Pages of Handwritten Drafts

The choice to record ideas in longhand

Writing by hand is a labor of love. A postcard from a destination. A birthday card. A penpal letter. A small note in the mail just to say hello. I still have a stack of birthday cards from my mom I received over the years, her handwriting carefully pressed onto beautiful card stock, slipped into matching envelopes. I’ve always associated longhand with feelings of comfort and care.

But even then, I didn’t expect to draft every single post that I share on here by hand. I have set up a perfectly fine Notion page for this blog where I organize ideas and back up published posts - so why is it that I write everything onto paper first?

Here’s the very page where I drafted this blog post.

Maybe it has to do with the joy of getting to use one of my fountain pens, watching the ink glide across the page and showing off its properties as it dries. Maybe it’s the sound of the nib on paper, giving me a sense of calmness in the middle of what seems like an increasingly agitated world. Maybe it’s the small amount of freedom I relish as I boldly cross off a word or phrase, which for one reason or another feels different - and more satisfying - than hitting the backspace button on a keyboard.

Whatever my reasons might be, I find myself coming back to a Midori A5 notebook over and over again to scribble the thoughts from my mind onto its cream-colored pages.

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Monthly Overview

As someone with way too many thoughts running through their head at any given time, I like to have some semblance of organization wherever I can. One of the ways I do so in this notebook is by keeping a monthly calendar of ideas.

The phrase at the bottom of the monthly calendar page translates to: “let’s be a hardworking person, even if it’s only on this schedule page.”

I came across this design at Object (Hongdae location) in South Korea from the brand 아무개씨 (Ahmugae-c) that creates original, retro-themed stationery and small goods like keychains, phone cases and mugs. The RGB color scheme drew me in, and although I bought this item with the intention of using it in some sort of planner, it sat in the back of my stationery cart for years until I remembered to dig it up for its current purpose.

I pair it with the dual-colored Mitsubishi pencil - red for YouTube, blue for Substack (too bad it’s not a red and orange colored pencil, huh?). I keep the system simple - a colored dot goes onto the monthly calendar for an entry on each platform, and I try my best to estimate the schedule and create accordingly. Of course, things don’t always go according to plan, but then I can always cross things off, shift things around and move on.