To want to write in lovely notebooks but not be able to?

[FlamingoBingo]

I love writing, and I love the idea of writing with a lovely fountain pen in beautiful notebooks - journalling; drafting articles; writing stories. But I can't do it!!!

Can anyone? Does anyone find it easier than writing on a computer?

Computers are so flipping soulless.

Besides, I always get distracted by the internet when I'm on the computer and I don't get that when I settle down with a notebook and pen. But I get frustrated with how much faster I think than I can write when I can touch-type so quickly, and undoing mistakes is so easy and non-messy on the computer.

But notebooks can be so beautiful! How do people do it!?

I did start writing a novel once, in a notebook rather than on a computer. I found using a pencil much better than using a pen, for some reason. It seemed to 'flow' better.

Anyway, I never did finish as work and fatherhood got in the way. Maybe one day...

I hate doing sketches in a new lovely sketchbook - i wish i could but there is nothing more intimidating. I use A3 computer paper an scribble a lot.

My sketchbooks sit on the side in my studio with their lovely covers and rough paper innards....

Virgins, every one of them - i cannot bear to defile them...

do it in a coffeeshop, that's how.

Hmm...Mymblesson...might try using a pencil, good idea. Do you do 'rubbing out' or do you still do lots of crossing out and writing in the margins/at the top of the line?

PortBlack - do it! Go and sketch in one RIGHT NOW!

Seth - that's not a bad idea...can only really get a chance to write in the evenings though and there aren't any coffee shops open at this time of night!

god I have stacks of beautiful notebooks, fabric-covered ones, hand-made paper with pounded flower ones...

I don't want to write anything but I still can't bear to use them. it's pathetic really

I thought it was only me that had masses of beautiful, empty, notebooks! What a relief

Oooh i couldn't possibly FB - for then i would have to bin them after even the smallest crappiest sketch....

....i don't think nice sketchbooks are actually for sketching in are they?

Do you do 'rubbing out' or do you still do lots of crossing out and writing in the margins/at the top of the line?

Lots of crossing out - but not so's I can't see what I wrote first time round. You never know, I might prefer the first version after all.

I'm like PortBlack; my lovely notebooks are untouched. They are too pretty to be written in even with my best fountain pen and olive green ink.

I turned one Red chinese silk notebook into a cherished recipes book....

Otherwise, ditto, loads of books, just can't bring myself to sully them with actual writing.... [stationery addict]

Adds self to the 'Can't write in lovely notebooks' group...

I don't know how many I have, I know it's lots - they're all different colours, textures, sizes and I bet I don't know where half of them are. I'm still addicted to buying them, I make a beeline for them in whatever shop I'm in and if it's beautiful and hardbacked with good, thick unlined paper... it's mine!

How many do you all have? Do you know?

I have lovely notebooks, and i write in them!
As a CM, I write a daily diary for each of my mindees - sometimes this is three diary entries per day, and I normally write about an A4 page for each child.
I was getting a sore hand with a biro, and didn't really like doing the diaries . . . dd bought a cheap pink stationary set from Woolies, which contained a fountain pen, and I wasn't going to let a 3yo loose with that, so I started using it . . . and didn't get a sore hand any more!
But I did have to find a notebook with thick enough paper to take real ink. So now I have lots of lovely notebooks (I buy A5 sketchbooks and customise them myself - did I mention I hate writing on wide lined paper?) and write in them using nice (but cheap) fountain pens with a variety of coloured inks.
I may be the ponciest CM north of the border

Oh, and I keep a seperate notebook for myself - for household accounts when I'm being particularly thrifty and writing-down-everything-I-spend, and also for random lists of stuff that dh and I make on a Friday night, and generally anything that needs written down.
And another one for keeping a different set of accounts in . . .
And there may be A6 notebooks in each of my handbags . . .

Actually, I have a problem, don't I?

yes, the lovely notebooks, the elegant fountain pen, the perfect desk, cleared of clutter and so conducive to elegant writing. In my gorgeous study, for which I'd waited years, I just needed to unpack those last 4 boxes... and clear the landing of crap so I could look out on my beautiful garden whilst I composed my perfectly elegant & witty prose. Only to make it really right, I'd have to clear the unkempt garden so that the view would be as perfect as my notebook & pen...

Years ago I joined an online writing group, there were assignments you signed up for & in order to get feedback you had to post something yourself so guilt was a motivating factor. All my notebook/pen/study/desk/garden crap disappeared the day I realised I'd procrastinated enough & had only a few hours to write something. I ended up leaning on the manky worktop in the kitchen with 12 minutes till the pasta was ready scribbling away & got more done in those 12 mins than I had the whole year in my "perfect" study.

Now I use cheapie notebooks I get when I buy school stuff for the children.

Though for work I do use my notebooks & fountain pen - it's not that important & they get their well-deserved outing

But I can't even write in shit notebooks - it's just that the idea of writing in beautiful ones is so appealing, and so much more appealing than writing on a laptop.

I can't any more either. I did that online writing thing for about a year & by the end all I was writing in the notebooks was the date & title. Everything else was on the laptop...

Maybe we should accept our notebooks are things of beauty to be admired and stroked and put on display.

I have a nice one that I use to write down everything given and received at Christmas each year, habit picked up from my mum. Her notebook ran out this year so gave her a nice new one as part of her xmas present, which she chose herself. The old one was at least 25 years old so it was nice to buy it thinking it will last a long time to come hopefully.

Was fascinating to see all the pressies we've had when we were little, this one going to have all the gc in.

Another vote here though for liking plain paper not lined. Anybody else find it difficult to find nice reasonably priced plain notebooks? Invariably when you pick up a notebook in the shop it is lined and the only plain ones are sketch books.

I write in beautiful notebooks but it doesn't stop the writing being drivel, especially if it is written late at night in the half dark trying not to disturb ds

I thought I was alone! I can't do it either not because I don't want to mess up the notebook but because everything I put in the notebook looks a mess. I have one just now that I write in every now and again but I pull out the pages because they are messy. I think pretty notebooks need fancy pens and fancy handwriting

Roald Dahl used pencils, his morning routine was to sharpen umpteen pencils before he began to write. I love the idea of him in his shed with his pencil sharpener. Bet it was one of the fab whizzy ones that the popular girls at primary school were allowed to use when helping the teacher