It all began when I was seven years old. I wrote a 20-page “novel,” front and back on loose-leaf wide-ruled notebook paper and decided it was too much to simply paper clip them all together and carry around on a clipboard. SO. I became obsessed with binders. They were, to put it simply, the love of my life.
Then my binders failed me. They broke! They wouldn’t bind everything together right! What’s the point of a binder that doesn’t bind things?! You tell me. I began using notebooks at the mere age of… oh, me, it was so long ago… ah, probably eight or nine. I’d ask my mom or dad if they had any empty notebooks (spiral or composition, wide-ruled or college-ruled. Pffft. I didn’t care back then. And by the way, I really prefer paper composition college-ruled notebooks. Just for reference.)
Then I’d fill it with all sorts of stories and such! (Come on, now. What else is a notebook for?! If you say ‘school,’ I’m going to throw one of my notebooks at you. I hate wasting notebooks on all that school hullabaloo.
Left: In case you can’t read that, it’s entitled “The Life of a 10-year-old Spy.” Written and completed in 2012 by 10-years-and-ten-months-old me.
Right: “Sat, May 15th, 2010
One more week of school! Hal-a-loo-ya! Jackson and Aiden [cousins] left. Anna [sister] is taking a nap. Me and mommy are about to go to the mall. Yay! Well, that’s pretty much it! Catch’a later, journal!”
I even filled my notebooks with Swiftie (capital S, thank you) propaganda, back in the fifth grade when I had a *slight* obsession with Taylor Swift. I blush looking at this now… “Yes, I am a Swiftie,” the picture says. “Are you?”
Even now I fill my notebooks with stories and such… here’s a story I wrote when I was bored last week:
I also have a writer’s notebook where I jot down things that inspire me… I keep it handy at all times. The one I’m using now was given to me from my dad a month ago, and it’s got a Jane Austen quote on the front! My kinda notebook, let me just tell you.
I’ve got a prayer journal, a diary, a “short story” journal, a writer’s notebook… and I plan to keep all of them. Words are forever, after all. You can’t depend on blogs to keep your stories and records. I want my kids and grand kids to be able to flip through my journals, to touch my words, to see my handwriting… to be able to touch and feel my words I wrote as a kid – be it “Mommy’s taking me to the mall” or something more personal. Those tangible moments you can keep forever on paper, but not on FaceBook or Instagram or Twitter.
Do you have any notebooks? What do you write in them? Let me know in the comment section below!
I have notebook obsession too, but in a slightly different way.
I love new notebooks, and for some reason i like looking at the fresh new page. And any stroke i make on the page seems to be unworthy of the pretty, smooth,cloud white page. Haha. 😛
I’m the same way lol.
Oh and thanks for thee advice on how to get gifs! I now have gifs on my blog, which make me ridiculously happy. I can finally emphasize my point without having to USE ALL CAPS. because, really. I’m not that excited. There needs to be something in between. lowercase and all caps. Because all caps makes me sound like im yelling at you and lower case makes me sound bored.
ok im done with this comment now 😛
I used to feel that way, too! I still have about five or six empty notebooks on my bookshelves, simply because they’re too beautiful to write in! 😉
Aww, I’m so glad! I’ll have to head on over to your blog now to check it out! 😀
You already know that I’m a notebook hoarder as well. 😉 I’ve got a writing notebook (for stories, novel plotting, etc), a songbook (for song lyrics – compositions go on looseleaf manuscript paper), an inspiration journal (filling that one out is actually an awesome stress reliever, as it turns out!), and one more that’s just for everything else. They can get kinda heavy when I’m carrying them all around, but I do believe it’s worth it. 😉
Wow! Haha, you and me both. I have a tote bag that has cats all over it and it says “I meow you” (lol) that’s the perfect size for all of my journals and books and such. I never leave the house without it! 😉
Haha, I am totally a notebook hoarder. 🙂 Guilty as charged!
Well, we’re in this together, right? 😀
I have like 10-15 notebooks all stuffed in my bookcase 😛 I started writing down my whole third grade year in one once, and I’m glad I did because it’s like a gateway into the past and I’ll read it when I’m bored. My other notebooks are halfway full, filled with other little stories, and before I can even finish that notebook, I’ll get a new one for my birthday (shocker) and start writing in that one. My #1 answer to “What do you want for Christmas?” was “A notebook! A journal! Anything I can write in!” Now I’m using one green journal where I write down poems and short stories, and I plan on filling that one entirely. Nice blog post! I enjoy reading your blogs (I discovered you on Heather Vogel Frederick’s website. She’s awesome, isn’t she?)
Oh, I TOTALLY understand!! Half of my notebooks are empty simply because of that! I don’t want to ruin the beautiful, perfect pages with my scribbles and erased mistakes! Heather Vogel Frederick is AMAZING – she’s one of the first authors I really fell in love with! 😀
I love it! I have a huge box filled with notebooks and the terrible stories of my childhood. Every once in a while, I look through it and have a good giggle at my goofiness. Even though I do all my writing on the computer now, I still have a weakness for notebooks and have far more than I need.