Most of my creative writing is handwritten. I usually use legal pads, or more preferably wire bound legal pads. It’s easy to write on both sides of them and for some reason the yellow just does it for me. Every once in a while I decide to by a fancy notebook. In the past it was Moleskines, more recently it was ones from etsy made with Tomoe River paper. I have a (cheap) fountain pen, so I figured I’d try some better paper.
The problem I run into is that I never use the fancy notebooks. The paper is better, and the ink flows smoother. It has a better tactile feel to it. But it is a fancy notebook and it should only be used for the good stuff—the stuff I want to look over a decade or two from now and be proud of.
So I’ll be very careful and take my time to write in the best handwriting possible. I’ll last for a few pages before my handwriting gets sloppier, or a have another idea that doesn’t fit, and I abandon that fancy notebook. I go back to the spiral bound legal pads which contain a chaotic jumble of non-linear thoughts. There are notes and poems in the margins, things crossed out all over the place, and handwriting that becomes only legible to me if I squint real hard at it and pick it up from context.
So how do you feel about fancy journals. Are you able to treat them as the paper they are, or do you too put them on a pedestal?
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I have about the same experience. I try too hard to be perfect when it comes to a fancy notebook. However, I write left handed, so the the really cheap paper interferes with the ink flow, and when it flows, the ink smears. Because of this, I will keep an eye out when I am out and about for something that is preferably coil-bound and with decent-enough paper. I also do my best not to use perforated pages, because they tend to tear if you are the type of person who needs to flip back-and-forth between pages. I try and stay away from anything that looks like a leather bound grail diary from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. My work is just not important enough to warrant a Sean Connery grail diary.
No fancy notebooks here - I don’t want to be afraid to write from concerns I would do a poor job and waste the paper.
Having said this, I do use a nice leather cover that allows me to just swap my notebooks inside. I also do try to find crappy looking notebooks that actually have good quality paper.
