Why is it so hard to finish a notebook? https://getpocket.com/explore/item/w...ish-a-notebook Does anyone else have this issue?
Why is it so hard to finish a notebook? https://getpocket.com/explore/item/w...ish-a-notebook Does anyone else have this issue?
Last edited by vdiantonio; October 26th, 2023 at 02:26 PM.
I have more notebooks than I have bottle of inks. I need another notebook like I need a whole in the head, but does that stop me?
Bisquitlips (October 30th, 2023), dneal (October 26th, 2023)
I use Stalogy 365 (A6) for daily journaling, and I do finish those. I can revisit any day past.
Anything else is a crapshoot.
"A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."
If I like a notebook, I do finish it. My main trouble is when the paper isn't what I like. But I am reluctant to throw things out, so I keep plugging away at them, but put them more to one side and only used them occasionally. It helps that I do a lot of drawing and thinking, so I can go through a notebook in 6mo to a year.
I think my bottles of ink still outnumber my notebooks but I have far too many of both and can relate to this.
I tend to start new notebooks before I finish old ones especially when I'm trying to use different paper. This means I rarely ever finish a notebook.
As far as I'm concerned I agree it's difficult to finish one.
Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens
Bisquitlips (October 30th, 2023), Deb (October 28th, 2023)
I get through a lot of notebooks, drafting correspondence and blog articles. I use them up.
IMG_7493.jpg
Every page back and front , one notebook about every month …writing practice 😎….not sure if this is OCD ??
One notebook can be filled or not depending on whether the main subject has enough information published. Some of them can be on the bookshelf for months or years until new information is available,some of them have two volumes. Eventually, all of them will finish in that trash when I will not be around any more.
There are notebooks, journals, and sketchbooks that I have not yet finished, and it may take a while. I have ones that I use for different purposes, and some get used more than others. No doubt when I pass on, I will leave unfinished ones behind me. I'll probably leave many un-started ones behind, for that matter.
But yes, once I've started on one I do keep on using it at intervals, and given enough time will probably get all the way to the end. Like Robalone, I have a shelf full of filled out journals and notebooks. I also have a big stack of used up sketchbooks.
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
G.K. Chesterton
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Good topic.
Since I mainly sketch and gravitating towards good watercolor papers cut into postcard-size, I don't have a ton of need for notebooks and journals.
However, I do use those to test nibs, sketching ideas, etc.
Among others are Stalogy and Exceed.
Having said all that, I'm currently very tempted to get the Etchr sketchbook, the Llama logo just got me.
I try to use up all of every notebook, and occasionally succeed, but most of the time I don't. I have two types of notebooks that I tend to use. There are small notebooks that will fit in my hip pocket, which get used for everything from shopping lists and notes to myself to games of hangman and measurements of DIY projects and other miscellaneous scribblings (these tend to get filled up), and there are larger ones, A4 or A5-ish sized, that I use mostly for rough drafts of fiction. (I've had a few things published, but not much fiction so far.) Anyway, I write my rough drafts in fountain pen, and then edit them a little as I type them up, and then use the keyboard for a <∞ number of rewrites... unless I have to write a new scene, in which case its first draft is almost always done by fountain pen again. I can go through close to a dozen notebooks writing a novel, in part because the rough drafts include a lot of scenes that get crossed out or rewritten from a different angle, but also because my most recent novel ran to over 100,000 words. Sometimes the notebooks get a bit chaotic, but that's a whole other can of worms. Anyway, sometimes I get stuck for a while. I generally work from a loose and somewhat flexible outline, and sometimes I'll run into a roadblock while trying to figure out how to get to where I want to go from where I'm stuck, and I might have to put away the notebook for a few days or even weeks. Then a solution will suddenly occur to me, and I will grab the nearest notebook and write it down before I forget what it was that I finally figured out. Sometimes a load of stuff will just come pouring out and I'll fill a fair number of pages in one go. At that point, the easiest thing is to just keep using that notebook moving forward, and the previous one will not have been filled up, UNLESS the same thing happens again and when I grab the nearest notebook it's the one that I didn't fill up earlier. This is where the above-mentioned chaos gets multiplied to a whole new level of absurdity. I've had to dig through notebook after notebook to find where I left off and picked up various threads. I'll write notes (occasionally cryptic) to myself to try to guide my attempts at uncovering the continuity, but not infrequently they only add to the chaos. I'll also write paragraphs or even multiple pages that need to be inserted into the middle of something else that I've written, and there will be arrows and asterisks and marginal notes all over the place... It's really a wonder that I ever manage to turn messes like that into something coherent.
Last edited by calamus; October 31st, 2023 at 11:57 PM.
Hmmm. I wonder what this button does...
Robalone (November 2nd, 2023)
Some notebooks I have finished, especially the kind where I test ink. Plus often I say what I think about the ink. But some of my notebooks are on a specific topic, and have not been completed. I am not far away from completing a Seven Seas notebook, that has been a work in progress. It also depends on how wide the lines are. I never use blank pages for a notebook. As far as the little Field Notes type notebooks, I have completed several of those. I save all my notebooks once completed.
I always finish my notebooks and journals. I come to that last page and close the book feeling a great sense of satisfaction. Sometimes it may take years, though. I’ve gone through three journals this summer, but before that I went years between entries in that one particular journal. It had more to do with life and a lack of interest for some reason in writing. Now I’m back to writing like a fiend.
Lloyd (November 4th, 2023)
M: I came here for a good argument.
A: No you didn't; no, you came here for an argument.
M: An argument isn't just contradiction.
A: It can be.
M: No it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
A: No it isn't.
M: Yes it is! It's not just contradiction.
A: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
M: Yes, but that's not just saying 'No it isn't.'
A: Yes it is!
M: No it isn't!
Deb (November 5th, 2023)
Lloyd (November 5th, 2023)
"Why is it so hard to finish a notebook?"
Is it?
I have other challenges, but this is not one of them....although....come to think of it, there is always one notebook that remains unfinished....
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