Today I pay homage to the humble notebook. We spent some time camping a few weeks ago, and it felt so nice to be able to handwrite as I sat near the lake. No worries about charging, no internet distractions, and no blue light to keep me up too late. Just writing.

I have several kinds of notebooks that I use. I have big Cambridge “professional” notebooks that I use for morning pages a la Julia Cameron.

I have both lined Leuchtturm 1917s for writing and dotted for bullet journals.

I have the cheap 70-page spirals that I buy by the dozen during the back-to-school sales.

And this new, Landscaped notebook for taking notes at work.

I like to use the cheap notebooks for writing fiction. For some reason, by using a cheap notebook, I don’t feel the pressure of writing Pulitzer-worthy prose, as I do when using the more expensive ones. Those 1917’s come with so much pressure!

I also have one of these Rocket notebooks, where if you writing with the Frixon erasable pens, you can put the book in the microwave and totally erase and reuse. Also you can use QR codes to upload your pages to Google Drives, Dropbox, etc. I just can’t write with the Frixons. They don’t have a good flow to them.

A game-changing notebook hack I just learned from Mary Adkins – just write on the right-hand side of the notebook. Then the left-hand side is there for notes, ideas, etc., that pop up while writing or editing. I am trying this with a current work in progress, and it really does help!