Writing by Hand

What Notebooks I Use and How I Use Them

Back in September I attended the wonderful Undiscovered Lewis Conference at George Fox University. During Dr. Steven A. Beebe’s presentation, I was reminded of a book Lewis and Tolkien were supposed to write together called Language and Human Nature. The book was going to be about, unsurprisingly, the nature of language. When Diana Glyer wrote about this book project in The Company They Keep all we knew was that the title existed, some adverts in SPCK, and that was it. Dr. Beebe, however, showed us that Lewis at least got a little further. When at the Wade Center (I believe, though it could have been at the Bodleian), Dr. Beebe found a note book of Lewis’s. Scraps was written on the front cover. Flipping through it, Dr. Beebe found what he believes, and I believe he is correct, the opening sentences of Language and Human Nature. Now, this discovery is interesting on its own. After all, several of the Inklings were fascinated by the history and formation of language. But what struck me was Lewis’s use of a nondescript notebook to begin his work.

I am a great lover of writing by hand. Admittedly, I rarely draft anything longer than poetry by hand. This is because I usually fall away from ideas for a time. So if I were to start writing about it in a notebook and eventually abandoned it, I would have a hard time continuing to use that notebook. I’d want to keep the pages blank until I returned to the project. But what if I never returned? Then the notebook sits there partially used but never filled. Still, despite my neuroses, I love writing things by hand. So I thought I’d share with you what notebooks I use when I’m not at my keyboard and how I use them.

Picture here are my journal, wallet, and planner.

Journal

The first notebook I have, and the kind I’ve used the longest, is a simple catchall journal. I use this to record my thoughts on given days, process things that have happened to me, map out book or article ideas, write scraps of poetry, prayers, and more. For right now, I’m still in a Leuchtturm1917 I got last August. I love this brand of notebook. They’re a little bigger than your standard Moleskine notebook, have heavier paper which is great for fountain pens, the pages come pre-numbered, and there’s a place for an index at the start of the journal. I like the hardcover notebook because it stands up to abuse better and will last longer. To help it survive my treatment of it, I keep my journal in a leather notebook cover from Galen Leather.

Work Notebook and Planner

As a teacher, I like to keep track of my ideas for assignments, thoughts about my classes, and ways to get better at teaching, plus any notes from faculty meetings or professional development meetings, in a notebook. Because it’s not something I use absolutely every day, I don’t need tons of pages, and I don’t always need to keep those notes (if I do want to keep them, I re-transcribe them over to my journal). But I also like to keep track of my weekly tasks: what I need to read, grade, prep, what meetings or extracuriculars I have. To do all of that, I use a Traveler’s Notebook.

Traveler’s Notebooks are less of a kind of notebook and more a notebook system. It starts with a leather cover, the standard size of which is about as tall as a Moleskine or A5 size notebook, but not as wide. You can put 3 to 4 of these in the leather covers (whether you get one made by Traveler’s Company or someone else, Galen Leather makes some nice looking ones, but I’ve never used them). In mine, I usually keep a week-view planner and a lined notebook. At the start of the week I write down all the things I need to do for work and then check it every day, adding items to my other planner, and checking them off when they get done.

Planner

I’m not great at keeping track of what I need to do. I tried an amazing digital planner called Opus One, but kept not updating it. So, I’ve switched to the analog. Currently I use a Hobonichi Techo Cousin (English version) from the Japanese company, Hobonichi. I’m still not great at keeping track of my to dos, but this planner helps. The Cousin has spreads for months, weeks, and a page for every day of the year (there are other features, but I don’t use them). In the ideal, I look at my family’s Google Calendar and my School Calendar, update the monthly spreads, then go to the specific week, lay out my work days and anything I have going on after work (whether personal or work related) and then go to the daily spreads and fill out my to dos. I try to keep my to do lists in three categories: Home, Work, and Writing. Like I said, this is the idea. Sometimes I’m lucky just to keep track of the week. Since this planner is pretty exspensive, I may switch off of using it after 2025 if I can’t get myself to use it more consistently. Since the planner’s cover isn’t particularly robust, I keep mine in a leather zip folio case (also from Galen Leather).

Picture here are some of my notebooks from PaperBlanks, my work notebook and planner, and my currently inked fountain pens.

Pocket Notebook/Wallet

The last notebook I’ve nearly always got on me is a small pocket sized notebook (actually, the official size is designated as Passport). Using a combination of leather cover from Traveler’s Company, a wallet insert from Galen Leather, and two notebooks from Traveler’s, I always have my wallet, a pen, and a notebook with me everywhere I go. It is a little cumbersome in the pocket, and I do need to be careful about what kind of pen I put with it (I have permanently inkstained pants to remind me). These notebooks I use for random ideas that I haven’t fleshed out yet. Maybe there’s something I want to buy, or a book title pops in my head, or I just want to capture a few thoughts and don’t have any other notebooks with me. I just like having paper and pen in my pocket everywhere I go.

Other Notebooks

Despite what I said at the beginning, sometimes I do like to buy notebooks for special projects. For instance, I have a notebook dedicated to writing down potential test questions and just some basic facts about the Divine Comedy since I teach it every year. Also, since all of my poetry is written first by hand, when I have a full idea worked out, like my book The Love that Moves the Sun and Other Stars, I like having notebooks dedicated to them. When that happens, I like to buy a more aesthtic notebook like the ones from PaperBlanks. These come in various sizes and can have absolutely gorgeous covers. Since these don’t often travel with me, I don’t put a secondary, protective cover on them. The problem with these is that if I plan too much in the beginning but then abandon the project, I end back up with the problem of partially filled notebooks and the anxiety of not filling them with the original project (I’m working on solving both of those problems).

A Note on Pens

Finally, for all of my notebooks I use, almost exclusively, fountain pens. In my planners I will usually use pencils and sometimes highlighters. And if I have no other option, my pen runs out of ink or breaks or somehow, despite all safeguards of usually keeping about 5 inked pens in my bag at all times, I don’t have one, I’ll use whatever I can find. Having the notes is more important than having them in beautiful fountain pen ink. Perhaps some other time I’ll write about why I like fountain pens, but this post has rather gotten away from me.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve stayed with me this long, thank you. This was a weird post and I could have written so much more. I love my notebooks. I love writing by hand, as much as I can. It slows down my thinking and yet often opens it up to more ideas as well. A notebook can be turned sideways, upside down, lines (if you have them) can easily be ignored. Plus it helps me remember what I write and gives me a physical place to look for my ideas. Even my opening about Lewis and Tolkien I was able to write about here because I took notes in my journal. So consider getting some notebooks (or at least one) for yourself. Write down your thoughts, keep track of your reading, plan your days, but try disconnecting (after you’ve read this post of course) from the internet and just write something down. I promise it won’t kill you, and it might just make you better.

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