Young Writers Society

As a writer, I get a lot of advice about keeping a notebook. I never really believed it at first because I was never really the diary type. My family always bought me those little ones with a space for every day where you're meant to fill in where you go and what you do and who you see. I eventually came to the conclusion that I was just bad at keeping a notebook. I never wanted to write that kind of thing down, regardless of the fact that I knew I would probably forget everything the next day.

Eventually I realized that such a diary isn't really a productive thing to keep. If you're forcing yourself to write down mundane details of your life, it's not going to help you grow as much as if you write down the things that interest you. I read an interesting piece by Joan Didion about keeping a notebook that sort of changed the way that I looked at things. Now, instead of attempting to keep track of my life and my travels, I just write down little snippets of things - the color of an old woman's hat, something crude that a man said on a subway, or the color of my friend's eyes when he laughs. Don't get me wrong, I use it for starting off my prose and poetry too, but its main use is just to get things down on paper - the things that I would otherwise lose.

I think that it helped me a lot to let go and stop feeling guilty for not writing everything down. Does anyone else keep a journal or notebook with them? How does it help/harm your work?

Yeah, I know...my mom and dad and friends would always buy me little journals and things so that I could keep a diary, just because I loved those "Dear America" books- you know, those historical kids' journals? I thought those were really cool, but my life just never seemed that exciting. XD

So I have like a million pretty journals lying about with one page written in them. They bug me because they look too fancy to write in- that's key. You shouldn't be afraid to bang it up or take it everywhere just because it's pretty, which is why I love my *shameless product placement* SPARKLY NEW YWS notebook, which doesn't have any lines.

No lines is good. So I can just blather on in the corners of pages like I like to do, and I have several pages just to jot down scene notes, and critiquing notes, and random titles...

So, yeah. Don't feel like you have to have a 'record' of your life- blogging's usually easier, for that. But for the personal 'note to self' muse stuff, carry around a notebook. It's pretty handy, and you don't have to worry- like Joan Didion mentioned- whether or not it makes sense to anyone else.

I have this mole skin, but honestly, since school ended and i moved all my stuff out, I'm not sure I'd be able to find it... I really only used it for random things, and sometimes I forgot it existed. and it's so small, it just... frustrated me.

I should go read that article and get inspired!

But... I like lines.

Anyway, I used to carry a couple of notebooks wherever I went, but... it didn't work out because I kept missing details and everything that, if I had been paying attention to something other than my notebook, I might have seen it.

Oh well.

I still like writing things down though... somewhere.

I'm addicted to writing things down. I have a blog, which if I could carry in my head as a sort of mental life-narration thing, I would. It's helped me so much with typing speed. Plus it's almost like plot-construction practice, because every time something really interesting happens that I want to write about, I find myself working out how I tell it, the order of events, what I give away when, etc, to make it more ... interesting, I guess.

Also I have many many many notbooks lying around with I write random things in when I feel the urge. I'm with Sam on the no lines thing. Sometimes if I can't find a notebook with no lines I just grab a wad of printer paper and use that.

Sam wrote:I loved those "Dear America" books- you know, those historical kids' journals? I thought those were really cool, but my life just never seemed that exciting. XD

Ha ha, I loved those too! And I always imagined that maybe one day someone would find my diary and make it into some historical journal diary thing. Except that I wrote about Yu-Gi-Oh and how I wanted a ping-pong table instead of shrapnel and the bloody footprints of Hessians in the Kentucky snow, but none of that seemed relevant at nine years old.

I have problems writing in pretty journals as well. I guess I should get over that. I bought this really nice one - thick paper, imported from Italy, just slightly textured and nicely bound - at one of those paper/calligraphy stores, and I've basically just been staring at it for a couple of months because I can't bear to make a mark in it.

I have to agree with Snoink, though - I make a mess if I don't have lines! My sentences alway slope toward the right if I don't, and then I end up writing diagonally before I get to the bottom of the page.

I'm really particular about notebooks. It's just weird.

The lines have to be a certain space apart. Not too much. I hate the big-spaced notebooks or pages. Corner Office notebooks are good for me.

