So who writes in the oldfasioned way, with pen or pencil on ordinary paper? Do you use spiral bound notebooks or those hard covered ones? What's your favorite color? What do you do with these notebooks when they're full? what color do you write in? Do you ever write on loose leaf paper? How in the world do you keep track of that? Does it drive you crazy typing it all up? Do you ever type everything you write? Do you ever throw your notebooks away?

I have all of Lightning Ranger, part one, in a notebook by itself and I'm trying to type it. I'm tired of dealing with the whole notebook, so I started tearing out the pages, one at a time, to stick in the clothespin glued to my monitor. I'm feeling terrible, like I'm demolishing something that should survive. Even though there is nothing else in the notebook, and once it's all typed the words will be immortalized digitally, I feel like I'm loosing something, murdering something. Is there anyone who understands this feeling?
Dragon Egg

The only stories I've ever written in a notebook are two really lame fantasy stories. One that got to about chapter four was an 8 year old's attempt at a novel, and another 3 part short story. The first was a rip-off of Narnia, and I tore it up anyway. The second was for a school project that I had a week or so to write, so I tore it up as soon as the project was over (it was so awful). I can see how you would feel how you do, though. If it's an old notebook, and if it's a good quality one, you might want to consider saving it for future descendants you may have. Then again, as I said above, I've never been there, so I'm not the one to ask.

I type and use notebooks. Though I've never filled one up.

I know the feeling... I end up ripping things, and regretting it later... I am doing pretty much the same as Evening right now (at least for writing things). I am typing my story, but most of my names and character fractalls are in a binder... Otherwise I would lose everything!

So, you might want to keep all the pages together, but typing them sounds like a good plan to me. In my case, it enables others to read my writing in exciting places...

I generally only use notebooks for night-time writings. I'll write like three pages or a scene or two and then go to bed. Next day I'll type it up into the computer. So I do about 90% of my writing on the computer.

I know what you mean, though. Just the other day I had to rip my first book (Not even worth mentioning as far as quality) so I could scan it. Then I put all the pages into the binder but it didn't feel the same without that yellow cover and stitching.

Let's not even get started on what notebooks are best. We'll get a crowd of crazed fantasy writers in here talking about how they use acid free pages with mechanical pencils and a biodegradable hard back to the book with sheets made from calf's ear. I just use 69 cent notebooks I get at the market. But I'd really like to buy a hard-cover Moleskin to write in. Those are like the peak of my notebook-ary dreams.

I thought about writing NaNo in longhand this year but then I'd have to type it all up again. And I'm all about saving effort.


LOL!

eruheran

I started actually writing in about 2002, my first notebooks date from 2004. I filled six to eight 70 page, spiral bound 10-cent-back-to-school-sales notebooks a year. This has been going on for about six years, and I have close to twenty notebooks. It's a mess... I can't really write on the computer. When I'm staring at a computer screen ideas do not come. So I write by hand, type it up and do the first revision as I go along, so the typed version is different from the original...

Oooh, losing papers with ideas on them is sooo bad... I had written an epilogue to something, an epilogue that also defined the entire plot of an entire novel I was planning to write. I lost the paper, (it was in the pocket of my coat) and I never found it again, never was able to recapture the idea, and therefore, never wrote the novel. I have other pieces, but I lost the mainframe when I lost that epilogue. All I remember is that it involved a ghost...

<offtopic>Your lost story for some reason reminds me of the part in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Lucy is reading the 'best' story in the world and later she forgets it. Interestingly, the description C.S. Lewis gives of the story sounds suspiciously like a George MacDonald story. When I was little I always wanted to write 'the story that Lucy read' but was afraid that if people would read it they would think it wasn't the best story ever. So I never wrote it. </offtopic>

eruheran

I own tons of notebooks with only a few pages written in the front of them.

I used to use the 10 cent notebooks, but I ran into a really bad batch (I only wrote 5 pages and the papers started ripping out 'cause it was so thin!) and started to use higher quality journals. I asked for them for Christmas, and they're easy to come by so I usually get one or two every year. Dollar store notebooks (composition) and journals are good too. I filled a couple of those up.

I have filled up a couple others, but I have this thing about mixing stories within journals. So most of them have a few scenes from a story written in them, waiting for me to return. I probably should go back and find them again and put more in them... not start new stories... hehe... ;D The filled ones are the ones where I jumped around between stories.

