I Chose Poorly

In my last post, I talked about the difficulty I had choosing one of my good notebooks for (some kind of) a journal. I wish I was still dithering because I chose so poorly.

I had this great navy blue, hardcover notebook with silver stars on the front. Perfect, I thought. It even had gorgeous holographic stars on the page edges. It was so beautiful. I was agog. Beautiful edges, navy blue so it will stay clean-looking. What more could I ask for?

Choice made, I began adding the journaling stickers I've been buying for several years to the pages.

It wasn't until I had a number of weeks in that I noticed that the pages were getting lumpy because I was putting the stickers in the same places. Seven days in a week, across two spreads, giving myself enough room to write.

I didn't expect this because it's the thick, 160 GSM paper. Although maybe I should have known? It's just that I primarily use Tomoe River Paper, which is very thin and I have to be very careful with stickers. I expected thicker paper would have easier results.

I decided I'd live with the lumpy.

What made my choice of notebook such a poor one is that the stickers wrecked the smoothness of the page edges. Now there were gaps. Small gaps, but still gaps. Which means that gorgeous holograph is muted. Mostly gone.

I should have picked a notebook with regular edges, but it's far too late now.

I have learned a valuable lesson. 

The Notebook Dilemma

I swore (SWORE!) that I wasn't going to save my good notebooks. That I bought them to use them and that's exactly what I was going to do.

I also have quite a collection of journaling stickers and I thought what if I took an A5 notebook, used my journaling stickers and created something with that?

And then I ran into the notebook issue.

I have a lot of nice, hardcover notebooks. I want to use the one with the lavender pages. Oh, but I can't use lavender paper because it might clash with my journaling stickers. Those are all different colors and I don't want the paper color to hold me back.

What if I used the new notebook with the books? No, I don't want to use that one. I'm saving that for something different. Maybe a reading journal.

Me to me: You haven't completed a reading journal yet. Including the one you started this year and did nothing except the title page and some challenge pages.

Okay, but not the books notebook.

What about the dragon notebook?

Oh, no, I can't use the dragon notebook. That one is too special and I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this idea of mine.

What about the black notebook with the pattern?

Yeah, well, that one has page numbers and little marks to let you know where the center of the dot grid is. I'd really like to save that one because I can't replace it and I'm not sure what I'm--

What about the new notebook with the floral design?

Um?

The notebook with the southwest design?

And here I sit. No notebook chosen because I can't decide.

Daily Snapshot

I saw a stamp set for "Currently" and missed out on it because it was for subscribers and the kit was sold out. I was disappointed because it seemed like such a fun way to do a daily snapshot.

As it turned out, I found another Currently stamp set and this one offered more than the four options of the stamp set I couldn't get my hands on.

I tested it out in my planner, which might not have been my best choice. The image is at the left. This was a couple of months ago, and I think I mentioned, I'm stamping challenged. I'm still stamping challenged. I thought I was improving. Then I did the stamping for this month in my notebook and it was like, um, yeah. Not so much.

Here is my November notebook.

As you can see, the stamping didn't go well this month. It's messy and I ended up changing ink part way through, but it was already too late.

I think this is a nice snapshot of my day.

Currently Reading. I don't always have a book on a day because if I'm doing a lot of writing, I don't feel like reading. Makes it tough with library books.

Currently Listening. I'm in my Moana soundtrack phase. Again. You're Welcome. It's almost time to switch to Christmas music.

Currently Writing. Still working on Wicked Temptation. I have a word count goal, and I'm past the halfway point on that. But the story isn't at the halfway point yet, so this story might be finishing a little long. I usually throw in what chapter I worked on that day.

Currently Loving. I like this category because it can literally be anything.

Currently Watching. This is usually some sort of YouTube video since I don't watch much television.

Today. This box is for a highlight of the day. Again, it can be anything and I like the optionality.

The other thing in this notebook is the Gratitude section. I didn't take a picture of this month's section, but here's a picture from earlier. I think this is October's notebook.

I don't only use stamps in these notebooks. I add stickers and cards and all kinds of decoration. Anything that makes it fun.

This notebook is far from perfect and this sort of bothers me because I am a perfectionist, but I've reached a point where I can tell myself: You'll do better next month. And then move on. Although the fall off from my good October stamping to November is discouraging, but I'm POSITIVE that I'll do great in December. I bought new ink, and since part of my problem was moving on before the stamp was dry, I'll move slower and be more patient.

