Ideas & planning · Tip 6 of 82 · 4 min read
Keep a Writer's Notebook
A notebook is a treasure chest for ideas, overheard words and things you notice.
Ideas are slippery. You think of a brilliant one on the bus, and by teatime it has wriggled away. That's why lots of writers carry a writer's notebook: a place to catch ideas before they escape.
It doesn't have to be neat
A writer's notebook isn't schoolwork. Nobody marks it. You can scribble, doodle, spell things wrong and write half sentences. It belongs to you.
What goes inside?
- Overheard words: funny or strange things people say
- Name collections: interesting names from shop signs, street names or credits
- Questions: things you wonder about, like why pigeons bob their heads
- Tiny descriptions: a puddle that looked like a map, a cloud shaped like a boot
- Feelings: what it felt like to be nervous, excited or left out
- Doodles and maps: quick drawings of places and people you imagine
Tuesday. Man at the bus stop holding a cake box very carefully, like it was a bomb. Name idea: Wendolyn Spark. Why do cats stare at empty corners? Rain on the window looked like tiny racing cars.
None of those are stories yet. But any one of them could become one. What's in the cake box? Who is Wendolyn Spark? What can the cat see?
Visit it often
Try to add something every day, even one line. Then, when you sit down to write a story, flip back through. Two notes from different days can join together into a brand-new idea.