Spent $40 on a brainstorming notebook that completely flopped

I bought this fancy notebook from a local shop last month, thought it would help me organize my story ideas for a fantasy series I'm working on. It had all these prompts and grids, but honestly, the pages were just too small for my messy thoughts. After two weeks, I switched back to a plain $2 spiral bound and wrote more in one afternoon than I did in the whole expensive thing. Has anyone else found that fancy tools just get in the way of actually writing?

2 comments

2 Comments

lee_barnes7020h ago

...my buddy Dave spent like sixty bucks on one of those fancy "novel planning" journals with the little index tabs and everything. He was convinced this was gonna unlock his inner Hemingway or whatever... ended up using it to prop up a wobbly table leg at his place. Three weeks later he's writing on napkins at the bar where I work, saying the messiness of it actually helped him get unstuck. Honestly, those fancy things feel like they're judging you for not filling them in perfectly, a plain notebook don't care what you scribble.

mark_fisher4817h ago

Your story about Dave made me think of my neighbor Frank. He bought one of those leather-bound writing desks with the built-in inkwell and little cubby holes for inspiration. Sat in his living room for six months like a monument to good intentions. Finally moved it out to the garage and started writing the first chapter of his novel on the back of old pizza boxes with a sharpie. Said the pressure of that nice desk made every sentence feel like it had to be perfect, but the greasy cardboard gave him permission to be sloppy and honest. Sometimes the best tools are the ones that don't ask anything of you.