A WRITER’S NOTEBOOK. Unlocking the writer within you, by Ralph Fletcher

A WRITER’S NOTEBOOK. Unlocking the writer within you, by Ralph Fletcher

(Abridged by Gaby Rosso)

WHAT IS A WRITER’S NOTEBOOK, ANYWAY?

·         A writer’s notebook is like that ditch - an empty space you dig in your busy life, a space that will fill up with all sorts of fascinating little creatures. If you dig it, they will come. You´ll be amazed by what you catch there.

• Keeping a writer’s notebook is one of the best ways I know of living a writing kind of life.
• A writer´s notebook is different from any journal you´ve ever kept before.
• Writers are like other people, except for at least one important difference. Other people have daily thoughts and feelings, notice this sky or that smell, but they don´t do much about it. All those thoughts, feelings, sensations, and opinions pass through them like the air they breathe.
• Not writers. Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions.
• That’s what a writers’s notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you notice and don´t want to forget, or record exactly what your grandmother whispered in your ear before she said goodbye for the last time.
• A writer´s notebook gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day.
• Your writer´s notebook should reflect your personality.
• In this book I suggest lots of ways you can use your writer´s notebook to sift and collect important things from your life, stuff that may prove valuable in later writing.
• When you come right down to it, a writer’s notebook is nothing more than a blank book, but within those pages you´ve got a powerful tool for writing and living.

ONE

UNFORGETTABLE STORIES

·         A dozen questions crowd your mind.

• When something truly touches you, it touches you on the inside, and you can´t fake that.
• People are different. What dazzles one person might bore the next. The question is: What moves you? As a writer, you need to be able to answer that question. And take note of it. Whenever I hear a story that stirs something inside me I take out my notebook and write.
• I look for stories, like this one, that inspire me. I look for what fascinates me or fills me with wonder. I look for stories that anger or disgust me, or make me laugh out loud.
• A story like this one simply refused to get out of my head; at night I found myself thinking about it before I fell asleep. In my writer’s notebook I jotted down a few sentences about this strange hospitality to the ghosts of those dead soldiers.
• At times you hear something on the news, or read something in a newspaper, that affects you strongly.
• What moves you? What stories keep tumbling through your mind even when you try not to think about them? Jot them down in your writer’s notebook. You might write the whole story, but you don´t have to. You can also write down a key phrase (L.A. riots - black kids making circle around white teacher) as a mental place-holder to remind you until you have the chance to go back and write more about it.
• Writers are people who have a keen nose for unforgettable stories. Often we stumble onto a great story and tell ourselves: “Hey, no problem, I´ll definitely remember that”. But our lives are so busy that the story gets buried under a million other things in our memory. And lost forever. Write it down in your notebook before it slips out of your mind.

TWO

FIERCE WONDERINGS

·         It´s important to pay attention to what haunts you, what images or memories keep running around in your mind even when you try not to think about them. But writing about what you wonder about isn´t always as easy as it sounds. It takes honesty and courage.

• This kind of writing often gets you asking yourself big, open-ended questions that have no easy answers. In her notebook, Mary Squillace, a fourth grader, ponders the purpose of her life
• (Examples) You probably won’t find easy answers to bottomless questions like these. In fact, you may explore them for years without finding answers that satisfy you. But that´s all right. As a writer you need to know what you wonder about because this often leads to your best writing.
• The writing you do about what you wonder about doesn´t all have to be dead serious, either.

THREE

WRITING SMALL

Examples - details that make a difference

• A single detail can sometimes give a window into a person´s whole life.
• You can train yourself to notice the details around you. Use all your senses - the smell of your grandmother’s kitchen, the funny faces your big sister makes while putting on her makeup, the way your cat´s shadow looks different in the early morning than it does at noon, the difference between how your dad´s cheeks feel from morning to night.
• You can do this yourself. Reread your writer’s notebook and look for places where you are using vague, general words: fun, cool. Circle those words. Ask yourself: What are the details underneath these words? What little things will bring to life what I´m writing about? Write these details into our notebook. You don´t even have to use complete sentences - a list will do.
• Write small. It makes a difference.
• Details like these will breathe life into your writer’s notebook. Keep your eyes open and pay attention to little things that reveal important truths: hands, gestures, objects and anecdotes. Have fun with it. The small details or moments that end up in your writer’s notebook don´t have to be deadly serious ones, either.

