A WRITER’S LIFE
I Go Everywhere With a Moleskine Notebook and a Pencil
It’s old school, and it works
“Carry a notebook with you always, and a good fountain pen. The world is full of stories, begging to be written.” — Ray Bradbury
I carry a Moleskine notebook and a mechanical pencil with me wherever I go. Moleskine because it bends and fits neatly in a back pocket. With apologies to Mr. Bradbury, a mechanical pencil because my granddad gave it to me 10 years ago. He also gave me a lifetime supply of lead he purchased when a stationery store went out of business.
They are the tools of my trade, as important as goggles when I swim or the plunger is to the plumber. Modern life offers an alternative, a voice memo or the notes app on my phone. I just say no.
I learned the hard way that even if you tell yourself as you are walking in the forest that you will remember the phrasing forming in your head — you won’t. Later the sentence will be mediocre, write it down now and it has half a chance.
“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. — Seneca
