Jodi Whitehurst

A writer’s notebook is key to living a writer’s life. I pass a delicate, newly opened flower, the same one others just passed, but I stop and look into it. Ideas dance around it like a dragonfly. I reach out and grab at a glittering little thing; I pull it in. Instead of entertaining it for a moment and letting it go, I record it’s brilliance in my writer’s notebook. Otherwise, it would slip through my mind as quickly as it slips through my fingers. A writer’s life is noticing, and a writer’s notebook is for capturing those fleeting moments of inspiration.

I find Ralph Fletcher’s words on writer’s notebooks most helpful. Fletcher writes for children, God’s most brilliant creatures (before we educate the wonder out of them). A writer’s notebook is not a diary, Fletcher explains. It is not a grocery list or even a bucket list. Although, I admit that sometimes I do list in my notebook just to dump my mind of clutter so I can move on to inspiration.

In Ralph Fletcher’s book, A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You, he explains some primary ways that writers utilize their writer’s notebooks. First of all,, a writer’s notebook is for “unforgettable stories.” We are walking with them constantly. My father-in-law collected change in an oversized bottle, the kind used to dispense water in a company lobby. He had collected coins for years, but as he entered his eighties, he started asking clerks at stores to change his dollar bills into coins so he could gather more. When asked why, he said he wanted to see how much money he could get from it. We couldn’t get him to understand that he was giving his money to get his money back. I recorded this “unforgettable story” in my writer’s notebook.

Another notebook strategy according to Ralph Fletcher, is to record “fierce wonderings,” like “Do I really want to grow up?” or “What is my real purpose here?” Writing about fierce wonderings takes courage since they often dig at deep and hidden truths. The next strategy is the one I use most often. Fletcher calls it “seed ideas.” These ideas are not fully grown, fully unpacked, fully opened, or even fully understood yet. He compares them to chicken eggs that are “delicate” and need some time in an incubator. They need time, thinking, writing until they are full grown ideas, ready to be seen by the outside world. I love this truth about writing– developed writing first needs a safe place to grow. Readers are people, which means readers form opinions. Not all writing is ready for the opinions of people yet. I have many underdeveloped ideas sitting safely in the pages of my writer’s notebook until I can return to them.

Storing “mind pictures” is another use for writer’s notebooks. These are descriptions of people, objects, and places that cause me to wonder. Fletcher explains this as taking a mental photograph, and I find that I do this most often when there is some seed idea or fierce wondering attached to it. Occasionally, I will take a photo with my phone to return to later. Next, Fletcher explains “snatches of talk.” Again, this is a strategy I use often. Sometimes this may come from a book, a song, a movie, or real life. The best quotes I have recorded are usually from children. My son always said “yester night.” I never corrected him because it is logical to have a yester night if there is a yesterday. This is an example of “snatches of talk.”

“Memories” is another strategy Ralph Fletcher lists in his book. Memories are jewels, but our minds often lose them to time. A writer’s notebook is a place to keep them when they can be admired and used later as material for writing ideas. The final way a writer’s notebook can be used is described as “writing that scrapes the heart.” Writing can be cathartic; it helps me to unfold big feelings to understand them better. I have also found when I am able to aptly name an emotion, it helps readers to connect with me, like they read it and think, “yeah, I know what you mean.”

A writer’s notebook can look like anything– a leather bound journal or loose papers stapled together. Some have designed ways to organize their notebooks with a table of contents. Others have included scraps of paper or photos with their entries. Your writer’s notebook is yours. It should function the way you do so you can best use it as a tool. However you use it, just use it. At least give it a try.