Liz knows that Writers Love Notebooks

It’s a fact. We can’t resist them. (We love pens, too, but that’s another story.) Get a group of writers together and they’ll soon be talking about the pile of notebooks in their office. Our inability to resist a pretty one, or a funny one, or sometimes a beautiful (ie expensive) one.

We pick them up in stores, (in lovely stationery shops, in WHS, in The Works). We buy them on research trips to stately homes and museums.

I do my best to stay well clear of the notebook stand when I go into my local bookshop but I sometimes succumb. This Paperblank Notebook was a recent buy. They are simply irresistible to the dedicated scribbler and I have more than one!

Letting Go

I don’t outline in my notebooks so they are not the stuff that make an author’s literary archive. I use mine for research notes and, mostly, when I’m done with the book they’ve been researched for, they are just clutter. I recently had a bit of a clear out.

There’s still quite a pile.

This is a my day book. It’s from Paperchase – sadly no longer in business on our high streets.  I use it to make a note of fleeting ideas, inspirational writing quotes, and quotes that make me laugh, like this one —

“The definition of a gentleman – a man who can play the bagpipes, but doesn’t.”

Or this, from Iris Murdoch —

“Starting a novel is opening a door on a misty landscape; you can see very little but you can smell the earth and feel the wind blowing.”

Notebooks that are a bit special

Moleskine are legendary. They aren’t cheap but they are beautifully bound, the paper is thick and smooth – a delight to write on – with an expandable pocket in the back to store receipts and tickets for the tax man.

There are even special journalling ones for readers, travellers and gardeners. I have a garden one somewhere. And you can choose whatever kind of paper you want inside.

Lined for serious writing. Plain for doodling. Squared — for maths? I wouldn’t know. And dotted. The dots are a  mystery to me. Anyone?

The only problem with them is that they are too special. I stopped buying them because I couldn’t bear to sully the pages with my messily scribbled notes but Sainsbury used to do a great knock-off. I bought that pink one about seven years ago.

Amusing Notebooks

These are the cheap and cheerful notebooks I pick up just because I love the cover. Or because it links to something I’m writing. I did have a major Dachshund phase when I was writing a book that featured one called Dora.

I do have a particular fondness for the notebooks created by a company called WTF Notebooks.

They aren’t cheap for what they are, but I buy them as stocking fillers for friends and family as well as as treats for myself.

Some of them are quite (well very) rude but the website does offer you a “safe” selection if you’re likely to be offended.  A particular favourite – I’m a crime writer – is this one.  Like Moleskine,  you can choose hard or soft covers and have whatever kind of paper you want inside.

But…

My only complaint about WTF is that they don’t do a shorthand notebook.

Despite my extensive collection of lovely notebooks, a shorthand notebook is the one I always reach for. It slips easily into most bags and having, in my youth, learned shorthand (I used to dream in it) they feel natural to me.

I like the speed at which I can flip over the pages when I’m making research notes, or jot down information when I’m listening to a podcast or something that catches my attention on the radio.

But I can’t find any pretty (or funny) ones.

Shorthand Notebooks

A plain colour would be acceptable. Purple, or mauve. Crimson, or pink. Turquoise  or teal. Not green unless it was that perfect dull green they call moss. Except that moss is bright emerald green.

What is that all about?

Instead, all I can get is a notebook that says SHORTHAND on the front, as if I needed reminding. Honestly, I know!

What I’m looking for it something like this. That’s Dora, by the way. My obsession got a little out of hand and I commissioned this picture of her which hangs in my office.

I may just be obsessed enough with this cover to go into production myself.

So, gentle reader. How many notebooks have you got stacked up in your writing space? And what is your favourite? And have you ever found a pretty shorthand notebook?

A desperate scribbler would like to know.

Liz