I can still contain a page of writing on an actual page. Uniformity is everything as is containment. A few years ago, I bought a zipped leather cover (Hide & Drink) to prevent pen, pencil and post it notes from escaping and because I don’t want pages curled. Opening and settling is important, private and part of the process. (Bit like a traditional tea ceremony but with a better biscuit option.)
One problem with uniformity and habit is the sense of loss when a notebook walks. It doesn’t matter how many notebooks there are, I know that nos 6 and 12 are long gone and that they’re irreplaceable. That’s another boulder of grief in my pocket.
This one was for me.