"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."
MaryAnne Moll @ Blank Page #009
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Wow, onion paper. I had forgotten about that stuff. There was this little old timey drug store near my old house that had like one pad of onion paper left (I saw it way back in 2002). The packaging made it look like the pad of paper was made in the early 90's.
I meant to go back and get it the next day but I didn't. And now I live too far away (30 minutes is far away when you have a car that doesn't run too well) to see if it is still there---which I'm sure it is!
Posted by: Anita Rose | September 27, 2006 at 12:47 PM