Not easy for me. I have ADHD and am easily distractable, but maybe I can read while I wait for the ink to dry in December. :-)

Despite all this, it's a nice way to be creative that uses different brain cells than writing, so I get the creativity boost without the drain. The more creativity my brain is exposed to, the easier it is to write. That's my theory anyway.

If December doesn't stink, I'll post pictures of my notebook on Instagram. You can find me there as: @author_pattioshea 

Writing Notebooks

I've been over on YouTube watching videos by other authors on how they notebook their stories and I've reached a conclusion. Notebooking is a very personal experience.

I watched some authors that left me exhausted with the things they did in their notebooks. I'd be like too tired to write anything if I copied what they did. But it works for them and that's what matters.

There were authors who used multiple notebooks. I have two notebooks for the Paladin League, soon to be three, but that's because I filled them, not because I need more than one at a time. The only exception to this is that I love my 9x12 artist sketchpad.

This is something I usually pull out before I actually start writing a story. I like the extra room I have, and I like the fact that there are no lines which means I can write anywhere. It's funny because once I have the big picture on the book, I don't use this notepad again unless there's another larger issue I need to resolve.

I'm thinking it's all a mind thing. My brain sees the bigger writing space, the lack of lines, and says, okay, we're thinking big picture. As opposed to my normal, smaller lined notebook where I brainstorm character information or what happens in the next scene.

Maybe it was the writers who are out there filming videos, but all of them did more work decorating their writing notebooks than I'll ever do. For me, it's about thinking, not about making it pretty. I've shared pictures here in the past. I sketch things out, I write messy, I write sideways if I need to, I'll add Post-it notes with other information that I jotted down. The only thing that matters to me is getting my brain to work.

My method would probably drive other authors crazy, but it works for me. That's what matters.

Just like with writing, do what works for you and leave the rest.

On to Number Three

Back in September (or maybe the very end of August), I finished my second Paladin League notebook. Picture is on the left. You can see the little round markers sticking out of the top. Each color belongs to a different character/book. There's also one color that is for the series as a whole.

The markers semi-transparent round stickers that I picked up for my planner, but never found a way to use there. They do work great, though, in my writing notebook.

I like writing my notes out on paper instead of digitally. There's something about putting pen to paper that makes me think better. And when I brainstorm with my writing buddy, those notes go in here as well.

Sometimes the early notes I add about a future book/hero/heroine end up being completely wrong, but that's okay. Now I know what doesn't fit.

The interesting thing? I rarely go back and look at the early notes, not even when I'm writing that character's story. Maybe just the act of writing them down gets my memory to work better? The character to provide more accurate information? I'm not sure what it is, but I seldom feel the need to go back and reference older notes. This also includes overall series notes, which I probably do need to go back and review.

I do, however, flip through the pages about the current book to reference information. I also will cross out stuff that no longer is accurate. These notes aren't about looking pretty. They're about getting thoughts/ideas/possibilities down before they disappear into the ether of my brain.

There is one other "notebook" I use on occasion. I put notebook in quotes because it's an artist's sketchpad that is quite large. That is where I make notes after I finish a book and before I start the next one. What do I need to accomplish in the book for the Paladin League series? What threads do I need to remember? I might not weave those threads in this particular book, but I want to remember they're there.

The big size of the notebook is for big thoughts. :-) Heh! It's actually kind of a mind map. Because it's a sketchbook, there aren't any lines, and I write wherever I want. I'll circle things and draw lines between items. Something about the freedom is helpful when I'm looking at the big picture on the series.

Now I'm in Notebook Three. I had the cover of that notebook printed with The Paladin League on it just like this green notebook. I like doing that because I can tell at a glance which series it's for. I recently did a search of my office and found one series that had four partial notebooks, some with only a page or two of notes! I definitely need to get more named notebooks.

Oops, The Fix

I've begun transferring my information from the 2024 planner to notebooks. That should actually be notebook, singular, because I'm starting with the Paladin League notes and skipping everything else for now.

It is as slow and as tedious as I feared.

The only good thing, and I use that term loosely, is the series notes I've done so far all apply to the current book, Wicked Ambition, and not books I've already finished.

That isn't going to last much longer. I know there are notes for Wicked Suspicion in there. I just haven't reached them yet.

