The Ugly Notebook Theory

If people know you write, you are going to get notebooks, pens, and other writing supplies for every holiday. You’ve probably amassed quite a collection by now. I know I have—I’m up to forty-something notebooks and counting!

And many of them are blank. I’d venture to guess that the same is also true for you.

But they do not have to stay blank. If you suffer from Pretty Notebook Paralysis, allow me to introduce you to its life-changing cure: the Ugly Notebook Theory.

The Ugly Notebook Theory Explained

To understand Ugly Notebook Theory, we must first understand Pretty Notebook Paralysis. Writers of all stripes have suffered from this affliction—that is, being so enamored with a notebook or journal that you refrain from writing in its pristine pages.

The Ugly Notebook Theory argues that in order to overcome Pretty Notebook Paralysis and keep those gorgeous leather-bound journals from collecting dust on a shelf, you must first practice the art of writing by hand in the least likely of places: an ugly notebook. By actually using this resource that you inherently find less valuable for its unaesthetic vibes, you can inoculate yourself against Pretty Notebook Paralysis.

TL;DR: If you write in an ugly notebook enough times, writing in a pretty notebook won’t be so scary! Then you can actually use the ones you were gifted (and the ones you bought because they caught your eye in a bookstore and you just couldn’t help yourself).

The Benefits of Writing in an Ugly Notebook

1. Flexibility

Anyone who’s a fan of bullet journaling—me included—knows that notebooks are so much more flexible than people give them credit for.

In the past, I would get flustered when I made a spelling mistake or changed my mind about how I wanted to phrase a sentence while writing by hand. Crossing things out looked amateurish and obnoxious, and I never had correction fluid when I needed it.

And when I realized I actually didn’t like anything I’d just written, I straight-up abandoned not just the notebook, but the whole project. (That might be a me problem, though.)

In a notebook you find unattractive in the first place, well, who cares? It’s already not your favorite thing to look at! You can make the pages as ugly as you want: cross things out, draw arrows to rearrange passages, rip out whole or partial pages, add more comments in the margins than a shared Google Doc—whatever you want or need to do!

2. Creative Freedom

Adopting the Ugly Notebook Theory grants you freedom from writing something that has to be worthy of the notebook’s beauty. You’ll be much more likely to let yourself get experimental with how you use the pages.

Say you start out writing a first draft, but it turns out your protagonist’s character arc needs a rethink. Just flip to the next page and start the brainstorming. Realize you’re getting turned around while the love interest wanders their hometown? Draw a map on the same page. Writing a mystery? Flip the notebook around and upside down to start your sleuth’s case notes and document how they’re making sense of the clues and red herrings in character. Cool and useful!

There are no rules to using a notebook except the ones we make up. When you follow the Ugly Notebook Theory, you won’t be tempted to create arbitrary rules for how to use your notebook. Instead, you’ll be able to effortlessly tap into that unlimited potential the blank page offers—and guiltlessly tear out the pages you don’t want to keep.

(Pro tip from the bullet journaling method: create a table of contents on the first couple pages and update it as you go, so you can easily find what you want to reference later!)

3. An Escape from Screens

This might be my favorite thing about an ugly notebook: it’s not a screen.

We spend so much of our lives in front of screens. If we’re not looking at our phones or tablets to entertain us or self-soothe, we’re doing work on our desktops or laptops. And the research is making it clearer and clearer that all this screen time is doing us more harm than good both physically and mentally.

Using a physical notebook to write forces you to focus on the words, so you can lose yourself in the story just like our predecessors we so admire. Your concentration will remain unbroken because paper can’t notify you of breaking news or social media posts, thank goodness.

If you find yourself drawn to picking up your phone while you write, try a focusing app like Hank Green’s chart-topping Focus Friend or my personal favorite, Flora.

4. Defense Against AI Use & Plagiarism Accusations

I hate to bring this up, so I’ll make it quick.

In this day and age of AI use and plagiarism accusations tanking writing careers old, having a physical, handwritten copy of your first draft can lend legitimacy to your innocence. It gives you a paper trail. Anyone who claims you fabricated a whole notebook’s worth of poetry, prose, or notes will be rightly dismissed as someone who’s crying wolf, and your reputation will remain intact.

The Drawbacks of Writing by Hand (& Smart Fixes You Can Implement)

2. Increased Potential of Lost Work

I know the notion of losing a notebook—ugly or pretty—is downright terrifying. I’ve misplaced a couple in my life, and it always breaks my heart.

And that’s why you’re going to do what everyone tells you to do with your writing, which is back it the hell up. Snap a picture of each page as you complete it, or sit down to type up what you’ve handwritten every couple days. That way, you don’t have a heart attack when you realize your notebook slipped out of your tote bag at some point in your busy day.

A nice bonus: when you type up what’s in the notebook, you can incorporate the edits you want to make as you go!

3. Difficulty Tracking Progress

No, you can’t accurately track your word count when writing in a notebook. I don’t blame you for not wanting to count each individual word on every single page. That would drive me up a wall, too.

You can, however, dog-ear the pages or add a bookmark to help you visualize how far you are along in your notebook.

You can also guesstimate how many words you write per page. Just find the average number of words you can fit in each line of your notebook, then count the number of rows per page and multiply that number by the average number of words per row.

For example, I know in your typical college-ruled spiral-bound notebook that I can fit about 10 words before needing to drop down to a new line. Those notebooks have 32 lines to a page.

10 words in a line x 32 lines per page ≈ 320 words per page

If you want to take it a step further, you can guesstimate how many words you’ve written in a full notebook! There are 70 sheets in those college-ruled spiral-bound notebooks, right? That’s 140 pages.

320 words per page x 140 pages ≈ 44,800 words in a notebook

I tend to underwrite, so that’s just about a full first draft of a novel for me! Ain’t that neat?

How to Use the Ugly Notebook Theory in Your Writing Life

The first step is obvious: choosing the ugly notebook. I encourage you to choose from your current supply rather than pick out a new one, lest you fall under its spell. Since you’re not choosing the notebook based on aesthetics, make a choice based on practicality: what feels like a good size in your hands, and what you can fit in your purse/tote/backpack/work bag with room to spare.

It might feel weird to start writing a draft in a notebook you don’t like. Instead of forcing it, try using your first one as a commonplace book while you adjust to having it around. That’s what I initially did for the call center job I worked in the past—I had a notebook that I figured I’d just doodle in when we weren’t busy, and I wound up writing more than one book between calls over the course of a few years.

Before you know it, you won’t want to go anywhere without your ugly notebook, as unlikely as it sounds. There’s a certain romanticism to writing by hand to which no one is immune. When my partner and I take our weekly-to-monthly visits to NYC together, I don’t even bring my laptop—just the plainest notebook you’ve ever seen and a few pens (to be honest, more than strictly necessary, but that’s a topic for another blog post). Sipping on specialty iced lattes in the city while leisurely working on my novel feels downright indulgent.

And nothing makes you feel more like a real writer than having a shelf full of well-loved notebooks. Even ugly notebooks.

When you’re ready to turn that ugly notebook’s messy first draft into a masterpiece, book me for a story coaching session.

I help writers like you find the beating heart of your story through carving out your character arcs. A couple hours over a video call later, you’ll close your laptop with a renewed passion for your story and a better understanding of what makes it so brilliant.