Writing Straight on Blank Paper

Perhaps one of THE most frustrating dilemmas most people face when making a book of shadows is writing straight on blank paper.

Most people buy books of shadows that have straight blank pages for mere esthetics. I personally like the look of blank pages with no lines, but it can be quite difficult to write straight with blank pages. There's the common problem of going "uphill" when writing. Here I offer a solution.

Take a standard piece of lined paper. Darken the lines with a black pen or marker OR print off lined paper with bolded lines from your computer in the size spaces desired between lines (personally I like lots of lines so that I can write smaller and incorporate more information on one page. Keeps the book from getting too thick).

Take your lined page, and set it behind your blank page, and voila, you can write as though you have lines, then once you take away the lined paper from behind the blank page, you have straight writing.

(click for a closer view)

Now, some people's books of shadows have parchment pages that can be a bit harder to see the lined paper behind. This solution is a little bit more time consuming. Take a ruler and measure whatever sized width lines you desire (say 10cm). Make tiny dots going down the side of your blank paper on both sides of the sheet. Now, using your ruler and a pencil, make faint lines going across your parchment paper. These lines can then be erased after you have written your information.

I hope this has been helpful.