I'm still berating myself for putting writing notes in this book with every page I transcribe. I know better. This isn't the first time I've done this to myself. I'm hoping it's the last.

I did make my notebook for general story notes. I cutout vinyl on my Silhouette cutter and used transfer tape to put it on the cover and spine of the book.

Front cover in gold metallic vinyl. I might have spent more time debating which color to use, but when I looked at my vinyl stash, there was a small piece of gold left. Enough for title and spine, so I was like, okay decision is made. I don't have to cut into a new vinyl sheet.

If you're a paper/notebook/stationery fiend like I am, the notebook is a B6 size from Sterling Ink, the 520-page gridded version with Tomoe River Paper. Color is Forest Green. I'm not a forest green fan in general, but this one is so dark, it looks black. (No compensation and I paid full price for the notebook. Unsolicited review--I am a serious fan of Sterling Ink's planners and notebooks.)

The spine vinyl required a smaller (and different) typeface. I nearly got it on there completely straight. So close to perfect. So close. But not quite. It's close enough, though, that I think I can live with it.

I calculated lines per page versus how many pages in the book and came up with 13 index pages. With a number that large, I decided to make Index stickers for the top of each page. They're half an inch in height, which gives me room for one grid space before I begin the actual indexing of notes.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but each index sticker has a cut edge around it, so I can pull it off like a real sticker. This is actually why I bought this machine--to make my own stickers.

The last issue I face is how to index these odd book ideas that come to me. I mean, how do I list them in an index in a way that makes sense to me, say five years down the road? I'm still debating that. I have more Paladin League notes to get through first, and if I still have no answers, I can move my workshop notes next and save the ideas for last.

This has become a major project. Thank goodness, I only have about 40 pages to deal with. It could have been much, much worse.

Decor Disasters

Sorry for the planner talk two posts in a row. It's October, which is close enough to 2025 for it to be planner season and I'm excited.

I'm sharing more from my 2024 planner although I'm going to embarrass myself because my work is clearly amateurish. I'm learning and I hope to improve as I do this a few more times.

Because I enjoy vellum images, I decided to add some to the blank pages in my soon-to-be-expired planner. I tried pasting them down, taping in tip-ins on the inner edge, the outer edge, and the bottom edge, and it was a mixed bag.

Some of it kind of turned out okay. Most of it didn't end up looking very good at all. And I have more vellum to try out as I desperately try to fill up pages.

The crazy thing is that a lot of people who use this planner create daily pages on these blank pages (368 of them, perfect for a year's worth) and I never thought of it. Argh!

Next year, I will use the blank pages to journal one page a day and won't have this problem.

I started with a tip-in. For those unfamiliar, that means the page is only attached on one side and it opens out to show the page below. I fastened this one to the spine side. And somehow, I cut the vellum too short for the book. I had it laid right over the page while I cut with the scissors, so I don't know how it happened, but otherwise it pasted in well and works as expected. I'm giving myself a B+.

The vellum on these two pages is pasted down on the left, and a tip-in on the right. This one is pasted down at the bottom edge.

This one? Well, the left page has very little room left to write and it's narrow at the top before widening out. The tip-in on the right is a mess. I ended up just folding the vellum at the tape line in order to write. This one is probably a D.

I had a small piece of vellum left over from this design and I just pasted it down on the top of the next page. Nothing special. Grade is a C.

New day, new design for the vellum. The picture above this paragraph is the tip-in from the front view. The picture below is with the tip-in paged over to expose the notebook page below.

On the plus side, this page was cut much closer to the right size than the previous version. The negative? I taped it down too far onto the writing page and it pulls it, which I don't like. I did better the first time I tried this. C-.

There was a little problem with the glue here. I tried to rub it off, but as you can see on the left-hand side, I wasn't successful at getting it off. I also managed to crinkle the pages, and I didn't get the vellum on the right-hand side glued down correctly. I ended up taking a scissors to trim off the excess. F. Maybe an F-.

The final two pictures are the same page. This is a tip-in I fastened to the outer edge of the page. This also got into epic fail territory. I managed to crinkle the page badly, the tape isn't folded over the page well, pulling on the other side, and it's horrible. Another F-

I'm hoping I get better at this because I really do enjoy the idea, and the vellum looks so cool when it's done even halfway correctly. 

I have eight more pages of vellum design printed. If I can't figure it out in that number, I might have to give it up.

