Notebook Geekery — the Special Editions

My notebook preferences are deeply entrenched and codified. For example, I use a Leuchtturm1917 (preferably pink and unlined) for drafting and a Leuchtturm1917 Grid Ruled (of alternating colours) as a bullet journal. The colour switch on the journals lets me remember bullet journal “eras” when I’m looking back, while the pink drafting notebook frequently amuses me because I’m generally writing something horror related.

Brainstorming typically happens in project-specific notebooks, usually soft-cover Cahier Moleskins that can be colour-coded to different projects. Pocket notebooks will typically be Field Notes (I’m obsessed) or a Moleskine softcover.

I’m slowly experimenting with larger hardcover moleskins as project-specific brainstorming, especially for series works, as I’m rapidly discovering that certain projects are filling notebooks at a rate of knots. I’ve got three for my PhD novellas, and could well fill another three before I’m done.

All these decisions are largely made so I can quickly scan a row of notebooks on the desk and grab the one I need right now. Rather than looking for notes, I can search for a specific colour and size. It speeds things up.

Recently, I’ve broken ranks with this and started using fancier notebooks for very specific projects that I know will run long-term.

The smaller notebook in the image above, featuring art by Kathleen Jennings and produced for the Brisbane Writers Festival a few years back, is now the repository of frequently-checked-publishing details.

For instance, there’s page devoted to the standard price-points I use for Brain Jar Press so I don’t have to prevaricate about “How much can I charge for this project?” Instead, I just check the length and genre against the grid, and list the price.

There’s another page that breaks down certain price-points based on country. And another where I’m breaking down my editorial workflow, so I can quickly construct a checklist for each project and make sure I’m not skipping a step. The mostrecently filled in pages list the things I need to remember when setting up a cover, and Photoshop tools I’m not yet used to reaching for instinctively.

To put it in blogging terms, it’s evergreen content that I’m going to refer back to for years to come. Ergo, a notebook with cover art and some really nice paper quality, easily distinct from all the others.

The other notebook—picked up cheap a few years back, because JRR Tolkien-style art applied to Game of Thrones amused me—features a similar archive of research notes and key take-aways from my more in-depth research journals. Space where I can do quick reviews of core principles while simultaneously serving as an index if I need to get more in depth with what I learned.

These are the shorts of notes I keep meaning to transfer into digital storage, but there’s never enough time to do that in the day.