Writing in Notebooks

[scarpelius]

I give up of notebooks a long time ago, when I discovered the computers and then the internet. Google Docs almost killed every notebook I used, except this one, which holds sentimental value

 

[Babyeeblu]

I'm more likely to stare at an empty page on a computer screen. IMO, it's the severely linear nature of typing that causes me to stop dead, trying to find the next words. With paper, I just start doodling until the next words come. Or I scribble out a phrase. I interlineate (try *that* on a computer). At the computer, I just sit there, mere moments away from checking email or, er, posting on ... well, you know ... forums.

This! This is why i find typing on a computer so hard to do. I will always ho for a journal and pen before im inevitably forced to type out long sections on a laptop.

 

[sknox]

The transfer has another benefit, though. When writing I might start a description then limp to a stop. Or I'll scratch out a phrase. Or the ever-reliable "something goes here" sort of note.

When I type up my notes, I'm actually doing an editing pass. I fix errors in spelling or grammar. I might finish off that description. I might decide the original phrase worked better. And so on. IOW, and I feel this is important, the typing up of the notes is more than a mere mechanical exercise. Writerly work is getting done as well.

 

[.matthew.]

It's strange to me that people speak of staring at a blank page. The moment I have pen in hand, I start writing. It might be what happened yesterday, might be speculation on a plot point, or it might be whining about how stuck I am. It might even be doodles. But something always starts happening, more or less right away.

I was more referring to not wanting to spoil the pristine notebook with drivel rather than lacking anything to put down

The transfer has another benefit, though. When writing I might start a description then limp to a stop. Or I'll scratch out a phrase. Or the ever-reliable "something goes here" sort of note.

I've done that a few times, but less from notebooks and more from soon to be scrap paper I happened to have on me at the time.

 

[sknox]

>spoil the pristine notebook with drivel
For me, notebooks are made for driveling. Are there two Ls in drivelling?

As for scrap paper, never! I've had a notebook at hand, always with me, since ... well, since high school, which would be a little over fifty years ago. Pocket-sized when necessary, but my preference is the A5 size or thereabouts. For years I went with standard US 8.5x11, but I'm happier now with the somewhat smaller size.

But random bits of paper are right out. Besides, sometimes I'll write for an hour or more in the notebook. Scraps don't cut it.

 

[.matthew.]

Scraps don't cut it.

Well, the back of an A4 has plenty of space. Folding it into quarters gives you a pocketable homemade scrapnotebook too...

 

[Dragonlady]

Ditto @sknox , I get much less blocked on paper, and with the small one home for the foreseeable I may be getting the notepad out more often.

 

[olive]

A pencil and paper always feel more sincere and real to me. Substantial. I still have a small callus on the inner side of my middle finger of my writing hand.

I have a thing for old shabby notebooks. And standard, plain ones. 25 years ago I bought a lot of notebooks from an old stationery store which suffered a fire. And these were very old back then. I like to collect the standard old ones that are not made anymore. I've also realised that every country has a minimum, cheap standard stationary stuff. I try to find and buy them if I can when I visit. Like black and white ones in the US for example. It's not possible all the time but it is a good memento from a different place I think. I also used to buy Moleskine long ago when it was in normal prices over here.

There is something with simple, plain stationary that draws me to itself. I don't know what it is.

Spoiler: old and damaged

And these were around something like 17 years ago. Students used to make them from discarded leather pieces for pocket money.

Spoiler: leather bound

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I write down ideas and plans (chapter breakdowns, etc) in notebooks, but I can't actually write in them -- at most the sketch of a scene now and then. I can only write properly on a computer.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I don't know if she still does it, but several years back a successful writer I know was still writing her first drafts in pencil (in notebooks, I presume) and only turned to her computer for the second draft.

 

[Guanazee]

I do most of my planning and outlining in my notebook. I can only sit at the computer for short periods of time so it helps to have something else to go back and forth with.

 

[mosaix]

Sometimes when I’m just falling asleep an idea, especially for the writing challenges, will occur to me. I always think ‘you’ll remember that in the morning’. I never, ever do. I should keep a notebook next to the bed.

It happened again last night. I’ve been struggling to come up with something for this month’s 75 (85). Last night I woke about 4:00am with a really good idea. I repeated it to myself about 4 or 5 times (I remember that bit) and thought “I’ll remember that in the morning!”

Can I remember it this morning? No.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

I have a bit (by bit, I mean major ) of a journal addiction, so, yes, I have special notebooks just for writing story ideas, character names, possible future book titles, etc. in when they come to me and I'm not on a computer. I adore those beautiful, hand-bound, leather journals and will use any excuse possible to buy more. They are completely disorganized inside as I jump from one idea to another and back-and-forth between different, completely unrelated books, but they are all in once place. Although, separating the ideas out into different notebooks by book/series, would mean I'd have to buy even more journals so.... .

 

[Major Eazy]

Do you have special notebooks or are they more of a functional thing?

Nothing special, I just use anything I have available, sometimes a pocket sized notepad (similar to what British police used) for quick notes when I get ideas, sometimes I use a reporter's notepad, sometimes a notebook, sometimes a A4 sized refill pad.

And sometimes I would use an app on iPad (currently using Noteshelf,) or any other digital notebooks.

Sometimes a mix of both traditional (paper) notebooks and digital notebooks.

 

[Harpo]

 

[Yozh]

Thank you Harpo, for reviving this thread, even as a joke. I’ve only started writing fiction somewhat recreationally in the past 5 years or so, and reading the forums hear I felt like a bit of an outlier for writing drafts on paper. While I know everything needs to be typed up in the end, the fact is I spend my entire day typing in front of a computer for my day job, so the thought of doing more of the same at the end of the day becomes a dispiriting creativity-killer. I expect my heirs will chuck the firs-draft scribbles at some point in the future.

 

[THX1138]

I use a notebook for character creation and writing down key points and plot ideas for my books, and put these down in an order that I think will work for the story. I'll also go back and change that order or add/subtract from a note if I fell the need too.

 

[AllanR]

My last story I used a notebook a far bit, this one however, I'm milking the journals I kept while travelling around Latin America in the 80s and 90s. Quite useful as my current WIP is set in Colombia in '87.

 

[LostCosmonaut]

My notebooks are my pride and joy! I've gone through sixteen of them since I started a regular journaling practice in high school, and they're an integral part of my writing process. Often I'll brainstorm ideas on paper long before they ever hit the computer screen. And I'm not satisified with mere Mead Composition Books, anymore---the more eye-catching the design, the better.

Recently I've been buying mine from Cognitive Surplus. Their hardcover dot-grid journals are truly something to behold.

 

[Astro Pen]

The story is my notepad.
I don't think it has ever failed but if I did use a notepad the discovery process would die immediately.