I like thin paper.

The pages have to be PERFECT: no spots, if it's waterstained or dog-eared or ripped or anything, out goes the page.

Same with the pen.

Which seems really hypocritical of me, since I'm a little on the messy side and I have notebooks haunting my room, both living and the ghost ones. XD The notebooks that i threw out, that is.

I love pretty journals. But when I get up at midnight without my contacts on just to write one line of inspiration, I'm usually having to scribble it. Then I tear out the page the next day and rewrite it nicely.

And I have those nice little memo papers, which I scribble weird stuff and lyrics to songs I hear on the radio.
Augh. Am I weird? XD

I don't do diaries. I think they're yucky. I don't like remembering. Writing wise, graph paper is the absolute best. There's something very structurally sound about it. I have a little 2"x3" graph paper notebook that fits in my pocket and I write stuff on all day. In a way, it's like a diary in that it's stuff from my life, but like Lynlyn said, it's stuff like a website I should look up, or a conversation I heard. My teachers give me funny looks when I scramble for my notebook during class ^_^

So I have like a million pretty journals lying about with one page written in them. They bug me because they look too fancy to write in- that's key. You shouldn't be afraid to bang it up or take it everywhere just because it's pretty, which is why I love my *shameless product placement* SPARKLY NEW YWS notebook, which doesn't have any lines.

urg, pretty journals. You feel bad if you rip out pages or scribble or doodle or put notes in the margins, which I do a lot. The same goes for those nice, black hardcover sketchbooks; they're such a showcase, like everything that goes in there has to be nice and polished. [the only point in having a hardcover sketchbook would be if it's a watercolor sketchbook, which is awesome, and a tale for another day]. So I have a marble notebook or two - born of my tendency to work on stories when I was in spanish class - with snippets and beginnings, book lists, poems, notes from english class, and so on. Those are usually just for school, though; they help, but all my ideas are usually spread out between post-it notes on my monitor and around my desk, and random .txt files as well as the notebook.

It helps for developing ideas or starting things I don't know how to start, but I don't use it as often as I should.

So many notebooks, my problem is i will be out and i will be struck with a rbilliant idea buy a notebook write it down and never ever use that notebook again.

Got a pile so fthem in my room

I have notebooks for writing, and then others for notes. The latter are always red, while the former never are.

Red notebooks get filled, I have at least two stuffed ones floating about my room somewhere. They're used for jotting down notes, little paragraphs or character doodles. But I don't carry them around with me, I have a tiny tiny green notebook for that, but I always forget that it's there and so it doesn't have much written in it.

I don't like fancy notebooks either. I always use WHSmith A5 80 sheet notebooks, and they have uber plain plastic covers, and a little elastic band to keep the closed. I always use them, I can't seem to focus in any other ones O_o

I keep a rather detailed and mundane LJ, of which I am most fond. (I've had it since before I started high school, I think.) I kept a lot of blogs before that, too. I also keep a Chococat notepad near my desk so I can write things down when I think of them at 2am and don't feel like writing it out just right then. (I don't carry a notebook with me, except when I'm traveling. I figure if it's worth remembering, I'll remember it later. It usually works.)

I don't like writing in any paper journals, because I always feel like I wasted them by tearing out paper and not writing on every single page.

I've wanted a blogspot for a long time.

But my dad turned it into chinese.

darn it.

:/ anyways, myspace'll do, i guess.

I've been keeping a diary now for little over a year. I don't write down mundane details of the things I do each day. If ever something is troubling me or something amazing has happened then I'll write it down in the diary. It helps organise my thoughts on the situation.

I also keep various notebooks for my story ideas where I just jot down ideas. I write poetry in my diary but story realated matters are more often or not in other notebooks.

They are both very useful and together they make fantastic ways for me to organise my thoughts.

i keep a diary, its full of poetry and lyrics oh and also pictures but i do write how i feel, story ideas etc.
i only started it when i got off school because i go out to school at 8 and come in at 5. so im usually busy doing homework.
i dont write about mundane or physical things but about my feelings (most of my poetry is about my feelings) and thoughts.