So I'm basically a new writer, and I'm wondering about notebooks. I'm sure you all have, and use them, and while I'm sure I could imagine what goes into one, I still don't truly know. I've used them in the past here and there yet I feel I haven't properly utilized one. I figure if I understand how others use them, then by a switch of perspective, I may begin to develop a personal way of using a notebook. My most current is a small pocket notebook which I mean to use solely out-of-house. Do you write about what's around you? Story Ideas? Names? Goals or even passwords? I know it seems I've answered my own question, but I still feel ignorant on the subject. Thoughts?
My notebook is mine, and is defined by me. Its definition changes to accommodate whatever I need at the time. At various times, it contains story ideas, scraps of poetry, metaphors that occur to me for inclusion in some WIP or other, paragraphs of story text, facts gathered in research, song lyrics, shopping lists, phone numbers, and anything else I don't want to forget. I always carry a pocket-sized hardcover Moleskine notebook with me (3.625" x 5.56") or an A5 size Leuchtturm1917 or Conceptum, if I have space for it. I love writing in hardback notebooks, with elastic closures and ribbon markers. I can't help thinking I write better in a sort of classy notebook than I do in a kid's school rag.
Nope. Or... I do have many unused and empty notebooks. My notebook is my computer. If and when I want to save notes, I use it. That is ok as long as you don't think - at all, not even a second - that that image has something to do with reality. It is good to imagine, but better to take care about the massive line between images and reality. Why not just to make the best possible personal way instead of paying attention to what someone else does? 1. Not much. 2. Not only ideas. Iff I get an idea that is good enough, I use to make a file. A typical file might have an idea paper, some character papers, pieces of synopsis, pieces of backstory... 3. Character names to character papers. 4. I don't understand what you mean by that. 5. I find it a bit arrogant to ask about passwords in internet. I keep my passwords in elf made safety box under the pole in North Pole. Orcs and trolls are guarding it with axes and spears. I have a magic key to that box. The key is certain type of colour blue mixed with reindeer blood - but not any reindeer - and some magic words that only Finns can say aloud. And you must know how to mix colour, words and blood or Orcs will kill you. If you want to develop the way you make notes, don't think notebooks but your workflow. Notebooks - or other methods to make notes - are a small part of your workflow. But that part is in the beginning of your working and/or in the border line between your working and the world around you. If you can make the way you write or record things down an easy and fluent part of your workflow, you benefit a lot. You open your computer. How long it takes that you can write? Five minutes? Three seconds? Do you use your mobile phone to record your notes? To take pictures as notes? Do you use your internet browsers bookmarks as a notebook? Do you make backup files often enough? Are they safe? Do you use internet boards or other communal areas as public and shared notebooks? (You can share inspirational things, knowledge, links, your networks... You don't loose it if you share it.) Do you buy books, underline them, write remarks to the margins as one way to make notes? How wide and deep is your style to make notes and remarks for yourself? Ask these things from yourself. (No need to answer here if you don't want to.) Check how that suits your workflow. Then make things more fluent.
I used to have hundreds of notebooks back in my school days since I was trained to be a writer at an early age, however, with the advent of our digital age, I've moved everything to my computer and don't really scribble by hand all that much, nyaa.
I carry a pocket notebook with me at all times, mainly for story ideas and research tidbits. I get story ideas (problem-solving ones, as well as new ones) most freely when I'm out and about, either walking or riding a bus, etc. Even sitting on my own in a restaurant (which I love doing.) I do all my actual writing on my desktop computer, though. The biggest problem—and it is BIG—is dealing with the accumulation of notebooks, while wondering where it was that I wrote something down. I keep meaning to establish a routine, where I either tear the pages out and put them in some sort of order right away, or transcribe what I've written onto my computer every couple of days or so. The fact is, I've probably got about 25 small notebooks filled up with stuff (and not all story-related either) so I don't always know where to look to find what I need. (My computer files are well organised and I can always find what I need. But the handwritten ones are a nightmare. Probably because they are so random, and the stuff in them can't be moved around.) It's not that much of a problem if what I've written down pertains to my WIP and close to where I'm going to need it. The problem comes with research tidbits, conversations or story ideas that I won't get to for a while. I would advise you to use a notebook and carry it at all times, but make some sort of system that's workable—that you will actually USE—to store the information and find it quickly later on. Then you can probably ditch the notebook itself, once it's been filled. Otherwise you'll end up like me, with a drawer full of them, and not a clue what each one contains!
I'd be very interested to find out how you access this random information later on. It's a big problem for me.
I don't, at least not in any organized way. I just read through my notebooks (or a subset of them) every so often, looking for interesting things. Things I need regularly (usually not story related), like phone numbers, I usually put at the end of the books. I like the Leuchtturm1917 and Conceptum books because they have two ribbon markers, and I use them (sometimes) to separate general things from "current on-the-go" things. I like reading my notebooks. I like peering into my brain of yesteryear or yestermonth. My notebooks fascinate me. Yes, that means I guess I fascinate myself, but I think that's true of just about everyone. I very often find unrelated scraps of prose or lyrics or facts which, when taken together (and they were not collected to be taken together) prompt a new line of thought that I can use in a WIP. I don't organize my notebooks; I mine them. Serendipity often strikes and I find more than I was looking for.
