Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

What do writers have in common with baseball players?

We’re incredibly superstitious.

A writer friend composes all her novels on this laptop. She sits on the couch, has the computer on her lap, and types away. It’s the way she works (and boy, does she work!) Well, one day her laptop was giving her problems and we all piped up with suggestions such as getting a USB keyboard, putting it up on a TV tray, or working on the other computer for a while, etc. These suggestions were all shot down because all of them messed with her successful method. She writes in a certain way and anything that is not that certain way is simply unacceptable.

I’m the same way. If anything isn’t the way that’s worked for me in the past, it’s simply unacceptable.

Hence, my current problem.

I’ve run out of my favorite steno pads: the Mead Cambridge 6×9″ Gregg-ruled double-column chipboard-backed 140-page light-green bonded paper steno pad.

Not only have I run out, Mead isn’t making them anymore.

This is catastrophic…

Well, that may be overstating it (a bit), and you can certainly accuse me of whinging about what is without question a First World Problem, but nevertheless, I have a certain method of writing–long-hand on a steno pad–that has worked for me for years, and I don’t want to change it.

Except for the fact that now, I must.

People have suggested solutions: other steno pads, using a blank journal book, going to letter-size paper on a top-glued pad. None are acceptable because they are all different. However, I must change something, as the old solution no longer exists.

The 6×9 size makes it easy to use on my knee. The Gregg-ruled double-column makes it easy to write on the go and provides room for editing arrows and notes. The green-shade bonded paper is easy on the eye, dense enough not to bleed my fountain pen’s ink, and thick enough not to bleed through so I when I reach the end I can turn the book over and use the other side of all the pages. The chipboard back is a necessary stiffener for on-the-go writing. The 140-page count gives it heft and extra stability, too. In short, there’s nothing about it I don’t like.

The best replacement I could find was an Ampad 100-page count steno pad with an extra-thick cardboard back. It’s white paper, and may not stand up to my fountain pen ink, and it may not be stiff enough for writing on the bus, but I’ll give it a go. I’m not totally inflexible, just extremely resistant to changes in a method that’s been working well for years.

I’m going to put this down as my “mission glitch” and wait for the delivery of my new steno pads.

k