FOUR

SEED IDEAS

• An incubator creates conditions to give a chick the best possible chance to grow until one day it can peck its way out of the egg. Incubators have just the right moistness, the right temperature, the right brightness. In nature, the hen´s body is a superb incubator. Hens even turn their eggs to make sure each part gets an equal amount of warmth.
• In time the idea may grow stronger, strong enough to have other people look at it, strong enough to go out on its own.
• Once in a while you get seized by an idea for a piece of writing - a poem, short story, play, or novel. That´s one of the best uses for a notebook; it gives you a place to write down an idea before it wriggles out of your overloaded memory. It gives you a convenient place to keep the idea safe while it is still new.
• Some writers find it helpful to talk out an idea like this. I don´t talk about it, not at first, anyway. I write it in my notebook. This is a special kind of fast writing where I almost never stop to look up a word and make sure I spell it right. At first my only goal is to get the idea down while it´s still “hot”. Often I leave space around the seed idea in my notebook, even an empty page or two, so I can later go back and add more to it.
• Many writers find that their seed ideas have to sit in the notebook for a long time, even years, before they start to take root in the imagination.

THOUGHTS ABOUT NOTEBOOKS FROM PAUL FLEISCHMAN

• The road from notebook entry to book is usually a long one. Most of my ideas lie in the notebook for several years - sometimes as long as 10 or 15 - before being drawn on. Most of what´s in there will never be used. A writer never knows exactly what he or she will need in the future; you jot things down that seem pressing at the moment, knowing that, as with a dream, they may fade in the future morning´s light.

FIVE

MIND PICTURES

• Pay attention to your world. Wherever you are, at all hours of the day, try to drink in the world through your five senses, all of which are incredibly important tools for a writer. And when something strikes you that you want to remember, make time to scribble at least a quick description of it in your notebook.
• Breathe in what´s around you. The goal of a writer is to be a sponge.
• Keeping a writer’s notebook can help you be more alive to the world. It can help you develop the habit of paying attention to the little pictures and images of the world you might otherwise ignore.
• When I return home I wrote in my notebook a short entry about this incident: big dog- cleansed by fear. Those five words would be enough to remind myself of what had happened.
• Use your notebook to capture the mind “photograph” you take of the world around you.
• Surprise images like this can make the reader sit up and pay attention. This is exactly the kind of thing that brings writing alive.
• Sight is a crucially important tool to a writer. But the senses of smell, touch, sound, and taste are just as important.
• Use all your senses. Try to describe as carefully and honestly as you can. Each house has its own distinct smell: exactly how would you describe the smell of your grandmother’s house? What does it feel like when you gently squeeze your great grandfather’s hand? How would you describe the feel and taste of hot apple pie and cold vanilla ice cream in your mouth?
• Many of us wake up with dream fragments or dream images lingering in our head. As a writer, try to get in the habit of writing down those dreams before they flit forever out of our head.

SIX

SNATCHES OF TALK

• Writers are fascinated by talk, obsessed with what people say and how they say it, how they interrupt themselves, the words they repeat, the way they pronounce or mispronounce certain words. The way we talk says a ton about who we are. My notebooks are filled with dialogue: snatches of talk or arguments between strangers, relatives, and friends.
• Keep your ears alert to the conversations of strangers wherever you are and pay attention to what strikes you. You don´t need to write down the whole conversation; often you end up writing just a sentence or phrase in your notebook.
• Listen to the cadences of ordinary talk, the rhythms of everyday speech.
• Learn to listen wherever you go. Your notebook is the perfect place to record the funny or disturbing things you overhear on the playground, the words spoken by a tired mother at the mall, or the complaints of a first grader who doesn´t want to go to school. Later, when you reread your notebook looking for writing ideas, you´ll find this dialogue invaluable.
• We might do better to start with a line we have heard, letting it be an invitation into the piece of writing.

THOUGHTS ABOUT NOTEBOOKS FROM NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

• Rereading notebooks is like reliving your life. I think they’re more important than money in the bank.
• You might write a line down today that you don´t “use” in a piece of writing for years! Or, you might never “use” it at all. But just getting in the habit of writing little things all the time helps sharpen your perceptions.
• I have to dig everywhere to find something. But I usually find forgotten surprises along the way

SEVEN

LISTS

• For years I have kept a section at the rear of my writer’s notebook for favorite words.
• Two years ago, I started listening as many family stories as I could remember.
• Try to just let my thoughts flow without censoring my imagination.

