The Fabulous Writer’s Notebook 

     So, I am guessing that at some point in your life as student an English teacher required you to keep a journal or a notebook for some type of writing assignment.  Now, you can forget all of the possibly ugly school and assignment connotations that might be attached to the idea of keeping a notebook, and do it just for you–however you find it works best.

     I love having a notebook just for writing ideas because I frequently get bits and pieces of a subject or theme, maybe an image, that I want to write about in more detail at a later date.  With a writing notebook, I can get the jist of the idea down without the fear of forgetting it completely.  I also use my notebook for writing practice, lists, extremely rough drafts, etc.

     The thing I mess up on is getting too many different things going in the same notebook–my creative writing ideas get mixed in with my grocery list, my to-do list, and my personal calendar/planner.  This is not a practice I recommend.  It really is best to commit yourself to one notebook for all things writing-related.

     I have been keeping notebooks and journals for many years now.  A while back, my dad found a box of journals that I didn’t realize I had.  They go back sixteen years and include writing ideas, practice exercises, dreams that I had and tried to recount upon waking–my next rainy day activity will be to begin skimming through those old works to see if I find a glimmer of an idea or a thought that I can rework into today’s gem.