Like most writers, I collect notebooks I will likely never use. What good are my words in something as beautiful as this notebook? I often ask myself.
Well, I just recently purchased an Archer and Olive Rainbow Prism Notebook and it is beautiful and expensive and has thick paper and a pen holder and what, what could I possibly ever put in such a gorgeous notebook? And I bought tons of Washi Tape in gorgeous colors and I have all these pens and I never use them because I’m always scared of messing up these perfect notebooks.
Seriously, Reader, I have about 50 unused notebooks.
So, at the urging of several friends, I decided to Go For It and christen the Prism notebook. I put some Washi tape and wrote a list of things I need to do and decided to bujo it a bit. Not as an agenda; I have an agenda (The Wonder Woman series from Erin Condren, and their 4-part petite planners), but more as a place to lay down thoughts about everything. Part bujo, part commonplace.
Of course, the problem with THAT is that I now have six notebooks in rotation: my Wonder Woman moleskine for my Read Harder 2021 challenge, my pink Standard Issue for my academic book work, the rainbow prism for bujo/commonplace, and three separate notebooks in my Wonder Woman clutch: a planner, an agenda, and a lined WW notebook for notes at meetings.
I worry I’ll just implode and not use any of them.
I write on the computer. I type faster than I write, so when I’m scripting I find it easier to type and be sloppy (so counter to my personality but I am a TERRIBLY SLOPPY writer). And I don’t really plan. I go back and revise. Case in point: I’m about 130 pages into my new WIP (still as of yet unnamed, grump) and I received feedback from my agent, so I’m going back and editing chapter by chapter and adding stuff to the beginning, and still not sure how I’m getting from HERE to THERE. That’s the thrill of writing for me, and again, so counter to my personality. I’m rigid and controlled and I have diagnosed OCD. Loose is not a word I’d use to describe myself, but it is definitely a word I’d use to describe my writing style, both academic and creative. I don’t outline. I just… write. It works. I’ve written 6 or 7 novels by now, pieces and parts of a dozen more, and about 20 academic pieces. It’s just how I do what I do. I can’t explain it.
So this week, I am working on being a better notebook owner. And not a notebook and pen hoarder.
The Postmodern Bluestocking 