We all have the image of the reporter on the go writing in their reporter style1 notebook. These images come to us from the age of shorthand or, in my case, from cartoons made during the age of shorthand. I loved the idea of writing on the go. An intrepid writer, ready for anything and ready to write anywhere. Then I bought a reporter style notebook and I hated it. There’s a good reason for this. Reporter notebooks are terrible to write in. Well, at least they’re terrible in your hand. In fact, all writing in the hand is bad. It takes someone exactly once to realize that handwriting suffers incredibly and the physical act of writing itself isn’t nearly as enjoyable. In fact, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that once recording devices became halfway portable the reporter style notebooks went away (for reporters at least).
What does that mean to us? Do we need to learn shorthand? Sounds cool but, no. Does that mean that we should never write in our notebooks while holding them? Of course not. That said, we should probably stick to Jot Points. Jot Points are perfect for this type of Notebooking. Jot Points are a gift to the future you when you finally sit down to relax and Notebook. Once we do, we would do well to try to find a nice surface to write on. When you have a nice, stable surface to write on your writing is smoother and your handwriting is better 2. In fact, if you use a hardcover notebook many more surfaces open up to you as a viable writing surface. Such as the arm of a comfy chair or your lap3 Taking the time to find a surface to write on is always worth it and occasionally affords you an interesting experience in and of itself. As an example, a few months back I was staying in a hiker’s lodge and found myself with some time on my idle hands. I wandered around the lodge looking for a good place to Notebook in since my bunk room was far from ideal. I ended up finding a small, empty lounge with a roaring fire and free coffee! Who knows what I’ll find next time!