Posts filed under Writing

Stationery Travel Diary, Librarian Edition

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

The Public Library Association's conference was held in Columbus, Ohio last week and it was immediately followed, for me, by a Horror Writers Association Wisconsin Chapter writing retreat near Milwaukee. That meant packing stationery for educational, professional, and recreational purposes! It also meant stopping in to a Columbus stationery store, On Paper, which was conveniently/dangerously close to my hotel.

For the conference:

My main stationery for notetaking at the conference was my Plotter Bible size with a CW&T Pen Type B in Brass. These weren't tools specifically chosen for the conference; they're my everyday carry writing tools that are never out of reach. They weren't perfect for the job. I could have used a gel pen to write more quickly and a larger page to expand my notes, but these were handy and portable--which were essential features for running around a massive conference.

Columbus was awesome. I got to explore a new city, reconnect with some local friends, and hang out with roughly 7,000 colleagues who were doing brilliant and amazing things. I visited two bookstores, Prologue Books and The Book Loft. Both were lovely, but I think I could live at the Book Loft. You know a bookstore is good when you're at a conference where publishers are literally throwing free books at you, but you still end up buying two books. Oops? No regrets. Okay, one regret. I regret not buying some of the cool t-shirts, too.

One highlight of Columbus is, of course, the stationery shop. On Paper is located right on the High Street, with lots of fun boutiques and coffee shops and restaurants nearby. The shop's interior is quaint and tidy, with antique furniture for displays and a fun assortment of cards, papers, notebooks, wax seals, bottled inks, and desk accessories. They had some lovely Retro 51 pens and some Kaweco fountain pens, but the majority of the focus was paper. They are my people. The vibe reminded me a lot of Papier Plume in New Orleans, minus the gothic flair of its distant cousin.

While I exercised an immense amount of self-control, I could not resist the "Hexes and Vexes" list pad from Open Sea Design Co. I mean. Who could? It was also the perfect opportunity to pick myself up a postcard souvenir. And I would like praise for resisting the recycled book cover journals, please and thank you.

If you're a PenAddict and find yourself in Columbus, I definitely recommend visiting On Paper for your stationery souvenir fix.

For the writing retreat:

I used my current story draft notebook, the Pebble Stationery Liberty Fabric notebook with Cosmo Air Light paper. For the pen, I used the Visconti Mirage Mythos, which I'm reviewing for next week's post. They were a great team, and between the lovely tools, the restful setting, and the quiet of the retreat center (and probably also the unlimited coffee and muffins of the retreat center), I knocked out about six thousand words of the best stuff I've written this year so far. Magic. The llamas also helped.

The two settings could not have been more different. A bustling city with far too much to do, oceans of people, and countless distractions--to a remote farm with a monastic room, an abundance of silence, and only a few other quiet writers. Okay, there was also a quilting retreat happening there, and they were... boisterous. But there were plenty of quiet corners to hide in, away from all humans. Which was exactly what I needed between a week of work travel and a week of solo parenting while my spouse travels.

April has been wild so far. Thank goodness for the writing tools that keep it all on track. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off just to write. Well, and taxi the kids around and pick my spouse up from the airport, but between those things...WRITING. I have goals, lists, deadlines, and empty pages to fill.

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Posted on April 11, 2024 by Sarah Read and filed under Writing, Travel.

2024 Notebook Maximalism

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

Last year, overwhelmed with work, school, travel, and writing, I aimed to simplify my life by trying to use stationery with multiple uses. Less to carry, more versatility, everything I needed at hand. It got me through a tough year. But I missed using some of the things I love. Did the purely utilitarian approach work? Yes. Is it for me? No. I want to indulge in the endless variety of stationery glee.

This year, overwhelmed with work and more work, and writing and more writing (but no school and much less travel), I'm reverting to the more playful approach to my notebooks. Which means lots and lots of notebooks.

In this post, I'll focus on my daily carry notebooks. Because if we talk about all of them, we'll be here all day.

First up, the planner. The nerve center. The external hard drive of my brain. I'm using a Hobonichi Techo Weeks this year, which I know from extensive field testing, is the best layout for me. Seeing a month at a glance is essential, as is the week-at-a-glance page, and room on the right page to make my to-do list is the perfect time management setup for me. One adaptation I make is that I add the Weeks Memo Book tucked inside the cover for some extra blank note taking pages. In that, I do time-blocking for busier weeks and make important long-term notes that I don't need in the back of the book itself. A Weeks Mega would eliminate the need for the extra memo book, but the Mega only comes in plain, boring covers and I need the fun, pretty covers. Notably (for me), I'm not using the zippered cover for my weeks this year. I always have in the past, but I've found I'm much more likely to use my planner if it's not in a case. I've also come to realize that having my planner and wallet in one system doesn't work for me, as I need to take my planner a lot of places where I do not want to bring my wallet. I also hate how the ribbon bookmark gets shredded by the zipper. And why would I want to cover up the pretty design on this one? So far, after December and January use, it's working great.

