Tag Archives: Spiral notebooks

What Do You Throw Away?

By Terry C. Misfeldt

When I first transitioned from lead (graphite) pencils to ink filled writing devices, I was of the belief the pen I used would never run out of ink. It was a miracle. I couldn’t stop writing long-hand. I tried to see when that pen, probably a Bic, would dry up. I burned through a spiral notebook and the pen kept working.

Eventually, the pen dried up. Since it was non-refillable, it had to be discarded.

Fast forward to the modern era of laptops and smart phones. Pens rarely run out of ink due to be used rarely. People have mostly forgotten how to write letters, stuff them in an envelope, and put them in the mailbox to be delivered to a loved one or friend. Now it’s a text or an E-mail (getting more rare) or a post on social media.

Yet, old habits are hard to stop.

I still send cards to friends and family. I still write my daily journal long-hand in a spiral notebook with an ink-filled pen. And, yes, the purpose of this story is that I have gone through hundreds of pens. When the ink dries up, the pen is trashed. It’s thrown away!

At least with a pencil stub, there’s a little bit of eraser left…and maybe more.

What do you throw away?

A Blank Canvas

By Ruth Wellens

It’s nearly spring so I was beginning to clean out the corner of my basement that has accumulated the mess of year’s past. My son is going to graduate from college this May but left behind numerous notebooks from his elementary and high school years. Somehow between us, we have gone through the notebooks and ripped out the instructive pages, but I just have a difficult time putting perfectly good notebook paper into the garbage which ends up in landfills. So – I end up with a lot of half-filled notebooks with crazy adolescent writing on the covers. 

Good news: I also ended up with ideas yet to be realized. Procuring all of the notebooks and paper together, I suddenly became inspired to write! Sure, as writers we have ideas rambling around our brains all the time, but this paper was tangible. Each piece meant my ideas could turn into reality with strokes from a pen.  Sure, I use my computer most of the time, but there is a visceral pleasure in putting pen to paper when writing.  Even if it is an outline or bullet points for your writing, it is visual proof of that idea when put on paper.

My broken down half notebooks are now stacked in my make-shift office, ready and waiting to turn into a story board, a story, a novel, an editorial, or maybe just random thoughts to be expounded on another day. The excitement is there. It feels like New Year’s Eve rife with resolutions! The first day of spring with all the promise of colorful flowers, warm sun and brilliant hues of green. The potential adventure of travelling to a new place! All of the paper ready and willing to serve my ideas.

I have heard some writers carry paper with them at all times in case an idea comes to them. With the advent of cell phones, some writers use the verbal choice of talking into them to retain their ideas until they can sit and think about them more. Yes, some of us get our best ideas in the shower, which, unfortunately, is not paper’s best friend. As for me, I have my half notebooks with lots and lots of blank pages to write on!