Scribble, Scribble, Scribble

The first image is a picture of my 2024 weekly planner when it was brand new. I'm not a weekly planner girl. It doesn't work with my brain because I see things listed in the week and think the day they're assigned doesn't matter. I can do them whenever. That means I don't do them at all.

No matter how important they are.

But I bought this planner more for the monthly section and its size. This is a B6 which is very manageable, but not too small. My dad had so many doctor appointments and I'm not good at electronically managing schedules, so my plan was to keep track of all of that here and carry it with me. And then my dad died before 2024 started.

It became more of a notebook after that, but while I loved the paper, I wasn't using it often. And then it was August and new 2025 planners were about to come out and I was like, GAH!

I decided to start really using this notebook. In addition to the planning pages, there are like 370ish blank pages. I had a lot of work to do.

I had monthly tabs left over from 2021. I think that was one of the years I thought about bullet journaling? Maybe? I know I tried once in 2016 and gave it up quickly, but I have a package of mini calendars that say 2021, so I must have tried again. I used the tabs that only had the month on them to tab out the weekly sections.

My plan? I'm going to time track myself. Lots of work, work, and more work on there.

I also know I'm more likely to use something if it's pretty, so I printed out some vellums and pasted them into the book. This is the first month I added. August.

Between the OMG, I have all these blank pages, and I don't want to haul a 2024 planner with me and OMG, I love this vellum, I managed to start doing some journaling. It helped that I found some writing notes scribbled on the back of the information package I got when I had surgery in 2021.

I copied the notes. Shredded the surgery papers. :-)

I also really love using Post-it notes in my notebooks. Like really, really, really love. I've shared pictures of my writing notebooks filled with Post-it notes on top of pages filled with notes in the past. Here's a spread from this planner.

I picked this one to share because it's from a class I took online, and I don't have to worry about spoiling any of my books by sharing it. I usually never use the super large Post-it Notes for my notebooks, but I needed the extra room here.

And then I had another brainstorm. Since I love using Post-it Notes so much, why not use pretty Post-its? I had some white sticky notes, and I had free printable template with some pretty patterns, so I decided to run those through the printer and have them on standby, ready to go.

I know there isn't much room to write, but since I have a lot of blank pages to go through, that might not be a bad thing.

Journaling as fast as I can because 2025 is coming!

So Much Revealed in a Few Drawers

I started doing a little clean up on my office. I didn't feel like it, but I remembered the experts saying just do 15 minutes, so I thought, okay, I can do fifteen minutes. I started by going through my desk drawers.

There are eight of them. I made it through...well, let's call it 5.5 because I'm not happy with the job I did on the sixth drawer.

Discoveries were made.

I didn't realize I had a ton of Christmas postage stamps. Hmm.

Wow. All the pens. So many pens. And markers. And highlighters. Oh, look, more pens. And erasable pens. And midliners. Pencils, too. So many colored pencils. Disposable fountain pens. They even still work.

And then I hit the paper. There were letter size notepads with the perforated pages in every color they make. I'd forgotten about those, but I used to make all my book notes on those and I color coded them by paper color. It's been a long, long time since I used notepads.

Because I switched to steno pads. Which I also found. Two were blank, but four of them were filled with notes and different color Post-it flags because I color coded each project. I didn't look, but I'm assuming they're for ideas/books/series I've started, but never finished. At some point, I need to scan those into PDF and file those electronically so I can toss the books.

I also found two Junque Journals still in their wrappers. This was one of my brilliant ideas that didn't pan out. I was going to use stickers to label a journal for each series and put my notes there. It would be awesome! I was sure of it!

The only problem was these journals were created more for artists or for scrapbooking. I made notes, but it was hard to read what I wrote and I would have needed to use Sharpies or something in order to read it. This idea withered quickly.

Really, the spiral notebooks with the perforated pages are my current favorites for writing notes. I bought a couple of Poppin notebooks which had awesome paper quality and lots of pages, but they stopped making that notebook. I'm using Erin Condren now. That paper is nice and thick, almost too thick, but I've become a paper snob.

And then I hit the index cards. So many index cards. But I was positive--positive--that this time they would work for me and I wouldn't hate every minute of trying to plot with them. Spoiler alert: I did hate every minute of the index cards. It's why I have a drawer full of them.

