Our first Writers’ Project interview of the year is now live!
This time, we talked with Christian Patchell, or “Patch” as he’s better known, a cartoonist and designer who recently published a book on his experience with cancer.
You can check out the interview at the Writers’ Project homepage. While you’re there, be sure to check out previous interviews for more advice and inspiration!
I was poking around online when I came across an old post by needlepoint blogger Cynthia. Cynthia sells her designs online at The Drawn Thread; as it turns out, she’s also a fan of the Note 27, and even stitched her own cover for it!
Pictured above and available for sale here, the cover is a perfect complement to the planner, and every bit its aesthetic equal.
From Cecilia, our product manager and finder-in-chief of cool stuff on the Internet, comes this amazing Christmas tree at Beck’s Book Store in Evanston, IL.
What’s particularly great about this idea to my space-starved urban eye is the fact that you can pack it up at the end of the season by putting the books back on their shelves. A, er, novel approach, dare I say!
I’m not much of a quote person — there are lines that I appreciate and have committed to memory, but they tend to be quite random, and very context-driven. (For some reason, this line from Oliver Cromwell pops up during disagreements.)
I was still intrigued to learn that author JT Ellison keeps a passage from Homer in her planner. It’s a prayer to the muse, and I imagine it’s quite inspirational to remember that larger purpose as she consults her to-do lists and appointments.
Do you keep any quotes in your planner, or on your computer or workspace?
Agatha Christie, disorganized writer — who knew? According to an article on Slate, a newly discovered stash of notebooks reveals the “utter derangement” in her method:
Her less-than-refined writerly day began with finding her notebook, which surely she’d left right there. Then, having found a notebook (not the one she’d used yesterday), and staring in stunned amazement at the illegible chicken scratchings therein, she would finally settle down to jab at elusive characters and oil creaky plots.
At any one time, Christie would have half a dozen notebooks going … [her] promiscuous note-taking meant that any one novel or play might be distributed over multiple notebooks and many, many years.
To learn more about the notebooks, check out John Curran’s newly published book, Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making.
Image via.
There are a lot of things I enjoyed about that Lapham’s Quarterly chart I blogged about last week — for instance, the discovery that Victor Hugo fought procrastination by giving his clothes to a valet and telling him not to return them until he’d finished writing.
Another point that got me thinking was the fact that several authors wrote while standing up. Ernest Hemingway stood at his desk, Thomas Wolfe used the top of his refrigerator, and Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens composed poetry while doing chores and walking. And then there’s Jonathan Lethem, who’s jury-rigged a system that involves a treadmill and a cordless keyboard.
I have a normal desk and can’t imagine replacing it, but if I had some extra space I would love to get some sort of supplementary stand-up system… What do you think? Do you write standing up, or want to?
Lauren from Prescott, Arizona took one of our large Habanas for a test drive recently; here’s what she had to say…
I’ve developed a true respect and affection for this notebook. I use it to record my textiles activity: ongoing projects, lists, dreams, materials, reference charts, etc. It’s a perfect size to throw into any type of project bag (or handbag). The construction feels ballistic solid: I imagine it will last the years it will take me to fill the journal, and that it will look as new when that time comes as it did when it arrived last November. The elastic piece that keeps the journal closed is perfect.
I use the blank pages in the front to write up reference charts, the pocket in the back for miscellaneous patterns. The Clairefontaine paper is delightful. I write mostly with a mechanical pencil or fountain pen on the paper, and both look great and hold up like new. The paper is beautiful, smooth, and accommodating. The bookmark perfect for setting the place where I’m working. (Does make me dream of a notebook with a few, different colored bookmarks!
Thank you so much for this wonderful notebook! It’s truly a delight. Inspirational. Practical. I’m fantasizing about one for each category of my life! (And a larger one for each of the smaller ones.
Got a burning question about fountain pens, ink, or paper? This afternoon at 2:22 pm EST, Brian Goulet will be logging on to Ustream and doing a live video chat with anyone who’s interested. Last week, about 30 people joined him to discuss Brian’s writing box prototypes, ink flow with cartridges/converters, and his own personal background. He also did a couple of paper tests and comparisons, and discovered that Exaclair packing paper is fountain pen friendly (who knew?!).
This afternoon, Brian will cover some watercolors he’s been doing in the Clairefontaine Graf it sketchbooks, the J. Herbin Creapen, his personal custom pens, and whatever else people are curious about. To listen in or participate, just follow this link.
On another note, unless you’re reading this post on an RSS feed, you’ll notice that things look a little different around here this week as we launch our new design! I’ll call out some of the new features and functionalities in a separate post. In the meantime, if you have any trouble with anything on the site, please let us know.
Karen tipped me off to this lovely set of doodles from reader Cole Wardell, whose blog, The Orchard, features lots more gorgeous artwork and plenty of pen and paper musings.
I love the interplay between the formal script and the informal blotches of ink… meanwhile, be sure to check out the full-sized image here (or here, shot from a different angle).
Very cool chart in Lapham’s Quarterly about writers and their working habits… for instance, John Cheever wrote in the basement, Edith Wharton in bed, and Friedrich Schiller in a study (with his feet sometimes submerged in cold water!).
Do you have any eccentric writing habits?
