I nearly got clever and counted these. "That'd make a cool caption!" I thought. Then I realized it'd just make me cry. Not really cry. But you get my drift. That's a lot of typing, packed on one shelf.
A notebook first found its way into my pocket in 1995. I was a college freshman, a gumshoe at the college newspaper. One night at an editorial meeting, our editor-in-chief gave us little pocket notebooks to help with our reporting.
Ever since, I've carried a pen and a notebook.
And, ever since, a steadily growing stack of notebooks has tried to guilt me for not typing them all up.
This plagued me terribly until a few months ago. With both a Moleskine and a legal pad always in tow, that's a fair bit of scribbling to digitize. I wanted to type my notebooks, but never did. My plan was always to finish a notebook, then type it, end to end.
Boy, did that so not ever work. I was trying to eat an elephant all in one go, instead of carving off a meal at a time. Now I approach things very differently.
Each Friday, I type up all un-typed content in my Moleskine and legal pad. Every bit.
A red checkmark tells me what's typed.
A dog-eared corner tells me where to pick up, come the next Friday.
At some point I may begin to feel ambitious, and actually try to type the 15 years of scrawl currently whispering guilt-trippily from the bookshelves across the room.
If I do, it'll be under the same system.
Once a week, or whatever goal I set, period — until the task is done.
I used to not dread not typing my notebooks. Now I look forward to looking back on the week's scribbling.
Typing my notebooks has become fun. It's both a chance to reflect on my current work and ideas, and it is a task that's getting done.
At the least the next 15 years worth of notebooks will all be typed.
Like your blog: but just as a matter of interest why do you feel the need to digitise everything?
What I mean is…. are you not happy with re-reading the ‘written word’? I love the fact that my journals all look different, in the sense that sometimes the handwriting is tiny, neat and legible, and at other times is a happy drunken scrawl!! Put it all in Times New Roman 12 pt…. and you’ve already lost something….
Rowland
Rowland, I have written an entire article on this very thing! I am glad to see that I am not alone in the world as someone that welcomes the more “organic/human” look and feel of a well-worn, asymmetrical, warty notebook full of scribbled-out mistakes and – as you said – various handwriting ‘moods’.
And Anthony… great blog! I will be checking it out in full just as soon as I can. I am a fledgling hobbyist when it comes to writing, and O see a lot of myself when I read your posts. Looking forward to seeing what your experiences are.
Twitter: antsaint
| May 4, 2011 at 6:13 pm |
Greg, thanks so much! Please pass along a link to your article, I’d love to check out your perspective.
It’s funny the way different writing mediums work. Often I do find drafting easiest when writing longhand, either with my Moleskine or a legal pad. On the flip side, today I drafted a book review on the computer, and it felt as natural as cranking out the copy by hand. Go figure…
Anthony as embarrassed as I am to say it, I CAN’T link you to my article because…well… I haven’t typed up the first damn notebook! Ok, so that’s not ENTIRELY true. I have typed some articles up, but have never put them online for public scrutiny. I have no excuse other than the old, lame ‘lack of time’ excuse. But since you have expressed an interest I promise you this: I WILL in the next little while find a blog spot, start posting, and then link you to the relevant post! Thanks for being a motivator!
Well, sir, here is the promised link. Hope it gives you a little insight into how I must write. Strange as it may be. And NOW, well… all I have to do is type out the damn notebooks!
Oh yes, and I forgot to add that I am always open to constructive criticism. Please feel free to critique as you see fit!
Rowland – great question. I do enjoy flipping through the notebooks themselves. There are a few reasons why I like typing them up. For starters, it puts everything in a searchable format — if I need to find a particular note or some fragment, I can just fire up Spotlight on my Mac, and boom, there it is. A lot of things would be getting typed anyway (titles, ideas, drafts, etc.), so it’s not a stretch to just do up the entire notebook.