What's sort of interesting going through the drawers was the revelation of how my note taking process continues to...not really change since it still involves jotting down thoughts on paper, but that the paper I like to use for this keeps changing. Notepads to steno pads to notebooks. I just wish I could ditch the little slips of paper. When I cleaned off the top of my desk, more than 50% of the mess was Post-it notes and mini notepad pages with book notes.

Office Supply Geek Out

Last week, I blogged about needing to sketch out things, and in that post, there's a Post-it Note that I drew my extremely rough sketch. Since I wrote that post, I discovered a new Post-it.

Full stick Post-it Notes!

I did know they existed, but I'd never actually used one and then I found a nearly empty pad of them at work and used one there to make note of a meeting and some items I wanted to take care of.

OMG! These things are fabulous! I immediately knew I had to buy my own. I picked more interesting colors than what we had at the office. Of course!

I have a writing notebook where I make notes and brainstorm and anything else that might be related to the book or series I'm writing. I'm also flipping through that notebook a fair amount and sticking and re-sticking Post-it notes. Sometimes over and over. Naturally, some of the sticky comes off and then the notes start falling out when I rifle through them.

Full stick Post-its, though, should solve the problem. There's a light hash mark on the right of the note so you know where to lift it off, but the rest of it is adhered to the page.

The note above is one I rewrote off an early Post-it. I believe it's from chapter 3? Maybe chapter 4. Anyway, the note was hanging on by a thread because I'd moved it around so many times. (I wanted to keep track of who Deck met at the bar.) Now, it's not going anywhere no matter how often I flip through my notes.

Two thumbs up for the full stick.

Notebook Dilemma Continues

I thought I had my notes problem for my books sorted out. I'd found these junk journals online and they were thick, with plenty of room for notes. The problem? These were made for art or keepsake/scrapbooking type uses, not handwritten notes.

What I discovered was that some of the papers in there really needed a thick marker in order for the words to be seen and I don't like writing in marker. I have my pen of choice and don't want to use a different one.

These junk journals really are cool--just not for my notes.

I ended up buying some notebooks with really nice paper. OMG, I love the paper quality. I'm not sure, though, (despite how cool they are) that this is my permanent answer either.

I'm using the green notebook in this picture for Paladin League notes right now. (I had it personalized with Paladin League on it rather than my name.) But it's not that thick and I anticipate running through it pretty quickly because I make a lot of notes as I write. It's how I think things through.

This continues my ongoing notebook problem. I can't find a thick, spiral-bound notebook with paper that I love. Well, that's not quite true. I did find one that was perfect. So (of course) Poppin stopped making it. I'd only bought one because I wanted to try it out before I committed to more, and by the time I realized it was exactly what I wanted, they were gone. I found one on eBay and bought it, but when I fill that one up, there are no more.

What notebooks is Poppin still making? Their thin ones that don't have enough paper and their ones that are bound. I tried one of those, but much prefer the spiral for story notes.

BTW, the original Poppin notebook is filled with Paladin League notes. It filled up right about the time I finished Wicked Salvation. I actually had to put my revision notes in the new (green) notebook.

Black Paper and Gel Pens

I don't bullet journal, but I have a thing for buying books that were created for bullet journaling. I shared a couple of the more recent purchases in a blog post called The Notebook Problem.

So my latest purchase is a blackout journal, where all the pages are black. Awesomely cool. Except finding a pen I like that can write on black paper has been an experience and a half.

I'm pretty picky about my pens. I've been trying different brands. The G2s I have? Streaky. They make me nuts. In fact, this has been the problem with most of the pens I've tried.

I have a yellow gel pen I like. Sort of. It's a Gelly Roll, but it's a little streaky and the point is 1.0 which is pretty wide for me. I prefer .7 nibs on my pens.

I've tried paint pens--do not like--and I'm accumulating quite a drawer full of rejects.

I was back searching online for another pen to try. There was a deal going on for Art-n-Fly pens in white, so I thought why not. It'll just be another set for the collection.

This pen I like! It's not a clear-cut winner, not yet, but it's in the running. (I have a couple more brands I want to try in the future. I have them wish listed for another day.)

There is almost no information on the package, so I'm not sure of the nib size, but it feels like a .5, which is slightly smaller than I like, but not a deal breaker. The ink flows pretty well with minimal streakiness and it feels good in my hand when I use it.

I really wish I liked the Pilot G2 because it's a retractable and I hate messing around with caps, but sadly, I hate how it writes. I guess I'll live with the caps because the other brands I want to test are also capped.

