The other day, a friend and I were comparing inks and nibs over iChat. He had a fit when he saw that I rotate my Moleskines so that I am always writing on the odd page. It doesn't bother me to flip them to read back what I've written, half my fun of writing is enjoying the experience and I like it better with that position.

Any true confessions to be heard here?

Yes, I am. I don't like writing on the left page. I write only on the right page. When I reach the last page of the book I flip it over and fill the other "right" pages.

Regards
Hans-Peter

I hate to admit it, but I never would have thought of this; how neat! I use spirals so I don't have that problem, but suffered through left page writing until better paper started to show up in spiral form. Writing your way would mean I wouldn't be limited to these and could possibly find reasonably priced, decent unlined paper in regular bound style. Thanks!

I'm not sure I understand your meaning. Flipping a book over doesn't change the page number (i.e., even to odd). Do you mean that you flip the book around so that the page you are writing on is always on the right side?

Unfortunately, I just let the left side go to waste. I don't think I would like any of the methods discussed so far to fill the left side.

I only write on one side of the page -- ever.

Well, this thread got me thinking, and today I began using the left-side pages for numbered footnotes. I turned my Moleskine 90 degrees and wrote the long way across the paper so as not to smear the other page. For footnotes, this seems preferable to writing upside-down, which I have definite reservations about. I won't be filling up every left-side page, but at least they will now serve a purpose and come in handy when I don't want to interrupt a passage with a long parenthetical or aside. Thanks for making me think about this.

With my Reporter notebook, I am a flipper. I go through, front to back, on the bottom half only. Then I flip it over and go through back to front on the unused pages.

I thought I'd do the same thing when I got a larger notebook for a journal. And started out that way -- right hand pages only. Then one day without thinking about it, when I turned the page, I wrote on the left hand page. And I liked it. Since these notebooks lie flat, it was not a problem at all. Now I wish I had done so all the way through, because it won't be "flipping" this notebook. When I get to the end, there will just be some blank pages in the first half of the notebook. In the future, unless I end up with some paper that bleeds through too badly, this will be the default mode, because it really appeals to me. Sometimes "mistakes" work out!

I just noticed that I flip my Rhodia notebooks, but not my Moleskine. I'm never buying a Moleskine again, so when this one runs out I'll be a pure flipper.

I have never used the back of a page. A heavy hand and a deep preference for very dark inks have always prevented it.

If the page is clean, meaning no show thru, I use it. So, basically, I use whatever clean page there is. I use moleskines, and I use waterpaint in it. I love the way the paper crinkles, then I just write right over it, usually with an asian fine point pen.

Being of Scots descent, I simply can't imagine not using both sides of a Mole notebook. I love them but at their cost...I write on every frickin' inch of them.

That sounds pretty. I think I might try it sometime. Thanks!

I have been wondering this for a while as it seems to be brough up time and time again. This is not directed at you in particular; this just happens to be the time that I have decided to use to bring it up.

What is with all the complaints about the cost of a Moleskine? They cost fewer than $10 online, and they have a few less than 100 pages. That's 10 cents per page if you use one side and 5 cents per page if you use both. I use about one per month, and $10 is well within my measly, college-student budget. Either you make less money than a college student, you go through them like candy, or you are astonishingly frugal. I am not even sure that the second one is really a consideration because one's desire to write should take precedence over one's worry about how often one must buy materials, and if the third were true then you wouldn't buy them in the first place. That is, why buy something and then complain about its expense while continuing to buy more of it?

The Moleskine price issue reminds me of gasoline, except that it is even more absurd. At least some of those who complain about gas prices actually have no other way to get to work and pick their children up from school. I have switched to public transportation, but that is not an option for everyone. In terms of journal choice, there are many convenient choices.

Anyway, that is all beside the point. What's the deal with complaining about a $10 journal? Other decent journals of the same size are similarly priced. How much are your words worth? I write on one-half of the pages and I get about 10,000 words into a pocket Moleskine. I'll pay $10 to keep my 10,000 words safe anytime. Maybe I should add "or what you are writing must not be terribly important" to the earlier list of possibilities.

Okay, okay. My rant is over. Again, this is not meant to be a personal attack or anything. This is in response to all of you out there who have trouble with the cost of a Moleskine.

Atlas...you haven't shopped around much. You can get Apica 100pg. notebooks for $1.99-$3.29 (depending on the size) and the paper (these are made in Japan) is far superior to Moleskine. Bottom line for me...Moleskine isn't worth the $10. So, i don't complain about the price...i just don't buy them.

I never heard of flipping a journal until I started hanging out with FPN folk. I doubt I would have thought of it myself. Somehow, the idea just doesn't appeal. It is not that I like to write into a gutter. I stop short of the gutter. On a verso page, I let the gutter have the margin and move the writing to the left edge. Soon, this will be a non-issue. When I have used up my supply of store-bought journals, I intend to make my own. They will be Coptic stitched and there will be no gutterdammit.

The Moleskine controversy begins to smell like the MB wars. I bought one just to see what all the yelling was about. It looks like a durable notebook. The paper in mine is good. The lines are too close together for my taste and I don't need the elastic band or the pocket in back. The expense doesn't justify my having to put up with those features.

