My Love Affair

Fact: I have an ongoing love affair.....with notebooks. (Also fact: this title is extremely misleading.)

I've always loved notebooks. I always secretly loved the beginning of a new school year, because it was an excuse to buy and use a variety of new, fresh notebooks. I've always loved writing longhand more than typing on a computer, because I love filling up dozens and hundreds of blank pages with my handwriting. I love making notes, crossing stuff out, circling things and pointing arrows to other things. I love buying day planners, and notepads for to-do lists, and writing letters as opposed to sending an e-mail. I love the more traditional side of writing because it just feels so much more personal. A blank sheet of paper feels like a fresh start.

As much as I love notebooks, though, they're just so....inconvenient. Painfully so, actually. For several reasons:

1. HAND CRAMPS

I don't know if it's because I'm rusty (not being in school means that I don't have to take notes and write things down every day), but I feel like almost every time I go to write something down, my hand cramps up. Granted, I do try to write inhumanly fast....but still.

Speaking of...

2. HOLY CRAP WRITE FASTER

I take 5ever to write things out by hand--if I have any hope of reading it later, actually. I have had more than enough experience with university lectures to know that writing quickly means one of two things: either my writing will be chicken scratch and near impossible to read, or it will be filled with abbreviations and shortcuts that I made up on the spot and will have no hope of understanding later.

Typing is just so much faster.

3. OKAY WHERE DID THAT ONE THING GO AGAIN?

I won't lie to you: I am extremely unorganized. If I write something down and have any hope of finding it (or even remembering that it exists) later, I have to stick a post-it and put a reminder on my phone.

Let me repeat that: I have to make sure that all of my notes are also on an electronic device if I have any hope at all of ever seeing it again. Kind of defeats the purpose of writing it down, doesn't it?


But none of these stop me, of course. I'm incredibly stubborn. When I stumble upon a brand new, colourful journal in Wal-Mart, with smooth pages and a pretty pink ribbon bookmark, I don't think about how my hand will cramp or the months that will pass before I fill the pages or whether I'll ever read the stuff I write on them again. I don't think about how I'll have to type 90% of my words on the computer, anyway, or how the vast majority of the To-Do lists I scrawl inside will go uncompleted.

I just buy the damn thing. I buy it and use it, as inconvenient as it may be, because the simplest act of moving my pen across a blank sheet of paper brings me an infinite amount of joy.

Until later,

- Justyne

Computer vs. Paper (WFMAD Day 5)

I love writing. You know this; I know this. But the problem with writing is that there are about a zillion different ways to do it; paper and pen, laptops, desktops, iPads, cellular phones, etc etc. Everyone has their preferences.

Except for me, that is.

I don't really have a preferred way to write, persay. I just write in whatever way I can. There's definitely nothing wrong with this, because it gives me the opportunity to write wherever I am (and makes it harder for me to come up with excuses to not). The problem with this, though, is that because I use so many different things to record my thoughts / writing--my phone, my journal, my computer--I tend to, uh....misplace some of my writing. So sometimes, I do wish I could stick to just one platform.

Despite my lack of loyalty to writing mediums, different tools definitely have different things going for them. I'll stick with the two basic ones for now: good, old-fashioned paper and pen, and my trust passion purple Dell laptop.

Paper:

• You can take it anywhere. No need for batteries or electrical outlets, and you don't have anything to turn off when you're sitting in an airplane about to depart! It's total freedom in the bottom of your bag!
• Fresh paper is pretty. Am I the only one who loves the sight / feeling of a fresh, unmarked piece of paper? No? Yes?
• No boot-up time.You don't have to wait five minutes for it to turn on, potentially losing track of the thought you wanted to write down. It also gives you more time to write!
• You can write during class and nobody notices. I mean, uh, you can write before and after class with ease! Yeah, that's what I meant...

Computer:

• Typing is faster than writing by hand. At least for me, it is. I type probably twice as fast than I write.
• You can create multiple copies. As long as you properly back up your files (I use Dropbox, myself), you don't have to worry about spilling coffee or juice or chocolate milk or anything on your WIP and losing everything. It's perfectly safe! (Your computer, however, probably is not. So please be careful.)
• No hand cramps. The unfortunate setback of writing cursively. Your hand starts to hurt like heck after a while.
• No misplaced projects. Face it. It's a lot harder to lose computer files than stray pieces of paper. (If you have them properly backed up, anyway.)

Maybe someday I'll actually make up my mind and pick one to stick with.

Probably not.

Until later,

- Justyne