Oh, well. ::shrug:: At least I finally have a pen to use in my black out journal. Now I just need something to use it for.

The Notebook Problem

I might have mentioned I have a problem with notebooks. I love them and buy them even when I have no need for them.

Someone posted a link to some really cute hardcover notebooks and I toodled over just to look at them. Look, not buy. But they were so cute! I couldn't resist. I ordered two of them.

I thought they were coming from South Korea. Yes, I know, but they were cute! It turns out they were shipping from China. I wasn't sure what I was getting, but the quality was excellent and the shipping time from China to the US wasn't bad. However, it did take my package 2.5 weeks to go from a post office facility 30 miles from my house, to my mailbox. :-/

The books came in boxes that were gorgeous. I'm going to have to keep them even after I start using them.

The paper is very thick, I believe 160 gsm, which is the thickest I've ever bought before this. I really don't need that kind of thickness since I don't do watercolors or any other kind of art. Sadly, I have zero artistic talent and will only use them for writing, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the paper.

These are for bullet journaling, so there are dots and not lines. I miss the pre-made index that a lot of bullet journals have these days, but that's a minor quibble. There is the elastic strap that keeps the book closed and two ribbons to mark where you're at.

There's a pocket in the back of the books which is a feature I really appreciate. I have another book that I actually am using right now and it doesn't have that folder in back, something I really needed. And both notebooks came with paperclips in shapes. If you can see in the top picture, that one is copper and in the shape of a planet.

The other amazing thing is the page edges. OMG!

I'm trying to get over my "these are too nice to use" mindset, but wow, they are almost too nice to use. I still have them stored in their boxes, waiting for something important enough to use them for.

Hardcover Notebooks

 

I'm in love with hardcover notebooks, but I only own a few because they seem too good to write just anything in. It's difficult to figure out what qualifies as special enough. But I started a pandemic journal when COVID first broke out, and after much dithering, I did use one of my hardcover notebooks.

As the months went on (and on and on) and I wrote in this book more and more, I realized that I didn't need a special reason to use a hardcover notebook. I could use one just because I like them.

It was revelatory!

I might have blogged before about saving the good things for special events, but notebooks seemed different from new slippers.

And the notebooks I bought that have the high quality paper? Why not use those, too? What's the occasion going to be? Why even own them if I'm not going to use them?

So that's my plan for 2020. I'm going to write in the good notebooks...as soon as I figure out what I want to write down.

I Love Notebooks

It might be a writer thing because I'm not the only author I know who has a love affair with notebooks, but do I ever love anything for writing down notes!

I've shared pictures of the junk journals I've setup to make notes for my stories, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. (This blog post shows the steno pads I used to use.)

In the past, I've also used legal pads, and if I need to mind map, I'll pull out an artist's sketchpad. I was supposed to use it for the intro art classes I signed up for online, but hey, whatever works for my writing!

I have bound notebooks in various sizes and colors, but those are so pretty that I hate to use them. I did write in this large pink one, so it's not that I never use them, but well, it's hard to write in them.

And now that I have an Apple Pencil for my iPad, I have an electronic notes program too. I love it so hard, but I'm also like, Yikes! What about all my other notebooks?

It's a pretty sure bet that there will be more notebooks in my future because I simply can't resist the allure.

Speaking of Escalations

I can't do anything part way. It's a very frustrating trait a lot of the time. Like when I learned how to crochet and bought a ton of hooks and patterns before falling into knitting. Not that I slowed down then either. I have needles and needle cases and project bags, and sadly, got hooked on expensive yarn, so yeah, I have lots of that too. This isn't as bad because I actually do still knit. I'm just really slow because there's too much other stuff going on.

Which leads me to Tuesday's blog post about having an idea for a second trilogy in the Paladin League World. It wasn't enough to do character names, I had to create the official Paladin League 2 notebook.

As an excuse, the notebook I'm using for Paladin League 1 is pretty full and I haven't even started to make notes for the final 2 books yet and I was going to need to transition into a new notebook eventually. I just didn't need to waste time doing it right away. So of course, I wasted time making the sticker right away. :-)

Now if I can come up with a sub-title for the second trilogy, I can make a label for that and add it below the series logo.