Paddler

No, the Apica notebooks just aren't in the same category. The inexpensive ones you refer to are soft cover and epoxy bound. In terms of hard-cover, thread-bound leather/cloth style journals that are meant to take a beating without tearing to bits, you have companies such as Clairefontaine, Rhodia, and Miquelrius. As far as I have seen, most of these offerings are actually more expensive than a Moleskine.

Of course, if all you are looking for is some paper to write on, then there are all sorts of inexpensive pads to write on. Many people prefer such items. If you want a journal though, you can't really complain about 10 bucks. Think about what you are paying for: hard cover, thread binding, elastic strap, and a pocket for loose papers. If you can't justify $10 for that, then so be it, but don't suppose that you're getting the same thing in a $3 Apia.

Well, everyone does a good job at justifying their likes and dislikes, so...
to each his own.

I usually only write on one side of the page, many notebooks that i use aren't too friendly to double sided writing. With the pads that do, I write on all sides (man i hate to waste a page of that beautiful Clairefontaine paper...).

I flip. I've flipped notebooks since time immemorial. Since the pre-jurassic, probably.
I write a lot. A LOT. (I write novels)
I don't have a laptop, so when I go someplace where I don't have a computer... out comes a stack of notepads (I take at least 5 100 sheet A5 notebooks with me.)
My long-suffering other half has given up trying to get any sense out of me when I sit there, nose down scribbling like mad. He used to say he knows when I'm deep into it, because I frown when I flip the pad over because it interrupts the flow lol.

So yeah.

I'm a flipper.

Silke

Good to know! Flippers unite! I started doing it in the 3-ring binder years, and kept it up during the nasty spiral-bound eras of my life. When I got older and wiser enough to refuse all spiral-bound anything, the flipping was so much a part of my little world, there was never anything to justify a change. I like to write from the right, on the right, with the right, and I will do so for life!

i only write on both sides of the page on "black n red" notebooks!!

Until I found some decent journals that would lie flat, I'd use spiral bound Mead sketchbooks. I don't like (or can't manage) writing into the wires so I'd right on the right side, then flip it over when I got to the end. Odd though. It would create a weird "coming and going" effect. Plus it makes it that much harder to find a particular idea or day in an old journal.



So I am a recovering flipper, now using Kunst & Papier journals.

Doug

I don't flip. I write on the right side only leaving the left side if I need to go back and add information near a particular topic. I've been glad to have the left side available on many occasions.



-Gawain

I guess lefty should reverse flip?

I'm left-handed, so lately I've taken to writing in my notebooks from the back, one side of the page only. I think flipping would flip me out.

No flipper, I just put it flat, if it want's or not and write it all the way from top left to bottom right and turn the page.
Flipping would be a nice solution, but my notebooks just open nice.
I use larger Atlanta Excelent's and the Allan's Journal.
Bot do a good job at opening reasonably flat.

But there seem to be a surprising number of flippers.

OK, so let me get this straight. This is being done to compensate for journals that don't open flat enough or have a spiral binding, correct? You write on page #1, with binding to the left. After filling page #1, you turn the page, but rather than writing on page #2 with the binding on the right, you rotate the journal 180 degrees so that you're writing with the binding to the left again. After filling page #2, you rotate 180 degrees again and continue writing on page #3, essentially like the start of page #1. Repeat. Is that correct?

Doesn't this make for a heck of a time reading what you've written, rotating every page?

Well I wasnt a flipper till I read this thread, but now I am addicted!
I too am a writer (children's novels) and am doing a PhD in Creative and Critcal Writing, so as you will probably guess, I write LOADS.

I just to write on both sides and to hell with the smudging (Im a leftie) show-through etc. Now I do this:

I begin using all the right hand side pages first, and I draw, feintly in pencil, 1/2 margin down both sides of the page. This not only makes it look neat, it gives me somewhere to add notes, make corrections etc. When I get to the end of the book, I flip it over and begin the process all over.

And I am a total Moleskine addict. I know the paper quality varies, but then so does the quality of my writing! I adore the creamy, narrow ruled pages and the rear pocket stores character notes, family trees, story synopsis etc all safely together.
My favourite is the Extra Large softback Moleskine ruled. You just can't beat it, imperfections and all.

TTFN
Tawanda

Apparently some people write on the right hand side only, and when they get to the end, they flip the whole book over and again write on the right hand side only. Which wouldn't cause too much time wasted in flipping and reading.

As for me, I've never flipped, I'm content writing on both sides the 'normal' way, but sometimes I wonder if it'd be better to leave margins or only write on one side for notes and stuff...

Character notes? Well, heck, you just sold me on my first Moleskine. ^^

Good for you Sailor!

Go to it, and don't get too precious about the quality of the paper, just enjoy the relationship, with all its little idiosyncrasies! Moleskines are great with fine or extra fine nibs, they just baulk at very wet pens.

Let me know how you get on

T

Yes, I go through the whole book on one side then flip the whole book, I very much prefer it that way. I'm intrigued by the idea from someone above about writing straight across both sides. I may explore that notion!

I leave a broad margin for areas that may require extra input, but typically, I am a detailed thinker and don't often find myself revisiting an idea for revision. I devote a whole Cashier notebook to each character/scene/location so at any time I may be working through 5-10 labeled Moleskines.