I love notebooks so damn much. This became extra apparent to me recently when I packed up all my stuff to move to New York. Not only were there dozens of notebooks – both empty and filled – that needed to be transported to our new place, but also I have a bunch of them in current rotation that I needed to bring with me in my carry-on! Oh, the life of a notebook nerd…
I know there are other such nerds who read this site (hi!), so today I thought I’d tell you a bit about my current “system” of notebooks (if it can even be called that): which ones I’m using, and what I’m using them for, along with a nosy little peek into each. Let’s geek out together!
The notebook: Large ruled hardcover Moleskine
What it’s for: Journaling, emotional processing, word-vomiting about crushes, etc.
I’ve been using these specific Moleskine notebooks as my everyday journals since 2007 (!!!) and have filled a few dozen of them in that time. It’s so satisfying to see them all lined up on a shelf, their dates noted in silver Sharpie on their spines.
My journals are where I process unfiltered thoughts and feelings about everything from dating to sex to health to friendships to geopolitics. I don’t usually publish journal entries as-is, but I often refer back to them when writing more polished pieces later on, since they contain raw notes on my immediate emotional reactions to pretty much everything that happens to me.
I always decorate the covers of my journals so each one has its own unique look, theoretically reflective of what I was thinking/feeling/doing during the era documented therein. My current journal has a rainbow heart sticker (happy belated Pride!), an Oliver Hibert skull sticker (I’m obsessed with his art right now, especially his tarot deck), and a “Never Post” sticker that I got at XOXO Fest, which serves as a reminder that it’s usually better to journal your personal thoughts, rather than tweet them. (Do as I say, not as I do…) There’s also an Njoy Eleven sticker on the back of this one, which I probably picked up at the Njoy booth at Woodhull years ago.
The notebook: Large ruled softcover Moleskine volant
What it’s for: Work notes
Moleskine’s “volant” notebooks are skinny little softcovers that I first started using when I was in journalism school. They could ride around at the bottom of my tote bag, get bent and scuffed, etc. and still hold all my class notes just fine. I like that they come in cute limited-edition colors; I think this kelly-green one was a gift from my brother, who knows me well.
These days, I use volants for work-related process notes, like my detailed thoughts about a sex toy while I’m testing it for a review. I also take notes in here while recording podcasts; it helps me listen better and hold onto the fleeting thoughts/questions that are apt to fly out of my brain if I don’t jot them down immediately. (Above are some of the notes I took during my conversation with masculinities scholar Dr. Kris Taylor about porn addiction and NoFap last year, incase you were wondering why the hell it says phrases like “Chad behavior” and “sex is devoid of pleasure”…)
The notebooks: Midori cotton notepad + Field Notes memo book
What they’re for: Romance novel plotting + random ideas
This elegant white Midori notebook was a gift from my wife; it has gorgeously smooth paper which owes its signature softness to the cotton fiber in its formulation. I normally prefer lined pages over blank ones (that’s how you know I’m a writer and not a visual artist, I guess!), but the blankness is helpful when you’re brainstorming something big – like a romance novel, for instance! I’m a little over 50,000 words into my first (very rough) draft of my first (very rough) novel, and the planning I’ve been doing in this notebook has been instrumental in getting me that far.
Relatedly, I keep a little Field Notes book in my bag when I’m out and about, in which I mostly jot down novel-related ideas that come to me on the subway or whatever – but occasionally I also use it for other random notes as needed, like when I attended a musical improv workshop recently. This particular notebook is limited-edition, made special for attendees of XOXO Fest 2024; its cover is a cyanotype of sunlight peeking through the trees at Washington High in Portland, where the festival took place. Cute!
The notebook: Blackwing x George Harrison notebook
What it’s for: Songwriting
Another gift from my wonderful and thoughtful wife! I was intrigued by this notebook as soon as I read Blackwing’s announcement about it; they had collaborated with George Harrison’s family to design this songwriting notebook in tribute to him. It’s decorated with a striking image of his signature guitar. The pages are blank, and the notebook comes with a clear plastic insert that acts as a guide if you want to draw a music staff or guitar chord charts, etc. There’s even a pencil loop on the spine of the book so you’ll never lose your writing implement. It’s all quite thoughtful!
Throughout most of my SongAWeek project (I’m on year 3 now!), I would work on songs wherever I could: in my journal, in the Notes app on my phone, on a napkin at my local pub, etc. Still to this day, if I get a good song idea, I have to write it down somewhere immediately, no matter where I am, because of the unforgivingly breakneck pace of SongAWeek – so, songs don’t always start in this notebook, but I tend to do heavy-duty lyric editing in here as I’m finishing a song (or, as Diane Warren puts it, “wrestling that song to the ground”). And by the way, if you’re curious about the lyrics in the above image, they’re from a country song I wrote about period sex!
I also keep a big long list in here of ideas for songs, or potential song titles/taglines/etc. Previously they were all scattered across multiple mediums, and I can’t even tell you how helpful it is to have them all in one place instead – it means I have something to start from every week, instead of just a blank page staring back at me. This is the exact kind of thing I mean when I say that writing tools (like notebooks) aren’t magic, and won’t make you a better writer in and of themselves, but they can inspire you to write more often, and can help you organize your thoughts better, which often leads to better writing. Or at least more writing… some of which will be good, surely!
The notebook: Leuchtturm1917 reporter-style notepad
What it’s for: Notes on movies, TV shows, & conversations
Possibly my favorite notebook at the moment. It has super-smooth paper, comes in fun colors, and fits easily into most purses and pockets. I love the versatility of a reporter-style notebook, too: their hard cover and vertical orientation makes it easy to write in them whether you’re sitting at a desk, reclining in a movie theatre, or walking down the street.
I take notes in here on many of the movies and TV shows I watch these days. It helps me pay attention better, and is useful if I want to remember my impressions of a certain piece of media while writing about it later on, or talking to a friend about it, etc. The notes pictured in the image above, for instance, were taken while watching the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral (adorable; love Hugh Grant!) and then some episodes of Kevin Can F**k Himself (low-key a modern feminist masterpiece). Invariably, my notes aren’t just about the media itself, but about my reactions to the media – so this notebook arguably contains just as many personal insights as my journal, albeit expressed differently!
I also sometimes take notes in here while on phone calls/Zoom calls/etc. with friends or partners, because (as mentioned) the reporter-style form factor lends itself well to impromptu note-taking regardless of where I am. Notes on conversations can be useful to refer to when I’m journaling later, among other things. And these notepads conveniently have a built-in table of contents near the front, so when I need to find a specific thing, I always can. Gosh, aren’t notebooks a great technology?
What’s your current notebook configuration? Feel free to share in the comments! 🤓