Hi Dave. Thanks for the post. I find it so helpful to not only read about how other people write but to actually see it. The photos of the hand-written notes you added to the post are so much more concrete than reading a textual description. For most of my academic career I've been a 'digital only' writer but over the last few years I've found that taking notes by hand adds a different dimension to the process. The enforced 'slowness' of using pen and paper gives me room to breathe, and I feel less frenetic as a result.
Do you have a preference for a type of pen, paper and notebook, or does anything go?
Thanks Michael. Hand writing definitely works better for me if I'm trying to think creatively and organise my thoughts. But a I find using a computer better when I'm collating masses of stuff and moving things around ("this can move there, this comes before that...").
I've only ever written with black ink, usually roller ball pens. The finer the better. My personal favourite is a Parker Rollerball fine (0.5). I sometimes have an iron grip on the pen (bad habit), and this pen is made of steel so doesn't bend despite how much I grip it. But I have a massive collection of pens, and I also use colour to annotate and highlight stuff.
I also use a lot of pictograms, different sized fonts, and icons for things. That helps me locate stuff in the journals and anchor an idea to an image. I always associate biopower with a laundry soap box, for instance. Quick to draw and iconic for me.
I journal in unlined art pads. Thicker paper, so less bleed through. But my preference is a single sheet of paper on a good, clean, uncluttered desk. With a journal you're always having to deal with a spine and the slightly elevated book of pages, so sometimes a single sheet of paper is best. I'm an ideas person, so a blank sheet of plain white paper and a good pen is a precious thing to me. There's real joy in these things, I find, and that can make all the difference when you're facing a difficult book or a complicated idea.
Hi Dave. Thanks for the post. I find it so helpful to not only read about how other people write but to actually see it. The photos of the hand-written notes you added to the post are so much more concrete than reading a textual description. For most of my academic career I've been a 'digital only' writer but over the last few years I've found that taking notes by hand adds a different dimension to the process. The enforced 'slowness' of using pen and paper gives me room to breathe, and I feel less frenetic as a result.
Do you have a preference for a type of pen, paper and notebook, or does anything go?
Thanks Michael. Hand writing definitely works better for me if I'm trying to think creatively and organise my thoughts. But a I find using a computer better when I'm collating masses of stuff and moving things around ("this can move there, this comes before that...").
I've only ever written with black ink, usually roller ball pens. The finer the better. My personal favourite is a Parker Rollerball fine (0.5). I sometimes have an iron grip on the pen (bad habit), and this pen is made of steel so doesn't bend despite how much I grip it. But I have a massive collection of pens, and I also use colour to annotate and highlight stuff.
I also use a lot of pictograms, different sized fonts, and icons for things. That helps me locate stuff in the journals and anchor an idea to an image. I always associate biopower with a laundry soap box, for instance. Quick to draw and iconic for me.
I journal in unlined art pads. Thicker paper, so less bleed through. But my preference is a single sheet of paper on a good, clean, uncluttered desk. With a journal you're always having to deal with a spine and the slightly elevated book of pages, so sometimes a single sheet of paper is best. I'm an ideas person, so a blank sheet of plain white paper and a good pen is a precious thing to me. There's real joy in these things, I find, and that can make all the difference when you're facing a difficult book or a complicated idea.