My first writer’s notebook, like a first love, will always hold a special place in my heart. It was a pocket-sized spiral notebook with a green marbled cover. I found it buried and forgotten in some random drawer and “appropriated” it for the cause. It wasn’t a writer’s notebook in the purest sense of the word. It served more as an all purpose utility tool, - like a Leatherman in paper form - part daily planner, full of to-do lists, phone number directory, and random road directions. | I may have a bit of a notebook problem |
But then I began to fill it with call numbers for books I checked out to research story ideas, random lyric fragments (I fancied myself a songwriter at the time) and finally movie plot ideas. I soon found it indispensable; taking it with me everywhere and after filling its pages was in the market for a new one.
When I spotted my first Moleskin notebook at a Barnes & Noble it was hard no to be impressed the advertised pedigree. Use the notebook made famous by Hemingway, Picasso, and Vincent Van Gogh. Please take my money. All romantic notions aside, writer’s notebooks have proved an essential tool for me. I love scribbling done the fragments of my imagination and watching the puzzle pieces take shape.
But one reason a writer’s notebook is so important to me is that I have a crap memory. For me inspiration pops up while I’m showering, out hiking or staring out the window while stuck in traffic and if I don’t jot down those musings in the moment I often find them lost forever.
When I spotted my first Moleskin notebook at a Barnes & Noble it was hard no to be impressed the advertised pedigree. Use the notebook made famous by Hemingway, Picasso, and Vincent Van Gogh. Please take my money. All romantic notions aside, writer’s notebooks have proved an essential tool for me. I love scribbling done the fragments of my imagination and watching the puzzle pieces take shape.
But one reason a writer’s notebook is so important to me is that I have a crap memory. For me inspiration pops up while I’m showering, out hiking or staring out the window while stuck in traffic and if I don’t jot down those musings in the moment I often find them lost forever.
My imagination has always been inspired by an empty notebook and what creative things I could fill in its pages. Part of me always wanted my notebooks to beautiful and esoteric like what famed horror director Guillermo Del Toro does with his notebooks.
A page from Guilermerro Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections, and other Obsessions
I've done some sketches and doodles in my pages from time to time and have been tempted to create something as wondrous as Del Toro's, but then I remind myself that he's a Director working in a visual medium. His notebooks are more an artist's sketchbook than a true writer's notebook. The author Lawrence Block, a proponent of the value of writer's notebooks, offers some cautionary advice regarding this in his book Writing the Novel
A "writer who puts too much energy into notebook entries is like the athlete who overtrains, like a boxer who leaves his fight in the gym."
The important thing to remember is that a writer's notebook is but one tool in a writer's toolkit, not an end in and of itself. While this may seem obvious, many a would-be writer get lost researching ideas and never putting pen to paper. I think of it as a reference book, like a dictionary or thesaurus, because at the beginning of a new project I refer to it and go over all my notes for outlining.
So whether big or small, cheap or expensive, paper or digital, a writer's notebook is a must have for any and all wordsmiths.
So whether big or small, cheap or expensive, paper or digital, a writer's notebook is a must have for any and all wordsmiths.