There’s freedom in choosing a short-term journal

Searching for a short-term journal — a notebook I will only use for two or three weeks — changes what I prefer in a journal. My usual preferences are fluid, but the common aspects across my favorite journals are:

• A5 size. An A5 is wide enough to accommodate long-form paragraphs while being small enough to tote around.

• 100-250 pages. I enjoy jumping from one notebook to another. My eyes wander to newer writing pastures after a few months. The closer to 150, the closer I am to finishing a notebook before I have the urge for a new book.

• Lay-flat binding. My journaling sessions are often interrupted with bouts of reading and tea-making. It’s lovely to come back to my notebook open to the page I left open.

• Blank pages. I enjoy the flexibility that blank pages lend me. I can add any pre-printed layout guide underneath the page. Admittedly, moving the guide for every page does get old after a while.

• Fountain-pen ink friendly paper. Shading makes journaling more fun.

Knowing that I will leave my next journal in a few short weeks screams for experimenting. I went with a MidoriMD A6 notebook. I even had a spare cardstock notebook cover laying around. Score.

And a page marker. Double score.

The A6 is half the size of my typical journaling notebooks. Writing sideways will present each two-page spread as one A5-sized page. Oriented in portrait this way, the 176 page notebook cuts down to 88 pages. Given my typical journal use, the A6 gives me a month of paper for journaling.

Not the intended way. But THE way.

The A6 sports a minimalist lay-flat binding and excellent paper for liquid inks. The cream colored paper is a drawback I can happily live with for a month.

This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.

Toolset

Pens. The Kaweco Skyline Sport was a clear standout this week. The F wrote like an EF, which is a win with my small handwriting. Kawecos a little plastic tanks. Tossing the daily driver that was already to-hand into my pocket when I had a meeting or needed to oversee a school event was was a huge plus.

• Sailor Pro Gear Slate — Dumped at 1/2. This pairing is underwhelming. Lady Rose performs fine. I would prefer more shading from such a wide nib. The EF end of this Architect grind was far and away the better writing end. Meh.

• TWSBI 580 ALR — 1/2. This pen’s wet EF/M double grind has become a staple of my day-to-day writing tools. Every meeting this week. And some journaling.

• Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black — 1/5. The pen’s matte black finish offers a comfortable texture. Smooth and well-behaved. Cat at Midnight is basically a black, with just a hint of blue. Daily driver, scratch notes.

• Visconti Homo Sapiens — ??. The pen is writing dryly – a strong sign that I’m down to the feed. The Visconti feed brings out the best in dry inks. Used primarily for journaling, with a side of lesson planning.

• TWSBI Vac700R — Empty. The nib was too narrow for an ink this pale. Cat at Dusk relegated this combo to accents in reading notes and journaling.

• Nakaya Neostandard — Empty. Nakaya tuned their B nib perfectly. It’s smooth with slight pencil-like feedback. Lovely shading and a controlled B line. Journaling, lesson planning while at home, and one letter.

• Kaweco Skyline Sport — Empty. An excellent combination for task management, scratch notes on the go, and for offsetting the black lines of Cat at Midnight. Just a tad dry, which lent more presence to Summer Storm.

Notebooks. The work bullet journal has nine new pages, bringing me to 226. This week focused on grading, which takes place outside of my notebook. The remainder are a two-page weekly spread and a gander of lesson planning notes.

I finished the Musubi journal this week. I turned to long-form reflections as I made sense of the violence last Wednesday. 23 new pages. And I updated the highlights index in the back.

I’m going to miss the lovely felt cover. By the final night, moving the grid guide had grown tiresome. Onward to a prep-printed notebook.

Written dry. If we measure success in emptied pens, this week was a victory. I elected to continue on with my currently inked from last week to empty most of my remaining pens. Four pens are now ready for cleaning this weekend. The princess was not in another castle.

Three pens subbed out this week: the Vac700R, the Nakaya, and the Kaweco. The Vac went down on Wednesday evening while taking notes on an essay by Mark Graber. The Nakaya dried up during a virtual café Friday night. The Kaweco dried up Saturday morning revising a manuscript outline.

Newly inked. None.

The Collection

Incoming / new orders. A collection of six new inks arrived from the Netherlands. I ordered these inks through Seitz-Global back in December and am pleasantly surprised delivery was so speedy.

Five are sheen monsters — code for inks that leave prominent luminescence when dry. All five were only released outside of the US:

Diamines.

The sixth ink is Rohrer & Klingner’s Verdigris. Verdigris’ strength is its subtlety. The color sits midway between blue and green. Dark, with a suggestion of pink sheen. I just had to upgrade my sample to a full bottle.

Outgoing / trades or sales. Soon.

Currently listening and reading

Fiction. Wrapping up Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s my first time reading the horror classic. The story is told through letters and diary entries. I find myself inspired to journal and write letters while reading; with garlic close to hand.

Nonfiction. I poured over Ranciére’s (1999) Disagreement this week. I’ve been grappling with his definition of politics in a bid to make sense of current events in the US. An unfairly brief intro: what you do is only political if it changes how people behave or think, or how organizations work.

Music. Spotify’s Nordic Folk playlist.