Wet paper is the worst because it never dries flat again. Mine went through the wash once and the pages turned into a crinkly mess, so I started using a pencil to mark things and it actually held up fine. What saved me was sticking a piece of washi tape on the spine afterward to keep the pages from tearing when I flip through fast. If yours only got a little damp, try pressing it under a stack of heavy books for a day or two before you write in it. A cheap fix that worked for me was just switching to mechanical pencils since they don't smear when the paper still has a bit of moisture. Honestly the notebook ended up with more character that way.

My sister paid $60 for one of those last month and got the same wax museum eyes thing, so at least you're not alone in the bad photo club. Feels like every app now wants us to pay for a worse version of something we already had for free.