I have a few Moleskine hacks that I like a lot. I’ll probably write these up on my own homepage as well.

Hack 1, Wear Cargo Pants: I wear cargo pants almost exclusively now even if they don’t quite meet up to the social pressures of my job. I carry a copy of Strunk and White and a thin paperback book (like Stephen King says, always carry a book with you) in one pocket. Right now its H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness”. In the other cargo pocket I carry one or two Moleskine plain pocket-sized notebooks. I carry my Waterman Expert 2 loaded with G2 .7mm black ink refills, a Pentel click eraser (white art-style eraser in a little plastic pen-sized tube), and a Rotring 600 .7mm mechanical pencil or Faber Castell 1.2mm E-Motion pencil. The cargo pants (my favorite are Eddie Bauer ultimate cargo pants), also hold my cell phone and iPod, my wallet, and keys. Since becoming a Moleskinner, these pants do the job very well.

Hack 2, Use Waterman pens with Pilot G2 ink: I use Pilot G2 .7mm rollerball refills exclusively now. I performed some experiments on Moleskine paper and G2 ink and while I spare you the details, I will say that G2 ink on a Moleskine page will last as long as the page holds together. G2 ink is cheap (about a buck a pen) and available almost everywhere in the US including major office supply stores, grocery stores, and drug stores. Every Waterman rollerball pen I have tried can hold a G2 refill. Right now I use a Waterman Expert 2 with a G2 refill for all of my writing. It’s expensive but cheaper than a Palm Pilot. If you don’t want to spend a lot on a fancy snobby pen, get a Pilot Dr. Grip Gel. It runs about $5 and for the money its the best pen in the US.

Hack 3, Number your pages. In my story notebooks, I write the page number of the book and the page number of the story I am working on. In each corner of every page I draw a small rectangle with enough room for the page number of the Moleskine and the page number of the story I am working on. This way, if I ever happen to start a new story before finishing another, I can keep track of which pages go with which stories. I keep an index of all of the stories in each Moleskine on the first page of the notebook with page number references. Five hundred or a thousand years from now can dig up my old stories and publish them in some giant tome. I don’t do this for my normal walking-around journal which is usually piled up with work notes and drawings of swords and vampires.

Hack 4: Print out my Writer’s Tips PDF and keep a copy in each Moleskine. I wrote a Writer’s Tips PDF with useful writing tips on one side and a page from the Operina 1522 calligraphy book. The PDF pages are meant to be printed to two sides of a single piece of paper and then cut in half. Folding each half twice should allow it to fit into the back pocket of a pocket Moleskine. The sheet includes tips from Orwell, Strunk and White, Heinlein, and Edward Tufte along with a list of overused metaphors I collect in my travels. The page from the Operina matches the writing style I choose to follow these days, a writing style of Chancery Italics both legible and easy to write.

Hack 5, Use the Plain Pocket Moleskine Notebook: The plain pocket notebook allows you to have any sort of notebook you want. Without any lines at all you are free to work it into an address book, a phone book, a journal, a schedule, a scrap book, a sketch book, or just about anything else. No lines means freedom to do whatever you want. The size of the Moleskine pocket notebook means you can carry it wherever you go. It fits in purses or pockets easily and allows you to jot down that brilliant thought whether you are at the office, on a plane, or waiting in line at a grocery store.

Hack 6, Use Moleskine Hyperlinks: By numbering every page in your Moleskine you can add a “continued from page 53” or “continued on page 92”. These Moleskine hyperlinks help you keep track of multiple threads of thought happening all at once. They also help others understand your thoughts when they dig up your priceless Moleskine in a thousand years.