EIGHT

MEMORIES

·         Memories just may be the most important possession any writer has. As much as anything else, our memories shape what we write. Memories are like a fountain no writer can live without. I believe that my best writing springs from that fountain. (And nobody else has access to since it´s entirely personal!)

• Exploring a memory includes looking into not only what happened but also how it affected you then, and how it affects you now.
• Memories have a way of embedding themselves in special places. They soak into the rugs and sofas and walls and closets. If you want to recover a memory, try describing the place connected to it.
• Did you have a favorite stuffed animal? Blanket? Imaginary friend? Use your notebook to summon and capture the power of your past.
• Photographs. My notebooks contain lots of photographs. Friends. My wife. My kids. The King of Tonga. My son’s first school picture. Me
• I see that picture and start thinking of all the younger Ralph Fletchers I left behind during my life. A photo like that can open up a whole almost-forgotten world.
• Return to these objects and explore through writing what they mean to you, what memories they dredge up.
• An artifact like a photograph contains powerful magic to bring a deeply buried memory to the surface of your mind.
• All you need to do is to find a quiet place, close your eyes, and start browsing.

NINE

WRITING THAT SCRAPES THE HEART

• Some writers use their notebooks to record secrets, things they don´t want anyone to read, ever.
• Letters give me a way to express some important, difficult truth I want to tell someone.

TEN

WRITING THAT INSPIRES

·         I´ve learned that if I am going to write well, I need to surround my words with the beautiful writing of others.

• Fiction is like a spider´s web. It attaches itself ever so lightly (to the earth) but still it is attached at all four corners.
• Find writing that inspires you to grow into the kind of writer you hope to be.

ELEVEN

REREADING: DIGGING OUT THE CRYSTALS

·         A writer’s notebook works in a similar way. If you get in the habit of paying attention to your world and writing down what you notice, your notebook will fill up with lots of intriguing stuff. Imagine our raw notebook material as mineralized rocks you have dragged home. In that rough stone all sorts of agates, crystals, and valuable fossils might be buried. It´s up to you to dig them out.

• But reading your writer’s notebook is different than reading a book. When I read a book or a poem, I am focusing on being the reader. When I read my own notebook my attention is split: I am half-reader and half-writer, all at the same time.
• Reread. Find a quiet place, and revisit the notebook entries you have written. Remember to pay close attention to what interests, excites, angers, or disturbs you. When you find something good - a dash of strong writing, the hint of a story idea, an ingenious idea for The Great American Novel- mark it in some way.
• Poem Idea? Or Story Idea? Or Idea for Novel?
• Try to reread with a generous heart. Don´t expect to find great polished writing. Remember: All you´re looking for are a few writing ideas with potential. Something to build on.
• On the other hand, don´t take just any old thing. Try to be selective about what ideas you choose to develop. Trust your best ideas.
• Travis did exactly what professional writers do: He used his notebook to incubate a seed, in this case a seed he had found in someone else’s writing. He left it for a time, reread his notebook in search of inspiration, and rediscovered this seed. When the time was right, the seed germinated quickly.
• I told this girl something the writer Don Murray once wrote in one of his many books about writing: Remember: It takes forty gallons of maple sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.
• This idea is with me every time I sit down to write. Maple sap is mostly water. To make syrup, you’ve got to boil off that water. Much of what you write in your writer’s notebook is like that watery sap. There´s no way around it: you have to boil off lots of water in order to make the syrup of your writing dark, thick, and sweet.

TWELVE

WRITING ABOUT WRITING

• The best chance you have of making your notebook work for you is to let it reflect your personal style. Do you like to cut out photos, articles and strange headlines? If so, tape them into your notebook. Do you like to eavesdrop on conversations? Jot them down. Do you make up dialogues in your head? Write those down. Do you have strong reactions to the injustices of the world? Write down your reactions- later you might be able to develop them into essays.
• Writing opens doors in us we never knew existed. Writing helps us explore new worlds - inside and out.
• E.g.: As I sit here the wind blowing on my face in Grandma’s back yard I feel like a writer nobody to tell me what to write. No rules about writing as I sit here on the patio. I watch the squirrels running. My hand just wants to write and write.
• My writer´s notebook is my heart, my mind, and my soul.
• The blank sheet of paper is the enemy and the pen the General of the Army. It is up to me to conquer the unknown territory and win over the enemy.
• Save every scrap you write. Whether it is good or not, it is worthwhile.
• I can let out all of my emotions through the pen. I can write out what I think and let everything out. Who is the paper going to tell? No one.