Bohemian Cinema By Jonathan Pacheco

Moleskine

Tags: Writing, Moleskine, Ideas, Creativity

Around the time I started high school, I read something somewhere saying that supposedly, Hendrix had a guitar with him at all times, just in case inspiration struck. The suggestion was that a writer should carry around pen and paper at all times; it would be foolish not to. So for years I always had a spiral notebook and pen in hand—it was almost a trademark. Then, over three years ago, I received a free laptop—a Powerbook G4—from the school that I went to for making the Dean’s List (talk about incentive!).

I loved my laptop and I still do, but I remember trying to carry both my notebook and laptop in the same, small bag. I cringed every time I carelessly shoved the spiral pad into the all-too-thin bag, scraping my pristine Mac with the metal spiraling wire. It just didn’t seem to work, especially considering that I could now type my thoughts much quicker than I can write them by hand. Yet I kept with it; after all, some classes wouldn’t let me use a laptop, so a notebook was my only choice for writing my stories.

Today, I still have that laptop; it’s what I’m typing this on now. It’s a workhorse and I take it everywhere. You’d be hard-pressed to spot me without my laptop bag slung over my shoulder. And now… I find myself missing my notebook. There was a time when I would write down everything. I wrote conversations I heard, ideas for characters, names, stories, lines, lists—whatever. And now? Well, for a bit, I wrote almost nothing. Lately I write a few conversations that are just too good to pass up. But I remember when I used to have almost a “dialogue reserve” stored up. I could write a 15 minute short script in less than an hour because I already had the perfect dialogue for any situation. I miss that. I feel out of shape.

The last notebook I had I mainly used for class but it still had plenty of blank pages. Sadly, I left it on my desk in a room with my cats and they urinated on it—yes, they love me that much. So I went online and bought me a Moleskine (no, not pronounced like “moleskin”). These nearly-pocket-sized notebooks are made in the same fashion as the original Moleskine, a notebook famously used by Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin (or so it says on the label). The idea is to have a small, durable, unobtrusive notebook to sketch, write ideas, GTD, or just do whatever it is you need to do. It’s a little pricey for being a small pad of paper, but the pages are supposed to be great, and as I told my girlfriend, it’s a small price to pay in order to be trendy and artsy. All I need now is a fountain pen and I’m set.

I really hope this will help me remember and flesh out my ideas. Considering I ride the bus to and from work every day, it seems like a worthy habit to start up again.

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Today I wrote in my Moleskine for the first time. I have christened it Magdalene.