Blank Page # 009

Blank Page, an Open Thread.
Discussion # 009

Every Wednesday at Notebookism we open a "Blank Page" -  your chance to ask, answer and discuss anything notebook-related.  Keep it nice, keep it relevant.

Blank Page, an Open Thread.
Discussion # 009

Every Wednesday at Notebookism we open a "Blank Page" -  your chance to ask, answer and discuss anything notebook-related.  Keep it nice, keep it relevant.

Blank Page, an Open Thread.
Discussion # 009

Every Wednesday at Notebookism we open a "Blank Page" -  your chance to ask, answer and discuss anything notebook-related.  Keep it nice, keep it relevant.

Blank Page, an Open Thread.
Discussion # 009

Every Wednesday at Notebookism we open a "Blank Page" -  your chance to ask, answer and discuss anything notebook-related.  Keep it nice, keep it relevant.

Comments

[Michael]

Have you ever felt you wanted your daily journaling to resemble a medieval manuscript and have your thoughts and reflections captured in black/ faded sepia calligraphy made by scribes a millenium ago? It takes so much work to do so; I've never been able to do it. But it does bring to mind the conflict between rapid hand trying to capture the stream of thought and the calculated, orchestrated movements of a pen creating delectable characters on the page. And oh, to illuminate... I know there must be folks out there who are doing it with at least some success. Oh, how I envy you.

[Athena]

Sometimes I feel I should write more on the go or work on my drawing skills. Unless I have a real project, such as a story, it takes a year or more to fill a small Moleskine. I write cursive in my daily journal, not caring if I'll be able to read it or not. I feel it's more personal and better looking than my own printing yet I understand how inlegible it is to myself. Maybe I should take calligraphy? Someone gave me a wonderful notebook this week. So many notebooks, so little time to write the words that fill them. I feel blessed by them, but at a loss of what to do with them. They are addictive and precious though.

[Velma]

I have stopped worrying about my handwriting in my journals. I have an odd half-italic, half-script that I use for my writing in general, an odd one with a very small x-height and long ascenders and descenders; I also have a very narrow, compressed version which often appears when I'm writing fast. When I go back to old journals, it's often as informative as the actual words, to flesh out the details of what I was thinking or writing: was I slower, more deliberate in searching for the words? was I trying to have my hand keep pace with the roiling of my mind and the tumultuous thoughts?

[maryanne moll]

I do a great deal of writing. My journals reach up to fifteen letter-sized pages a day. I feel that as a writer, it is necessary for me to keep a journal not only to keep track of ideas but also to try to make sense of the things i see and read and hear and come across every day.

So the Moleskine is really too small for me, although I carry pocket squared one everyday to note down various ephemera.

What I do now is print lines on letter-sized heavy stationery paper and wire-bind them with the Carl wire-binding set I bought originally for my reports and drafts, and just fashion a nice cover for every volume. For the covers, sometimes I use plain boards in rich dark colors, while sometimes I use the floral print boards.

This new journal is a new thing. I used to just write on bond paper that I carry around in a beaten-up envelope. Sometimes I use onion skin. Since I always need to carry my journal wherever I go, and since I also forget to bring it from time to time, when that happens I just buy some letter-sized paper from a nearby store and write my journal entry on that. For years I wrote on various loose leaf pages, and when I have accumulated diary entries two inches thick I have them hard-bound and covered in good stylish paper, with a ribbon closure. I now have ten volumes, written over the years.

Perhaps I will take out my new journals from their wire bindings eventually, when I want to bind them into a 2-inch volume to match the set. But for now, as I finish a notebook (which usually has from 60 to 70 leaves each, depending on the thickness of the inside papers), I just stash it inside my diary cabinet, and start on a new one. The beauty of this system is that it can stand alone, but i can also incorporate them eventually into the larger main set if I feel like it, and because of the size of the paper, they will really belong.

Plus, they look so good to carry around that I have never forgotten to bring my journal since.

[Gray Miller]

I'm about to leave for a week in California on vacation. It was a great excuse to try out a new notebook that I fell in love with in a local coffee shop. I hope I'm not transgressing by mentioning it here, but you can see it at www.bokubooks.com .

The weight of the cover, the feel of the paper, the color of the fine grid...I'm just itching to start filling it with thoughts and quotes and such from the trip (going to Folsom St. Fair, and then down the coast next weekend to Podcast Expo in LA).

A new blank book, and an adventure waiting to happen. This is FUN!

[gary]

The limited edition VanGogh moleskines are available here, with mention of a red version to come:
http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/moleskine/moleskine.php
(scroll to bottom)

[Julian]

The comment from Michael touched a recent memory. Visiting an art exhibition in Tokyo we were asked to sign the visitors book. When I saw the other signatures, beautiful Japanese characters made with the pen/ brushes supplied, I just had to decline for fear of my scrawl ruining the book. I still worry about having caused offence! Went to http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/cambridgeilluminations/themes/ last year, the heart aches at the detail and colours.