I also have a couple empties waiting for the perfect story. One of those is my Narnia journal that I got for Christmas a couple years ago. Wouldn't do to put just any story in there!!

But I do prefer to have things typed, even though I see an improvement when I'm typing from a prewritten manuscript. ::shrug:: I'm still refining this writing thing.

That's why I don't use journals, the perfect story never comes along and I don't want to mess up a pretty journal with a scribbly mess.
I like journals though, I've considered actually starting journaling so that I can use them.

I use some of those composition books too, but they're all wide ruled. I hate writing on wide ruled paper. I haven't done it since my dad lent me one of his notebooks and I discovered that they come college ruled and you can fit so much more on a page!

College ruled notebooks rock. You can skip lines, and fit more on a page!

Oh, yeah, I rarely write in a non-college-rule notebook now. Can't stand the wide rule lines. (I'll do it for a pretty notebook, tho...)

You can get college ruled composition books but I don't know where. We used to have some; though mine are all wide-ruled now. I just use them for random scribblies or for scenes for films that need typed over and I can't get access to a computer, etc.

I also like to take notebooks on trips. It's a lot easier to replace an old notebook than to replace a computer if you lose it. Plus, the battery never runs out, and you're never wishing for a wireless hotspot.

I always write my stories on paper. I don't trust only writing on the computer in case it breaks down (or gets zapped by lightning as our computer is prone to), even with USB.disk drives. What if the power went out? How would I get to my writings?

I admit it's more fun to type it up and see it so cleanly on the white background, but I think it's safer to write it down first. Then you can edit and add things on the computer. If it does get fried then at least you have the basic idea on paper still.

Now that my tangent is over.... Sometimes I use spiral bound notebooks, but usually only for character profiles and random book scenes. I tend to use college ruled paper I can slip into a binder so I can keep adding pages. I'm really anal that way. I have to have the entire story in one notebook or binder or it drives me nuts!!! I <3 binders!

Right. When I was doing Nanowrimo I wrote a lot on the computer because I could type a lot faster. The whole fifty thousand word thing, you know? And then, when I was out and about waiting at the dentist or whatever, I couldn't write because all my previous work was on the computer instead of in my notebook!!!

I finally gave up trying to keep a story together. Whenever I want to write something different I just go to the next page and resume the story on the page after that, etc. This way I could stop in the middle of a story and write a list without worrying how many more pages I'd need to finish the story, or finding a different notebook to write it in or whatever. It does make life a mess though, when I write something really long. Legend of Darmoor, for instance has pieces in about five different places. But once it's all typed up I rarely go back to the notebooks unless there's some random notes or something I didn't use. Alternate endings and such.

That's why laptops are great!! They're like a really, really expensive notebooks, except because of that, I wouldn't want to take it with me wherever I go. So, I guess binders are still the best thing around.

I personally can't think properly if I don't write longhand. I don't know why, but I love shuffling around with papers and pens, and I love looking back and seeing my writing all messy and scribbly when I was in a dramatic part and all worked up. My computer is a place of honor, and few of my stories ever make it there. I can occasionally write a pretty decent short story straight onto the computer, but for the most part I have to write longhand. And for me it helps me see the writing process better, my first bits are completely prewriting stuff like timelines and names, and then I have possible first chapters, and then I can start writing. Something that works for me is that I only write on the right-hand paper, though it does waste quite a bit it helps to have that extra page to edit on or plot. Plus, my plotting tends to take the form of entire paragraphs rather than just ideas, instead of "Rohan's father is killed" I have to have a whole scene of his death, Rohan's reaction, etc.

I usually write things in a spiral-bound notebook, and then type them up later. And I keep all my fractalling and plotting in a binder... it just seems so much more organized that way! And you don't want to see me when my stuff is unorganized!
I did just buy my own laptop (after four long years of babysitting...) though! But I'm a little nervous about taking it places, so all my writing will probably stay on paper somewhere.
And I <3 college ruled paper! Wide ruled is so annoying. You can hardly fit anything on a page! The only time I ever use it if the notebook happens to be really pretty! Except that I tend to save those, because you can't put just any 'ole story in them!
So.... yeah. I basically just agreed with what everyone else already said.

