One perfect notebook to rule them all
Weekly Writing Prompt No. 71
Hello lovely people and thank you for a. opening this email and b. joining me for my weekly writing prompt. You may have noticed they have changed somewhat since I first started publishing them as they now include a blog post, short essay or article about a topic that interests me. If you want to add to the topic rather than respond to the writing prompt then please do so as I’d love to hear your perspective.
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I love a good notebook and even though I spent over 30 years working in IT there was always something about the feel of paper and pen. The act of writing words by hand is soothing and has helped me hugely over many years, but it has to be the right notebook and the right pen.
My pen must be good quality, not a cheap biro although I have collected many good quality pens from conferences over the years. Some I consider favourites and when the cartridge runs out, instead of throwing them away I head for the nearest stationery shop to replace them. I've also had lots of favourite notebooks, at the moment I love Moleskine – the weight of paper means there’s little bleed-through from one side to the other, and the paper has a soft touch that is gentle on the hand.
But, one thing I never conquered with any number of notebooks or pens is which contained the note I was certain I wrote down somewhere. I was always flicking through one notebook and the next, thumbing through the pages hoping the right word would jump off the page telling me I had found the right place. And, many times I didn’t have a notebook with me so ended up resorting to scraps of paper begged and borrowed to get the ideas down.
As an IT consultant, it was suggested I use an app. And I did for a while, but it never really worked for me because I’m not an app sort of person. Ticking off my to-do list with a mouse never gave me the same sense of satisfaction as marking it ‘done’ with a pen.
In the 2010's I came across the idea of printables, ready-prepared sheets that meant I could do anything within just one notebook (or folder in this case). I played around with the idea for a few weeks, I even created a few of my own before abandoning it as unworkable. It’s not the idea that didn’t work, it was the practicality of it as there was never quite the right information or space. I constantly wanted to adjust and adapt because I needed something endlessly customisable, rather than fixed in print. Of course, I wasted a huge amount of paper trying to print out pages that would fit my Filofax.
Finally, a book caught my eye, The Bullet Journal Method. It was on offer, and although I hovered briefly, wondering if I should pick it up, I was time-strapped and didn’t. But the cover had attracted me, black with what looked like silver stars and I had a feeling it might hold the germ of a solution to my notebook problems.
Several days later as the slush pile of scraps, notes, and to-dos was once again piling up on my desk, I recalled the book and thought ‘Why not, if it’s no good at least I’ll have learned something.’ I placed the order and it duly arrived a couple of days later. Whilst waiting for it I was impatient to go out and buy a new notebook to celebrate, I'm so glad I didn't. Devouring the first part meant I could mentally work out if this technique would work, and I was captivated by the idea of something so seemingly simple, having such a profound effect.
I’m often considered a bit of a butterfly in my family, they find it amusing that I’m into and out of things so fast they can hardly blink sometimes. My interests are varied and I do flit about from one thing to another, so even I was sceptical that this might work. Instead of buying my preferred, expensive notebooks, I picked up a cheap one locally, if I didn't use it I reasoned, at least I hadn’t wasted too much money. Equally, I wasn’t sure if the dotted rather than lined pages would be workable, after all, I’m a writer, at least that’s what I tell myself! And yet, I’ve found they enable a level of creativity I’d never allow myself on a conventional page.
Six years on, I have a bookshelf or two of completed journals in my study. My notebook never leaves my side, it’s my constant companion throughout the day serving a multitude of functions although it has evolved over the years. Most importantly, I never have a problem finding exactly what I’m looking for because an index is created as I go along. Every page is numbered and noted. I can track forwards and backwards from one journal to another, and I don’t need to designate a set number of pages for this project or that plan, I simply use the next page adding a note to the index if necessary.
It’s such a brilliantly simple idea I wonder why I never realised that was the point! Perhaps I just wasn’t ready for it.
And it’s life-changing too!
I spent many years berating myself for being lazy, not getting enough done, and wasting time. My journal though, shows me the opposite and it’s been inspirational to realise just how much I do accomplish on a day-by-day, week-by-week, month-by-month and year-by-year basis.
If like me, you’ve been looking for the one perfect notebook to rule them all, perhaps I could suggest a bullet journal. It just works!
The Prompt
Writing is a very personal process. Where, how and why we do it differs markedly across groups and may even reflect generational and socio-economic shifts. How do you write? Where do you write? Describe your perfect writing day using these questions as starting points.
Please share your work in the comments below. Remember, you never know where today’s prompt may take you in the future!
Reflect
I include a reflection opportunity with every writing prompt because our writing always wells up from our inner landscape.
Writers put pen to paper for many reasons so why do you write? What is your purpose in crafting word after word into something legible enough for another person to read?
As a coach, mentor, and counsellor I work with many people on different life paths. Some hope to write a best-selling book, while others want to be healthier and happier. Each person has a unique way of starting the inner work this requires. If you’re a writer who wants to manifest your writing hopes and dreams from the practical and pragmatic to the esoteric and spiritual, or who would like to clear any subconscious self-sabotage you may be experiencing, why not work with me? To find out more head over to my website by clicking the button below.
Missing in Action
This new section of the weekly newsletter is dedicated to all the words removed from dictionaries over the years. Words that define and describe our world, but which are deemed no longer necessary.
This edition is dedicated to the word doferthing. Granted, it’s not actually a word but we all know what it means when it’s spoken out loud!
The Weekly Soulshine
Something to reflect on …
"All we are is peace, love, and wisdom, and the power to create the illusion that we're not." Jack Pransky.
The Weekly Writing Competition
This week’s contest is the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award. Entrants must be aged 11 to 17 and poems must be 40 lines or less. Blind and deaf poets are also welcome. It’s free to enter, and you can find out more on their website here: https://foyleyoungpoets.org/
With love, light, and laughter
Linda
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The perfect notebook, much like the perfect camera, is the one you have with you. I generally have several on the go. The beautiful Flametree hardback notebooks are my for journalling (Morning Pages, reflections, prompted meditations and the like). They are sumptuous and gorgeous and truly special - which means the writing inside them doesn't have to be. Someone once told me that if something is important we should treat it accordingly. Journaling is sanity-savingly, live-changingly important to me. It deserves a beautiful book. (Oh, yes, A5 because I cheat on the Morning Pages prescription!)
Then there is all the writing I do outdoors - that needs something smaller - pocket sized. Something I won't mind getting soggy. I scribble in these on beaches, in woods, in the reed beds, bird hides, on trains, at bus-stops,. I write in them when the sun is burning my neck, or frost is freezing my fingers, or the ink is bleeding in the rain. They are cheap. They get culled.
I keep my journals. My field books are mined and then discarded.
The perfect writing day is always a problem one. It starts around three a.m. One or another of her characters can’t sleep so it’s time to throw grit in Denarii’s eyes, pull her hair, jump up and down on the pillows and shout into her ear, “Hey you. Get up!”
“Go away,” she replies, “and come back at a more civilised time… Say, after six.”
“Oh, so you don’t want this amazing phrase, this line you spent all day yesterday chasing, then?”
The threat of forgetting such a perfect piece of prose is just too much. So, on goes the light and she picks up her pen, takes down the dictation verbatim then tries to sleep again.
Half past five: she gives up. It’s getting too noisy in there; the rest of the dramatis personae have now got involved.
So, up and into the living room; a pot of coffee per two hundred processed words. In just a few hours she’ll tell the world a tale. So long as it leaves her undisturbed.
The strange thing is, the one line she will discard is the very darling that woke her. The words will be wrong, too flowery, too much the product of a half dreaming mind.
Oh, well!