All year I’ve been a very good girl and have resisted the urge to buy stationery – my not so secret addiction. In an effort to de-clutter I’ve been using old notebooks and work diaries for my writing.
I do have a particular thing about notebooks – all those lovely blank pages on which to imprint my handwriting. There’s something rather romantic about writing longhand into a special notebook; something about the connection between mind and hand. Although I am a touch typist and writing straight to my laptop would be so much more efficient, I always prefer this old fashioned method. Maybe it’s because it’s slower so that it allows the words on the page to be more considered which appeals to me. Or the fact that you can write anywhere with pen and paper (not that there have been many places to go for the last eighteen months). No need for power, charging cables or wi-fi to distract you. All you have to do is pick up pen and paper and you can carry yourself away into the world you’re creating.
So when I do go into any shop that sells stationery, my first point of call is the section that sells notebooks. And for the whole year (when we’ve not been in lockdown of course) I’ve shoved my hands firmly into my pockets and walked away.
But last week I fell off the wagon. In an effort to get organised I’d decided that I needed some new files and then I saw these and all my willpower deserted me.
Do all writers have a fetish for stationery or is it just me? And how do you prefer to write? Longhand or straight to screen?