Review: Everlast Notebook

***I received no compensation of any kind and paid full price for this notebook and all other things mentioned.***

In one of the Facebook groups I belong to, someone shared that she had a notebook that was reusable from Rocketbook. I'd heard of them before, but their first notebook needed to be microwaved to erase the ink and reuse it and I totally didn't want to do that. (It's called the Rocketbook Wave.)

This notebook, though, that the woman was talking about didn't require microwaving. You wrote with a Frixion pen and then with a damp paper towel, could wipe the page clean. I use Frixion pens 90% of the time anyway--I love that the ink is erasable--and the idea of an erasable notebook? I mean how cool would that be?

After stalking online to buy this notebook, it finally became available. The Rocketbook Everlast Notebook.

I know I should have read the description, but I was surprised by how thin the notebook was. There weren't that many pages so if you were somewhere you needed to make a lot of notes and didn't have time to erase or upload, it might be an issue.

The paper itself has an interesting, slippery texture to it. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but it's the key to the reuse part. The pages are dot gridded and have a QR code at the bottom as well has a group of symbols. More about those in a minute. The cover is heavy duty plastic.

Thing number one is you must use a Frixion pen. Number two: It takes a little while for the ink to set. The back of the packaging the notebook came in suggested a few seconds, but that wasn't my experience. I ran my finger over the sentence I wrote probably ten to fifteen seconds later and you can see that it still smeared. I stopped as soon as I saw it.

Three: You need to setup the app on your phone or tablet to upload your pages. That was relatively painless except that I made a typo on my email address--the phone keyboard is small--and there is no way to correct a mistake. I had to uninstall the app, reinstall, and reregister.

I'm still not sure what the QR code is for, but the little icons are directional markers. For example, on the app, I setup the rocket to auto upload to Dropbox. I also updated my app settings to make the page a PDF rather than a JPG.  All I need to do is put an X through the rocket icon and the app sends it directly to my Dropbox. If I make the X through the diamond, it goes to email and I can setup the other icons for other cloud services as well as OneNote.

For the record, the auto upload to Dropbox as a PDF worked fabulously! So fabulously that I didn't think it had sent and so I manually sent it again. Oops! Trust the app, Luke. ;-)

So the big question: How well did it erase?

In my test, I found it wiped clean easily. The biggest issue I found was waiting for the page to dry. The paper towel is supposed to be soaked, wrung out, and then used to wipe. I guess how long you wait depends on how well you wring it out. I had to wait a while. But here's a shot of the page after I wiped off the writing.

The reason I was interested in this notebook to begin with is so that I could have my story notes electronically and not in notebooks all over the house. I think this will handle that well if I can remember to do the uploads regularly and if I can get used to the feel of the paper. I never thought I was real tactile when it came to how a paper feels beneath my fingers, but apparently I am.

Overall thoughts: The book does everything it promised and the app works well. The paper is slippery and doesn't feel very much like the paper I know and love, so I'm having an adjustment period. At least I hope I adjust. The notebook is expensive and the pages are few, but since it's reusable, it ultimately could be a money saver. There's a wait after writing and a wait after wiping, but that can be worked around.

Ultimately, I'm giving it a thumbs up, but I might revisit this topic later as I use it more.

***I received no compensation of any kind from anyone for anything I said in this post.*** 

Paper Snob

I love paper. And pens. And office supplies. A lot of writers do. I was never a paper snob, though, until I tried some really good paper. Believe it or not, it was in a spiral-bound notebook.

Let me backup a minute. I always carry a notebook with me to make writing notes. I started with a steno notebook--whatever quality paper--and made notes for any story in there. It didn't matter if it was just a stray idea or the Work In Progress (WIP). I did this for three notebooks and it was cumbersome. Do I have the note with me that I need? Maybe it's in notebook 1 which is at home. The only good thing was the pages were perforated so I could cleanly tear out finished projects and file the notes.

But I still had a ton of notes for projects/ideas that I might never work on. Seriously, any stray idea, no matter how unlikely it was something I'd ever actually ant to work on, is in one of these notebooks.

Then I hit on a new plan. One notebook for each project, maximum of two notebooks.

I started out with a bound notebook for the WIP. I had another idea that was tangentially related to it, so that went in the same notebook. The paper was okay, but it didn't make me a snob.

