(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
I know it's not just me, but my plans tend to start out a wee bit chaotic. Part outline, part list, part mind-map, maybe even a few cryptic scribbles, with some sketchnotes marginalia. Basically, my early drafts of plans look like the inside of my brain. Scary! One way I can help wrangle them is with inventions like this--a multi-format notebook.
The Nolty Asymmetry Notebook has 6 mm lined pages on the left and dot-grid pages on the right. My thoughts don't have to be corralled into one set of lines. I can write and outline on the left and sketch and map on the right. Yes, I could do that on any paper. But having the page mapped that way to begin with helps free my mind. There's flexibility, while still having some guidelines to keep the page from looking like it's having a little menty b.
The split format is also great for meeting or class notes. Take your notes on one side, and use the other for follow-up thoughts or questions. Make a to-do list on the lines, and create a calendar on the grid. Draw a map to buried treasure on one side, and list the clues on the other. The possibilities are endless! The pages are also numbered, so it's easy to index and track your thoughts.
The notebook itself is well-made. It has a textured cardstock cover that is firm enough to support the pages, but slim enough to be portable. It can also fit easily into A5 notebook covers. There are 88 sheets (176 pages) of Nolty's ivory paper. This was my first time trying Nolty paper, and I was impressed. It's fountain pen friendly and handles a variety of inks very well. Sharpie and Retro 51 had some bleeding and show-through, but other inks worked very well. The paper is thicker and more toothy than Tomoe River, but crisper than Cosmo Air Light paper, reminding me a lot of Midori paper--which is one of my top favorites. I will definitely seek out more Nolty paper in the future.
The A5 cardstock notebooks cost $16. They also make planners and horizontal notebooks. The prices are quite good, especially considering the quality of the paper. Midori's A5 notebooks are around the same price--just a dollar less expensive, though with a handful more pages. I do like the construction and binding of Midori a bit better, but I prefer this Nolty layout.
I've mentioned before that I use two notebooks for writing a novel--one for planning, and one to draft the novel itself. With this layout and that price point, these are ideal for that purpose. This has become my "I'm going to stock up on these and use them for the foreseeable future" planning notebook. Granted, I have said this about other notebooks before, and have yet to extinguish those stockpiles... but there are always more plans to plan! And anything that helps curb the chaos is welcome.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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