My writing notebook right now is the Pebble Stationery Cosmo Air Light A5 notebook with a fresh sheet of blotting paper. That's where new drafts are written after they're planned. I reviewed this in the past, and I love it, but it's filling up fast, so it will be switched out in the next few weeks. The planning for these stories happens in my commonplace book.

My commonplace book for this year (and a good part of last year) is my Plotter Bible Size. I got the Plotter Mini 5 at the Chicago Pen Show last May to try them out and see if I liked the setup. I did, alas. So I went all-in on the black leather Bible Size version, and I have no regrets. I have different sections separated out with their project manager inserts, so I can keep adulting stuff apart from writing stuff apart from hobby stuff. No work things go in this notebook--I have a separate notebook just for work, currently a Leuchtturm 1917 softcover (not shown, because work stays at work!). When I do travel this year, this will be the only notebook I bring.

Lastly, and a recent addition to my lineup, is a separate reading journal. Normally, reading journaling goes in my commonplace book, but this year I wanted to give it more space, and its own space. I also found myself missing my Traveler's Notebook that was my steadfast companion last year. Last year's was the passport size, but I still have my treasured early edition regular size, from back when Traveler's Company was still Midori. I got some fresh inserts and bands from Etsy and JetPens (indulging in a few older book-related ephemera), and that's where I'll track my reading and book reviews for this year. There's a blank insert; a monthly planner page where I can track start and end dates, book club meetings, literary award jury deadlines, etc.; and a grid insert for making lists. I also picked up the zipper and pocket cloth insert for holding stickers, bookmarks, a pencil, and page flags. So far, I love the setup, but only time will tell if I'll actually reach for it. I hope I do.

Other things not shown, notebook-wise, are the three notebooks in which four different books are being written. No, that is not logical or efficient, but that's how deadlines work, sometimes. I don't carry those every day--just when I'm working on that particular project. If I have inspiration related to one of them while I'm away from my home desk, it goes in the commonplace book. The Plotter works perfectly for that, because I can remove the Plotter page with those notes and tuck it into its relevant book. I also still have my old short story notebook, because I'm still working on edits to drafts that are in that book. And then there's a notebook on my nightstand where sleepy Sarah writes things down for future Sarah (often nonsense).

I like this, enjoying a variety of tools and letting each one do just the one thing it's best suited for, rather than picking one thing that does a bit of everything but none of it perfectly. The simplicity of one tool is still appealing, but I also like that I can take just my reading journal with me somewhere, and leave the rest of the world behind. There's a simplicity in compartmentalizing, too. Even if it looks like I'm living in a fort made out of notebooks. I'm happy in my fort.

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Posted on January 11, 2024 by Sarah Read and filed under Notebooks, Writing.

The Digital-Analog Carousel of Writing

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

As much as I would love to, I can't turn a handwritten manuscript in to my publishers. Maybe I could if I were super famous, but alas, I am not. When I worked in publishing, we had one author who could get away with that. She didn't own a computer, so all correspondence happened through snail mail, and her pencil-on-notebook-paper work would arrive on my desk for me, of all people, to type up and edit. I was deeply annoyed, but mostly I was jealous. And I was glad to do it. It was more work, yes, and not my favorite sort of work, but her voice and perspective were valuable. I didn't want her left behind just because she'd hopped off the technology train. Heck, I'd probably follow her, if I could.

Even though I know I'm going to have to type all my writing in order to turn it in, I still love to hand-write all of my first drafts. I think better on paper, the project is fully portable, and it creates an instant physical media backup copy.

I make edit notes in a contrast color as I write, then do more edits as I type up the draft. After two rounds of digital edits, I print a paper copy and edit again in ink on the page. I input those changes in the computer, do one more digital pass, and then the manuscript goes off to the editor/publisher/agent.

The first round or two of editor edits are usually also digital, more because of time constraints and deadlines than any other reason. Then, when all the edits are done and the layout is complete, the proof is sent, and that one I prefer to print out and edit on paper, if I have time. The change in perspective helps the eye, and seeing the book as it will appear in print, where it looks like a real book more than a document, tricks the brain into the "last chance" panic mode.

We are just wrapping up Last Chance Panic Mode for my new book, Root Rot & Other Grim Tales, which releases in three weeks. Everything is done. Donsies. Finished. Finito. And can I say there is no part of this process in which I want to edit more than I do right now? If the first phase, the handwriting, is my favorite part of the process, the stopping is the hardest part.

Every story in this book started as ink on paper. Almost all of them were written in hotel rooms or on park benches, in coffee shops, or on beaches. Most of their earliest iterations live in the Seven Seas Writer notebook that was my story draft book for years, but some predate that notebook. One, Pelts, was written entirely with a dip nib and an inkwell on the back of my college homework almost twenty years ago, in the basement classroom where I taught a section of an APA paper writing course. I had an hour between my own class and the class I taught, and I used the quiet time to write.

One of my favorite things about short story collections is that I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing for each piece in the book. I don't think I'd have that same connection to the work if I was always sitting at a computer. And someday, when I'm old and famous, I can put my hand drafts in an archive. And get away with being quirky enough to turn them in to publishers, with a bottle of wine for the afflicted editor.

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Posted on September 21, 2023 by Sarah Read and filed under Writing.