Random notebook statistics: Calenmiriel asked me how many notebooks I had. I wanted to answer her so I took a minute and counted. I have 28 spiral bound notebooks from 2007 to the present. I have roughly ten hardcover composition books for special things: Lightning Ranger, Prince of Yen, Heroes of Ynoureth, Tia's World, and City of Light. There are at least six other notebooks from before I started writing seriously, about 2002 through 2006.

I guess I should be impressed with how much I write. I didn't' realize I had quite that many.

I use notebooks for school, and accidentally picked up a wide ruled one out of the stack of empty ones under my desk... goodness. I was reminded how much I hate them xD

I prefer writing on the computer because it prevents the urge to burn the notebook when I write something especially horrid and immature. Same reason I don't keep a journal :P

And as for taking a laptop everywhere... it's not really a problem, you just have to have some sort of case for it. You aren't really going to lose something that expensive. Just don't do like me and forget to bring the laptop with you on the days you actually wish you had it =P

Oh, my, I love/hate this topic. I'm one of those people that buys all kinds of cute little journal type memory notebooks and actually uses them up.

I have so many cheesy stories in them from when I was seven up to now. And They're so humiliating, but I don't have the heart to rip them or burn them because they're part of me.

Plus, every once in a while, If I'm reading one, I'll go, "HEY! That was ACTUALLY A GOOD IDEA! And i'll use it in a separate story.

I know how that is. I'll rip something up in humiliation, and regret it later. Or save it until it is used (or not! )

This is a delightful topic!

When I first started writing, I did a mixture of computer and longhand, but I gradually shifted over to computer for practicality purposes. In the same time frame, I have also shifted from snail mail to email... and for largely the same reasons. The computer packs convenience for me, but there's still something special to handwritten! So, at present, I am a computer writer, but I want to try writing a book in longhand sometime. It is probably a good exercise, even if it's not my style in the long run.

Once, a friend and I were trading chapters of a story back-and-forth in the mail... and someone's letter exploded in transit, and the handwritten chapter was lost forever. After that, we typed our chapters and printed out a copy, so we sure sure to have a back-up. For a long time, Mel & I traded tons of handwritten/photocopied notes. I still have most of those!

I used to write most of my notes in longhand as well. I had notebooks full of bits and pieces. Then came the day where I (purposefully) tore out all the pages and threw them away. At that point God was redefining what He wanted me to write, so it felt good - in a difficult sort of way - to destroy everything.

I still write some notes in longhand, however, especially those I generate while doing Bible study. (I don't want to be distracted by the computer while studying.) These notes end up in assorted little journals that somehow come into my possession, as well as loose sheets of paper. It can be very hard to keep track of where these notes are, especially if a notebook houses notes for more than one story! Some of the notes I will probably never reference, simply because they're lost in the shuffle. But perhaps I'll rediscover them later, for use in another work.

For notes on loose sheets of paper, I am using folders, designated to a specific story, to keep track of those. That works nicely, and it's fun to have a notebook decorated in a theme that matches the story.

Katie, that is a lot of writing... I am in awe! Those notebooks are a precious store. Even if the stories are junk, they're still a mark of endurance and prolific achievement.

I use my computer for all of my writing, with one exception. My Memoirs of an Author is written in a notebook.

Ah, yes! I prefer no other way of writing than the "old fashioned" way: a simple pen/pencil and a spiral-bound notebook. While I myself haven't been much of a writer for very long (and what I do write is generally non-fictional), I cannot ever write unless with a pen and paper. Whether that paper be a spiral-bound notebook, or a random, loose piece of paper just lying close at hand. I am one that could never actually write something at the computer. I needed to be away from everything; from media, noise, and all such distractions. When I write, I am often times found sitting outside on my front porch steps. That is where my writing is best.

I do always resort to typing out my writings, once completely written (along with the scribbles and crossing out of words ), on to my computer. As previously stated, I do generally write non-fiction, but I am also planning on writing more fictional works. In all honesty, when I think about how hard it already is for me to sit down at the computer to write something non-fictional, and how I really do need that pen and paper to write anything worthwhile; I can only imagine how much needed that pen and paper will be when I am embark on writing something fictional! The need for that imagination and less distraction will be ever so needed. More so than what is needed for writing non-fiction (in my own, personal opinion). When I start writing fiction, I am sure that I will have to resort to even greater measures when it comes to getting away from distraction (it is very hard to do at times, as I am the oldest of seven children)! I might have to grab that pen and paper and walk a nice, long ways from all distraction, and then sit down and write! (The pleasures of having a computer out in the middle of no where, I am afraid, is not possible. Hence the reason why I love and cherish my pen and paper! )

Once done typing out on my computer what I wrote down on paper, I usually put those papers of mine on a bookshelf, or tuck them away in a box for safe keeping. Those pages with my written work on it will forever hold something that the printed pages of computers cannot.

