Mary Amato’s Tips for Keeping a Writer’s Notebook

These are some of my writer’s notebooks. I like small ones that fit in my pocket. I carry mine with me all the time because I never know when I’m going to get an idea.

A writer’s notebook is a place where you can write all kinds of things: ideas, questions, thoughts, true stories, invented stories, rough drafts for poems, songs, or stories, bits of dialogue that you overhear, and more. It’s different from a diary, which is a record of your own life experiences.

If you are interested in being a professional writer, keeping a notebook is important for many reasons. Here are four important ones:

1. The more you write about what you see and hear, the more observant you’ll become.
2. The more you write, the more your writing will improve overall.
3. The act of writing down an idea often stimulates more ideas.
4. Writing down an idea “cements” the idea—you can’t lose it if it is written down!

There is no right or wrong way to keep a writer’s notebook. Here are some of my suggestions:

• Pick a notebook that you like: a spiral notebook, a binder, a blank book. It doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, sometimes if it’s too fancy, you might be afraid to write in it.
• Write whatever pops into your head that you find interesting: a story that you hear that isn’t true, a story that is true, a memory, a dream, a conversation, a description of something you see, an idea for a poem, a story, a song, character names, etc.
• Dictate: if you find it hard to get your thoughts or ideas down, ask someone else to write for you. Make sure they use your words.
• Use notes: If you get an idea or have a thought and don’t have your notebook with you, jot a note to yourself and tape it into your Writer’s Notebook later.
• Experiment with rough drafts that you can later develop into stories or poems.
• Try to write as concretely and specifically as you can. If you’re writing a description, use details. If you’re writing about something that happened, describe exactly what happened.
• Look for what I call “shivery” moments–those times in your life when you have a big emotion or realization (maybe you witness an argument between your sister and your mother and it makes you realize something about yourself). These moments are important to document because they could become the inspiration to write a story or poem. Write the actual scene, using as much concrete detail as possible.
• Take your writer’s notebook with you EVERYWHERE.
• Date your entries: you might want to know when you came up with an idea later.

Copyright © 2008 by Mary Amato. Permission granted to copy for educational use.