Paper journals

[mrissa]

This morning I got to the end of my paper journal. I wrote the last sentence of The Mark of the Sea Serpent in it -- not the last sentence to be written on the rough draft, but the sentence that comes chronologically last in the rough draft. (Those of you who are new around here: I am not really capable of writing books in order. I skip around. It seems to be a compulsion, and whenever I think I've been writing something mostly in order, I always have to go back and put more stuff in the early chapters. Not just fleshing out of stuff but plot details. Puffins. Puffins! Yarg!)

I'm close enough to the end of this draft that my subconscious wants it to be done with the end of this paper journal. No such luck. Ah well.

I thought I had another of the kind of journals I like, but it turns out I had one unlined, one spiral-bound, and two large ones (the kind I used to like, when I was writing all of every rough draft in my journal and went through them faster). A paper journal for me right now must be lined, flat-bound, and small enough to fit in my (large) purse, without being so small that I can only fit a paragraph and a half on each page. Excessively girly journals are also right out, as are journals that are going way, way out of their way not to be girly. Journals with lots of textured objects are no good, because the textured objects will fall off or snag on things or get really ratty as I use the thing. Similarly, pale covers that are easily marked up are no good either, because they will get marked up, and not in a charming way, but rather in the "your friend's 2-year-old grabbed your handbag and now you can't get his bodily fluids off your journal" way.

So I went to B&N, since it was in the local strip mall where I was attempting to buy timprov a new chair (we'll see how that went when he is awake and can try it -- he gave me his parameters, but the tallest person in the store was 5'10", so I couldn't double-check my eye for these things, and why do we live in Minnesota if the tallest person in a store is only going to be 5'10"? what is this place Minnesota for? ahem, anyway, moving on). I got a journal in very un-Mrissish greens and oranges with a magnetic closure flap I'm pretty sure will demagnetize before I've finished using the journal, but it had such a charming line drawing of a Chinese dragon that I couldn't resist: line-drawing! Chinese dragon! C'mon, people! Also I got a dark burgundy one with a gold tree on it that could in no way be Ilmarinen's or Yggdrasil, which I find restful. Lots of things that aren't Yggdrasil are restful, actually. And I got a black leather one that was of medium firmness, because it felt like it would be lighter than most of my journals, and I got my first Moleskine. The Moleskine was in plastic, and now that I've unwrapped the plastic, it's already made me roll my eyes and go, "Oh, puh-leeeeze" twice, and I haven't even started writing in it. (There is a space to put a monetary reward for return in the front cover. Oh, puh-leeeeze. And there is a history of Moleskines in the back flap. Oh, puh-leeeeze. Are we taking ourselves a weeeee bit seriously? I think we are.) And yet it looks durable, and I like the elastic hold-closed-bit, so I don't throw my keys down the middle of my journal yet again. (Several of my past journals have smudges where I did this.)

I don't know which I'll use first. None of them has numbered the pages for me, or I'd use that one first. (I use page numbers for later reference in my notes. I number my journals as well as dating them. This will be No. 26. If I was feeling like an ambitious slacker, I'd pull quotes for April 24 from 1997 to this year, but I'm feeling either more ambitious or less slack than that. Still: new journal day! Hooray!

Comments

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I love my Moleskine, even though they do take themselves a bit too seriously. I love the little pocket in the back to tuck things into. I can easily imagine myself a world traveller, sitting in a cafe, eating a croissant, wearing a beret, and writing about my adventures. :)

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Moleskins make me go "Oh, puh-leeeeze" as well. I suspect that the things about them which make me go "Oh, puh-leeeeze" are the sort of things that actually serve the company that makes them well, in creating the aura of the Moleskin "brand".

This isn't to say that I would turn my nose up at one if it was offered for free, but given their current cost-to-value ratio, I vastly prefer my cheap Mead 80 page notebooks. While they lack ribbons, you can keep your pen in the spiral binding, which for me is a high-value proposition (it keeps me from losing my pens).

Molskene

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Molskenes are great journals, though.

B

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

We seem to use journals in about the same way.

(Yes, I number my journals, and put the dates on the spine. And I hand number the pages if they don't come numbered.)

So that while I'll agree with you about the pomposity of Moleskines, I'll also throw in my two cents' worth in their favor. I'm on my third, and I do kind of adore them. They *are* durable--I carry mine in my purse with all my other crap, and it does just fine. The elastic works. The ribbon is handy. Despite being overly impressed with itself, it's a dandy little notebook.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

And they're less twee than Levenger's.

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

"magnetic closure flap I'm pretty sure will demagnetize" your credit cards if you're not careful :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Dude. Physics major. Got it covered.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, I did buy one, so we'll see.