I just got a spiral-bound no boundaries notebook with those section dividers and real college-ruled paper! That's gold!

eruheran

Hey, I thought we were going to share that notebook! I get 2 sections and you get 2!! (JK) This shows how rare college ruled paper is here. I'm stuck with wide-ruled.

I have tried with several attempts to use notebooks only. However, I tend to be a fast writer, and my writing always looks messy. So I've basically switched to the computer, using a word processing program that I love. Still, during Nano, I use a notebook or a memo pad for notes, random chapters, and scribbles, as well as doodles. Then I type it up at the end of the day. Elly

I might bring a notebook with me to the retreat I'm going to next week so I can write for NaNo if I have time.

I had mentioned on the first page that I was anal about having one story held in one notebook or preferably a binder.

I'll probably come off as a writing snob, but I can only write on college ruled paper! Wide ruled reminds me of my English lessons and spelling words back in elementary school. Another really anal thing is I like all my paper to be the same size and color. Have you ever bought a package of paper of one brand and then another package from another brand then to find out one is pure white and the other is off white? Or one is wider and taller than the other? It drives me bonkers!!! Especially when I'm using them for the same story binder!

Anyone else this anal???

*hugs* I wish you did too. It's amazing. :3

You know, you can buy packages of college ruled paper at Goodwill for $0.49. It's terrific! I pretty much collect college ruled paper. It's scary.

There are no Goodwills where Elanhil lives. Sad, but true.

Sometimes it seems there isn't anything at all. For our science lab kit there are things that it says you should be able to find around the house that we had to have someone bring in for us.

But not to derail the topic...Um...I'll be quiet.

I LOVE notebooks! (Very oldfashioned, I know, but I delight in being oldfashioned... )

I don't really like spiral bound, because the temptation's too great to rip pages out and the spiral gets in the way. I use two kinds of notebooks, small ones for everyday observations, and A5 exercise books for working on first drafts, plotting, character profiles, writing exercises, and all that kind of stuff. I write in pen because pencil rubs off the page.

I never end up typing up all I write. Lots is just stuff that never got very far. Some is research. And occasionally there are pages I can't read because of the scribble.

I don't mind too much typing up what I write in these notebooks. Reasons... I find with my writing that the more rewrites I write, the better the story, because writing things out again and again and again and again and again and again gives me LOTS of time to think over the story and characters etc. while I write.

Gasp! NEVER thrown your notebooks away... even if they're total rubbish and you hate them with an acute sense of humiliation. (I've got a few of those). Reason one: the humiliation lessens and the hate mellows as you grow older and wiser and can distance yourself more. Reason two: As you grow up, 'crossing the bridge from childhood to adulthood' , the bridge burns. And you can never truly return or recall those feelings and aspirations you had as a kid. Notebooks are like a history book of your personal development. They provide the key to reliving your past. They help you remember what it was like when you were younger.

I know what you mean. I hate ripping up notebooks. I love to look back on them and toss them over. There’s something personal about a notebook that cannot be translated onto a laptop. I suppose part of this is the fact that you’ve written it by hand.

Besides, when you’re dead and famous your posterity will be able to sell your notebooks for millions... you wouldn't begrudge them that, would you???

I too love notebooks. I have two hard cover spiral bound notebooks, one black and one green (the green one has ink stamp marks all over it ) I take them when I go on holidays to write in. I write everything from random novel ideas, blog ideas, thought-provoking scriptures, poetry, you name it! When I'm bored at nighttime I usually pull one out and write poetry. They are very handy. We just got a Koorong catalog the other day and it has the most beautiful hard cover journals with scripture verses on the front cover. *refrains from buying a dozen*

Evening: I have the same trouble with typing first drafts. Isn't it so annoying!

I write on anything I can get my hands on. Which is scrap paper most of the time, though I do use note books frequently. I try to use the computer since I can organize it better and I have terrible hand writing and sometimes can't read what I wrote (especially when I've been writing in the dark, in bed, at two in the morning. ).