No, the notebook that made me a snob was spiral bound. It was something I'd picked up only because it was 25% off. I have notes for a trilogy-in-progress in there. The only problem? By the time I realized how much I love, love, love the quality of this paper and want like 60 million more of this exact same notebook, it was out of stock. ::sobs::

I went to the manufacturer's website and they don't have this particular notebook there either which has to mean they're not making it any longer.

The paper is nice, thick paper without any bleed through even when I use a fountain pen. It has perforation along the spiral side so that when I'm done, I'll be able to tear the notes out cleanly. This is a big deal for me. The size was perfect--a little larger than A5. But the best part? Thick plastic covers to protect the notebook and the paper. It's absolutely ruined me for any other notebook.

My only consolation is that maybe the company that made my notebook will come out with something similar in the near future. Please.

Writing Notebooks

I used to carry a stenographer notepad with me wherever I went and I'd make notes for any book or idea that came to mind there. I'd use Post-it flags to color code what story/world the notes belonged to. I'm pretty sure I have every color they make.

This was an okay system. It kept me from having to haul multiple notebooks with me to work, but it was more than a little annoying to try to find something in particular, especially once I reached my third notepad.

Then there was the extra fun of bent flags. I'm not quite OCD, but let's just say I lean that direction and the less-than-perfect flags bugged me. So did the fact that once they were bent, I might not see them too easily and it made it even easier to miss the notes I'd be looking for. The stenographer notepad also didn't protect the pages as well as I needed and after months of hauling it with me, the pages would be bent and banged up, too.

Recently, I tried a new system--one notebook per book or world. These notebooks are also not as easily worn by being carried. One of them is actually bound. I like this one because it's narrow enough to fit in the front pocket of the tote bag I take to work and it has room at the top of each page for me to write the date, the story it's about, and what the notes are about. Like I'd put heroine's GMC or something in that third spot, helping me to find what I was looking for.

I also had a spiral bound notebook that was far beyond the quality kids use in school. This one had nice, thick paper (thick enough that my fountain pen doesn't go through it) and a hard plastic cover that is doing an excellent job keeping my paper in good shape. It's also smaller than a school notebook, which I really like. The only downside is that it won't fit in a tote pocket. :-( Too wide.

I've only been doing this for about a month so far, but I like how it's working. If I have an idea or thought for another project, I just write that on whatever is handy and transfer it into another notebook that I leave at home. This one is also a bound book. I've decided it's worth the extra money to get a harder cover notebook, so I'll continue buying them.

I did try buying a bigger bound notebook, one that's bigger than 8.5x11 because I thought I'd like more room to sketch out character stuff, but as it turned out, it was too big. I couldn't take it with me, I couldn't use it easily while sitting on the couch or chair, and sitting at the table is too boring. (And my dining room chairs aren't that comfortable.) So I have all this cool stuff sketched into the book, just waiting to be filled in and I'm avoiding it. :-) Lesson learned.

I just wish I could come up with a really awesome way to organize my information. I tried listening to a workshop about it, but while they talked about what information would probably be handy to keep, they said nothing about how to organize that info. Seriously, I know what to keep, I just don't know how to organize it for easy access. I know it's personal preference, but give me a hint!

Until I stumble across some heavy-duty organizational details, I'm just going to stick with my notebook habit. It works the best for me right now and there's something about handwriting book details (with my new fountain pen) that gets my brain working in different ways.

Missing: Important Writing Notes

I make notes all the time because characters will share important information when they feel like it, not necessarily when I'm working on their story. This particular Work In Progress (WIP) has been in progress for a while now, but I've stopped it a few times for other stories and for house hunting and moving.

But I have notes. Lots and lots of notes to help me. Sort of. I have lots of notes and I've found most of them, but I can't find the ones I really need. The ones with the information about my hero's family.

Since his father plays a large role in the plot and possibly his older brother, too, I'd really like to refresh my memory. And I don't know where these particular sheets of paper are hiding.

I've checked the usual locations. I carry steno pads with me all the time and I went through those. Most of the notes for the story were there, but not the ones about the hero's family. I cleaned out my tote bag, the one I haul back and forth to work. I found many notes, including notes for Phoenix Burning, which came out this month and I even found notes for Demon Kissed, which released May 2010.

No notes about the WIP or the hero's family.

Now the notes could be anywhere. I moved in the middle of all this. They could be buried in a box somewhere. Gah! My office is in the worst shape (by far) of any of the rooms in my house. I wish I could recreate what I wrote down, but it's been too long.

The search continues. Whether I like it or not.