Confession. I'm a victim of the Palmer Method. I went to Catholic School and learned to write cursive in those notebooks with the dotted lines through the center. I spent many an hour looping my ds, ps, and qs to just the right height, my wrist never touching the desk. Somewhere along the line, I rebelled, and now even I have a hard time reading my scrawl.
But that doesn't stop me from filling up notebooks.
Recent circumstances have led me to a block of time here, a block of time there, and a lot of travel in between. Firing up a laptop became cumbersome and my writing time dwindled. I knew I needed a different approach, so I went back to basics. Marble notebooks.
I bought one in hot pink for my WIP. It makes me happy to open it up and write in it. It's completely portable and I'm finding a different connection to my writing in putting pen to paper. Typing up my scrawl a day or two later gives me another opportunity to add emotional depth and description I missed in my first go round.
I'm liking this notebook thing.
Anybody else out there going Luddite on their drafts?
Photo credit: npclark2k
from morguefile.com
Friday, March 1, 2013
Filling Up Notebooks
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Can you believe kids aren't even taught cursive anymore??!!
ReplyDeleteI collect notebooks. And we're not talking fancy ones...character ones, special colors, special paper, ones I'm just drawn to for whatever reason...there's definitely a different connection with pen to paper vs fingers to keyboard. There's an intimacy there that sometimes gets lost click clacking away. (although that's a nice sound too...)
If I'm stuck at a certain point, I sometimes jot down a question(or two or three) at night before I go to bed then write a little in longhand in the morning. It's definitely a great way to get "unstuck".
Long Live the marble notebook!!!! (I always need a new stash when school begins too!!)
Hello Judy,
ReplyDeleteI fill out my notebooks every 2-3 months. Love scribbling and hearing the scratch of 2B pencils on smooth paper. Typing the draft into the laptop does help me revise the ms. It's great to meet fellow-notebook writers!
Claudine
Nice to know others grab paper and pen or pencil sometimes too. I prefer q pencil any day. Maybe it's because it takes me back to school days when I loved a writing challenge best of all. Pencil was the tool, long before stories and reports were required to be in pen.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a laptop writer. I always start my drafts with pen in a cheap, lined notebook (preferably a pretty color). I don't switch to the computer until I have a few drafts on paper. I need that tactile satisfaction!
ReplyDeleteI've always loved paper, notebooks, pencils and pens. As a child, one of my biggest treats was to be given money and taken to a stationery store.
ReplyDeleteNow, when I'm stuck finding the perfect word, I turn from keyboard to pencil and paper. What fun to make messy lists and scribble out the wrong choices!
Robin, I collect notebooks too, but I've always collected small ones to jot notes down when ideas occur on the fly. I bought a few in Italy that I particularly love.
ReplyDeleteBut now I've begun a new love affair with the marble kind.
Claudine -- welcome! Do you draft novels in that 2-3 month time span?
ReplyDeleteLinda, I totally get that being back in school feeling. After all, that's what we're writing about, right?
ReplyDeleteSharon: Just wondering, do you sketch while you write?
ReplyDeleteGale, I still love stationery stores. And I, too, get real satisfaction from crossing out. I only write on one side of the paper, so I can blacken out what I don't like as deeply and completely as my hand and brain need.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only stationery store freak!
ReplyDeleteI always adore a new notebook! It's empty pages seem filled with possibility!
ReplyDeleteBut I do find myself starting a lot of drafts in a file on my computer now. I guess it just depends what I have around.
(I have written first drafts in crayon too. When I have found myself inspired with no pen in sight. I guess a writer writes with whatever material they've got! :o) )
I am looking forward to completely filling my notebook of pink possibilities! And maybe, just maybe, I'll add a few crayons into the mix.
DeleteI am looking forward to completely filling my notebook of pink possibilities! And maybe, just maybe, I'll add a few crayons into the mix.
ReplyDelete