Re: Molskene

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to find out. If they're that good (mostly if the covers are durable and the elastic holds up well), it'll be worth rolling my eyes at their high opinion of themselves.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I just went to the Levenger's site. Holy crap. I am obviously cheap white trash, because I just do not see how a journal can be worth three figures in today's American currency.

Re: Molskene

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I think they're that good.

And given the sorry state of little notebooks, I think they get to crow about their stuff.

B

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I write on both sides of the pages, and I don't like flipping the notebook upside down every time I change pages, so being a righty doesn't help all that much with this kind of journal. It was very useful when I was using only one side of the page with cheap spiral notebooks as a kid, but it's not a big advantage in a notebook I'll use evenly.

Sometimes I look at my desk and think of all the stuff I've managed to keep off it with my little tidy techniques, and then I am alarmed at what remains. (But mostly I put stuff on my desk specifically to drive me nuts so I will take care of it and remove it from my desk again.)

Re: Molskene

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

But they're not bragging about the durability, they're bragging about the history and creative pedigree. "Moleskine is a reservoir of ideas and feelings, a battery that stores discoveries and perceptions, and whose energy can be tapped over time." I'll put up with that if it turns out to be truly better-quality than others, but I'd prefer it if they crowed over the things that matter to me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't lose my pens, generally, although I've discovered that they wander off a lot more when I'm using a generic rollerball than when I'm using a quality fountain pen that the other members of my household can recognize immediately as mine.

I have a psychological thing about not being able to remove pages from my journals. I need it to be all one piece, not easily destroyed or taken piecemeal. When I was in college, I ran out of one journal while the paint was still drying on another journal cover, and I thought I'd just use notebook paper until the paint dried. Didn't work very well for me at all. I ended up begging Jen The World's Best Lab Partner to drive me into Kato for a new journal.

Also I hate the way spirals squish into my hand on one side of the paper, although if I use a fountain pen in a Mead 80, I'll only use one side anyway.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I can see the pocket as extremely useful, especially with the way I've been working on The Mark of the Sea Serpent: I've got a rough chapter outline on a piece of loose paper, and I go down the list and see what I haven't worked on and feel like working on, and then the loose page gets tucked back into the journal for later reference, with chapters checked off when they're finished.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I tend to double-up with page numbers less than I skip. Sigh.

I'm glad to make you happy with little things like sentences.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That was mostly just an Ignore the marketing people, they haven't a clue kind of comment, and you knew that already.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Ooo, paper products. *loff*

But I'm easy. I just buy the 20c spirals. I don't use them for anything other than writing booky notes, anyway. (And I only write on the one side, because I, too, hate it when the spiral jabs into my hand.)

I do like petting the other ones, though. The pretty ones. The ones I'm afraid to write in because I don't want to mess them up. I have a few pretty ones. I can't bear to use them. *grin*

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I can appreciate not wanting to be able to remove pages from journals, despite it being the polar opposite of my position on the matter.

I want to be able to remove pages, not only because it allows me to have scratch paper whereever I go, but also because it allows me to efface the traces of anything particularly dreadful that I happen to write down or draw. I've been known to take razors to old sketchbooks, just to excise offending pages.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

When I accidentally double page numbers on something, I make them 26a, 26b, 26c etc.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

In college I always used flip-top spiral notebooks, to avoid the hand-squishing. And because I'm contrary.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I get queasy removing pages from notebooks. Which is kind of sad in my case when I've bought notebooks with perforated pages specifically so I can remove pages and file them appropriately in a three-ring binder with dividers. It's clashing analities, it is.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

It's bound in 20-dollar bills?

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I have an inordinate number of pretty bound journals that have something written in the first 5-10 pages, then nothing for the other 100-some. Because apparently my journal acquisition urge has nothing to do with, y'know, writing something down.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I think you should use the pocket to magically imprison the souls of editors who should buy MSS (and DBM too of course), thus giving you leverage in the submission process. Or, well, maybe I don't actually think that, given that it would violate any number of Christian principles to do such a thing. But still.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have a tension between never wanting to run out of journals and not wanting to overstock on something, because my tastes in journal have changed. I used to want the big ones, 8x10, but now I use them slowly enough that they get really, really battered in their lifetimes, and it's better to use something smaller and lighter.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Then you have to flip the notebook upside down every time you change pages.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My inner perfectionist needed to be stuck with horrible things for awhile. I can write a big green "NO" in the margin to indicate that the horror that is the scene I just wrote will not be included in anything like a finished story. But it's part of the process, and if I can tear things out and throw them away, I used to do so. And my judgment of what is awful is not always good without some space/time to consider it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid it works best if other members of your household actually see you taking action to remove things from your desk. Otherwise it sounds kind of like an excuse, and we couldn't have that.