I don't really use notebooks for writing, I use my computer. I do have a notebook for all my usernames and passwords. It's unbelievable how many pages it takes up. I noticed I only have about 3 passwords but tons of usernames. I don't mind using the same password but so I don't get banks and stuff confused I use different usernames.
My college professor for a creative writing class had us keep a notebook for the semester. It was used to jot down random thoughts or ideas. It really came in handy while writing a story or poem because I could flip through the notebook and look for inspiration. Granted, not everything you write in it will be useful, but at the very least, it's a good way to practice writing. I also enjoy writing using a pen/pencil and paper from time to time, so that's an added bonus.
I have a 5 section spiral notebook I use for my WIP. My 1st section is just a jumble of all my initial ideas, plans, character names, just a chaotic mess of ideas from the very beginning of my story concept. The 2nd section is for rough drafts, a place to hand-write should I find myself away from a computer. 3rd section is world building- all the plans and ideas and maps of my world, the governments, the people, etc. 4th section is for plot arcs- it's a more organized outline of all my plot arcs. I have them separated into one outline per arc. So I have a Main Plot outline, then Subplot A, Subplot B, etc. Then the final section is for research- any notes on things I had to research during the writing process. Since mine is set in a medieval type world, I have stuff like how they did laundry, what the growing seasons were, when equinoxes and solstices were, all that stuff. When it comes to random ideas in the middle of the day or night or whenever my notebook isn't available, I text them to myself to keep them all in one place. I don't really have a system for ideas not pertaining to my current WIP, bc I have a pretty one-track mind, and honestly, haven't been thinking about anything else.
I prefer full size (A5) top bound notebooks, just because I find them a lot easier to write in. I generally find that with the normal variety I find my hand getting all cramped up in the spine while I'm writing and for whatever reason that bothers me far more than it should. I usually just use them to gather random thoughts, stanzas, plot points and random questions I ask about the plot. Then later I go through and organize it into my computer, into my outlines, et cetera, It's a habit I got into in school where instead of dragging around backpacks worth of paper, I'd just take one note pad to class to take notes in, then organize them all by class at the end of the day, which also forced me to review my notes at least once before an exam came up.
I've said this before, but as there are a lot of newer members in this thread that weren't here... Whatever notebooks you choose, invest in something acid-free, or at a minimum, use acid-free pens when you write in them. If you can do both, do. It's more expensive but worth it. Next time I'm at my storage space, I'll post pictures either here or on my writer social media to show you why, but suffice it to say one of my notebooks from a particularly creative period is virtually unreadable due to the reaction between paper and pen. It happened frighteningly fast, and most of the material in it is unrecoverable. (The notebook in question was a common black and white composition book, and the pens were various brands of ballpoint pen.)
I never would have considered this, so thanks for sharing. I'm using a soft cover moleskin and uni-ball vision needle (it's the liquid ink kind.) Do you know weather these can stand the test of time?
Per the orange Moleskine label that I use as its bookmark, Moleskin notebooks are acid-free. The Uni-ball vision needle I'm not positive of. Google Uniball Vision needle acid free and you'll get an answer. Works with the name of any pen. Uni-ball Vision Elite, which are my favorites, are acid-free. I'm certain that Pilot G-2 pens are acid-free as well.
I'm sorry to hear that. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even realize this was a thing as my mum has tonnes of things I'd written when I was a kid and most of it is still as legible as when it was written. Since it was mostly done in grade school, though, I know it was written with run of the mill Bic or Paper Mate pens in either blue or black, on Hilroy loose leaf.
IKR? Most of mine on standard filler paper are OK too. The spiral notebooks are hit or miss but mostly OK. The black and white composition books fared the worst. Ironically enough, the black and white comp books were never my preference but were required by a class I took at the time. ETA: Having a stationery store on the corner to feed my penchant for pens at that time, I couldn't tell you what brand they were. But I can tell you what color of ballpoint ink it was: purple. Damn and blast my teenage love of purple ink.
I actually saw some the other day and, overcome by a wave of nostalgia, was planning on getting a pile. Kinda glad I didn't now.
I love notebooks. I buy them. I have a shelf with Moleskine (three kinds), Leuchtturm1917, SemiKolon (two kinds), Rhodia (three kinds), Rite in the rain, and some with brand names so subtle that I'm too lazy to find them. Oh, and some classic bound lab notebooks. And some reporter's notebooks. It's an addiction. It doesn't help that I pass an art store and Powell's Books several times a week. But I very rarely actually write in them. The only times I've made good, thorough use of a notebook was when I used one for my garden log--120 beds, one page per bed, notes all year, very handy.
I've looked it up, and the uni-ball vision needle is acid free- phew. I love needle pens the most, so it's a relief I can continue using them with peace of mind.
