Make Friends With Your Notebook

A Clearing

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Last night I woke up a few times with a writing idea I had planned to work on this morning. I began that work, but somehow felt it was not the right poem for this day. So I flipped through my notebook and found this draft from April.

April Notebook Draft

Photo by Amy LV

It felt more important to write about magic today, so I decided to type up the above draft to see what would happen. I played around a lot with the sound and read aloud as I worked. And I am happy I did so! 

My tip for today is to make friends with your notebook. Just stuff stuff in there: ideas, wonderings, unusual thoughts, bits and snips of poems, cards, photos, sketches, leaves, ticket stubs, stickers, recipes...anything! See, it is not easy for a writer to do all of the things in one day: think of an idea, draft it, play with the sound and structure, and edit. That's a lot to do! So a notebook can be a trusty friend who holds onto your ideas until you may (or may not) wish to turn then into drafts. I used to keep a whole blog about notebook keeping - Sharing Our Notebooks - and I am considering getting back to this as a central practice in my teaching. Our writing in notebooks helps us know what interests and charms us.

You may have noticed that today's poem does not carry a lot of rhyme. Rather, I focused on the sound, playing with short lines, each one almost contained and holding a bit of rhythm. Reading aloud as I write is one of my most important revision tools. If you don't do this now, I recommend giving it a try. Write a bit...read it aloud...revise what sounds off...keep going.

So consider it - write in a notebook just to see what you get. Revisit the writings in a few weeks to see if one of the bits may wish to grow into a story or a poem or an essay or a letter or something else. Our brains and hearts do a lot of work that we don't even know about, and a notebook can help us hang onto that thinking and love.

This week, Rose is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Imagine the Possibilities with a bit about her "Snippets" log and a poem about imaginings. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I send you magic and belief in magic...

xo,

Amy

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