I’ve always wanted to keep a “writer’s notebook.” Ever since I was a kid (I LOVED Harriet the Spy!) And I’ve been given beautiful notebooks through the years specifically for this purpose…but that’s sort of been the problem. They always looked TOO nice for me to scribble in.
But Deborah Wiles really inspired me to give the old notebook a try. So I got a regular old composition notebook (actually I had it in the bottom of a drawer)…wrote “Dori’s Notebook” and “November 2007” on the cover…and I started writing in it. I don’t have to worry about whether my scribblings are worthy of jotting down in a composition noteboook…it’s JUST a composition notebook! Nothing I write in there has to be deep or profound or even NEAT (as long as I can read it). The idea is I will do away with the miscellaneous random scraps of paper that litter my house (and purse) and the miscellaneous random files of notes on my computer. All my notes will be in one place from now on — my official “writer’s notebook.” (Deborah Wiles says she even keeps her GROCERY LIST in her notebook…I don’t think I’d go that far…but I have been keeping a book list in there (a list of books I WANT to read, not a list of books I’ve ALREADY read…that list is on my computer.))
I wasn’t sure whether keeping an “official writer’s notebook” was going to work for me or not…I wasn’t sure whether I’d really write in it. But I have been. I’ve been doing it for a week…using different colored pens to note book titles, possible story ideas, notes about new places to check for freelance work, notes on T.J.’s Story…make that ENDLESS notes on T.J.’s Story! I haven’t been going back to reread or revise anything I’ve written on that since I started working on it again the first of November (which is HUGE for me!). I’ve just been trying to get the story down. So anything that’s occurred to me regarding scenes I’ve already written (or even scenes I have yet to write) has gone IN THE NOTEBOOK. Except I just realized…I’ve been doing those notes in black. I wonder if notes on my WIP should be in RED???
