It’s great to use a small blank book for your personal anthology. They are easy to carry around and keep near by for when you need to read the teachings. It can be tricky, though, to write neatly on such a small surface. Here are some tips to make things easier.
Pencil or Pen
If you are not a professional scribe, you may make mistakes when you are copying texts into your personal anthology. To make it a more pleasant experience, consider using a soft pencil. This will give you dark letters that are easy to erase. Although the pages touch, they don’t tend to rub back and forth so the pencil won’t smudge much.
When you are writing on the left hand page, it may cause marks to transfer between the touching sides of the previous two pages, especially if you are writing in pencil. Just place a blank piece of paper between the two pages. This will keep the writing from transferring.
Big Hands, Small Book
You may find it awkward to be writing on such a small space. There are two problems. First, with a new book the left hand side is higher than the right hand side. Second, your hand and arm won’t always rest on the page you are writing because the book is small. This can be awkward. Solve this problem by placing another small book under the left hand side to even the height, and rest your hand or arm on yet another book to raise it to the page level. CD cases also work well for this, and you can change the height easily by adding or subtracting one.
This will make the process more pleasant and let you focus on the words of the Blessed One and his enlightened disciples.
Do you have tips on writing in a small book? Share them in the comments below.