Notebooks. Which kind?

Fat ones?
Skinny ones?
Short ones?
Long ones?
Wide ones?

Here's my choice:

It's like having two note pads on one page with the margin down the middle.

 

Stenos are definitely the way to go.

 

I like steno pads the best, but I think they are getting harder to find because secretaries really don't take steno since every desk has had a personal computer.

 

I take the Steno pads, but only because of their size. The best one I've had, though, was a Cambridge one with the same dimensions. It was about 200 pages thick and was great to write on because it made it so sturdy. Haven't found one since I bought it, though.

 

I don't report in the field anymore, but other reporters, when I was out West, hooked me on the smaller book type notebooks. One I have for office is a 5 x 7, but I've used a little bigger, too (9.5 x 6.375). I find flipping the pages sideways like a regular book more convenient than the old steno pads or reporter's notebooks or legal pads.

 

It always depended on what I was covering. Legal pads for basketball games because of the way I keep stats, reporters notebooks for soccer, volleyball, track b/c they fit in my hand and I could hold them while writing. Steno's for baseball/softball. I'm weird, I know.

 

If I'm covering a game, it's legal pad. I've got my own system for every sport designed with the legal pad in mind. In everything but football, I can get it all on one page. Anything else, I'm using stenos.

 

I use steno pads for BKB and FB, because that's where I keep play by play.... doesn't matter about the others, because it's just notes for the rest.
I think Legal pads are too cumbersome but that's just me

 

Does anyone know of a site where you can order reporters notebooks?

I actually saw a reporters notebook in a supermarket the other day. It was expensive, so I didn't buy it, but it got me remembeing how convenient those are. I typically use steno pads now or five-subject notepads (the smaller ones, not the giant school-sized ones), but those don't fit into the back pocket.

 

Seems like the SPJ site used to hawk them. Haven't visited there in a while ...

Slappy, the reason I use legal pads is early on I found i was spending a lot of time flipping back and forth for play-by-play stuff, and it was hurting me on deadline. It's less of an issue now because I'm a more practiced writer. Flipping back and forth is unavoidable with football, but I morphed that way out of time management necessity. Otherwise, yeah, the legal's kind of bulky, but it really comes down to what you're used to. I never did get comfortable with reporters notebooks.

 

I've been telling me how weird I am. We've all got our own way to cover, doesn't make you weird. I use preprinted forms I designed in Quark on a clipboard for Football, Baseball, Softball. reporters notebook for volleyball, track, soccer, basketball and wrestling. You're not weird, but me with preprinted forms, that's weird!