Notebookphilia

Do you keep a writers' notebook to jot down those nuggets that erupt  at the oddest of times? I keep such a notebook in my bag and take it everywhere with me. I used to carry a dictaphone, but found I was too embarrassed to ever use it (you can get some strange looks). So a traditional notebook is ideal to record my lightbulb moments, but which one to pick? As you can see from the photo (left) I have an addiction - I love notebooks! There is some logic to the organisation of these tools:

one is for on-the-hoof-ideas, another for recording competition details, one for padding out features/article ideas, one for recording books I've read and another for poetry / memorable quotations. A prized notebook is a traditional moleskin, which I won for a letter printed in Writers' Forum. And the latest addition is this one on the right. I just loved the cover, a perfect notebook for a hopeful writer.

This latest fix was purchased specifically for a new project started on 1st October. Recently I kept stumbling across references to 'Morning Pages' a technique for writing a 'stream of conciousness' every day. First I read about this here on Simon Whaley's blog and then it was mentioned in Paula Williams' monthly Writers' Forum column (The Writers' Idea Store) for the October issue. And a writer friend, Heather Allison, also recommended the technique to me. Basically the idea is to write three pages as soon as you wake in the morning - don't think or plan, just write. I understand this technique is detailed in Julia Cameron's book 'The Artist's Way', but I have to admit to not yet reading this. Well three days into this initiative and I'm hooked. I've strictly stuck to three pages but could write more and so far the words have just flowed. Mainly I'm writing about plans for the day and how the previous day panned out. I've also been writing down any plot problems I'm wrestling with about or issues I need to think through and oddly as I start to commit them to paper solutions begin to pop up. Don't know if you are supposed to read back over the week's pages and not sure I want to, because I'm also recording all those nagging insecurities (the Doubtful Demon wakes early).

What do you record in your notebook? Do you keep more than one? Go on, confess now, are you a notebook addict?