What’s in a writer’s notebook?
I encourage my students to conduct fieldwork on their own cultures and themselves.
Together we can take dictation from the world.
Kim Stafford
Life….mine
Lists of all kinds of things: stuff I need to buy; people I need to talk to; memories that come to me in a rush of sensory images that launch me back in time
Notes to myself, reminders to do things or write about things
Emotions…anger, sadness, excitement, wonder
Memories “Every vivid memory holds some essential truth about your vision of the world.” Kim Stafford
Fragments of life that strike me (“that’s weird…”; “why did that happen?”)
Drawings: especially when I can’t write anymore about something but I’m still thinking
about it...sketches like a storyboard to organize my thinking
Photographs, postcards, receipts, messages, notes from friends
Questions and sometimes answers
Quotations that make me think and respond, “Yes, that’s exactly how I feel.”
Song lyrics
Secrets
Doodling & responses to quick writes or other writing exercises I do with my students in
class (a place where I experiment)
Scratch outs, cross outs, messy writing, notes in the margin of a page, sideways writing
Attempts at poetry; playful language
Writing pieces I abandon because I lose interest or have no confidence in
Writing prompts I create: things I think will help my students write
Story, essay, novel titles
First tries with a genre I’m not comfortable with
Practice descriptive writing: detailed sketches of people and places
Ideas for my classes, my new teachers, my own kids--things I want to say or do
Lesson plans
Things other people say that strike me as important or stupid or that I don’t understand
License plates (4U2NV) that make me want to respond, noticing my world
Books I’ve read and what I thought about them…sometimes I stop reading and copy a
section and respond to it, then go back to reading
Visuals: plate, heart, hand…with related words for memories or ideas for writing
Poems I love
Sometimes journal-kind-of-entries, but usually not that orderly
Life
The world is busy, but the mind tenacious.
The writing life is all about faith in a fragment.
Kim Stafford
Together we can take dictation from the world.
Kim Stafford
Life….mine
Lists of all kinds of things: stuff I need to buy; people I need to talk to; memories that come to me in a rush of sensory images that launch me back in time
Notes to myself, reminders to do things or write about things
Emotions…anger, sadness, excitement, wonder
Memories “Every vivid memory holds some essential truth about your vision of the world.” Kim Stafford
Fragments of life that strike me (“that’s weird…”; “why did that happen?”)
Drawings: especially when I can’t write anymore about something but I’m still thinking
about it...sketches like a storyboard to organize my thinking
Photographs, postcards, receipts, messages, notes from friends
Questions and sometimes answers
Quotations that make me think and respond, “Yes, that’s exactly how I feel.”
Song lyrics
Secrets
Doodling & responses to quick writes or other writing exercises I do with my students in
class (a place where I experiment)
Scratch outs, cross outs, messy writing, notes in the margin of a page, sideways writing
Attempts at poetry; playful language
Writing pieces I abandon because I lose interest or have no confidence in
Writing prompts I create: things I think will help my students write
Story, essay, novel titles
First tries with a genre I’m not comfortable with
Practice descriptive writing: detailed sketches of people and places
Ideas for my classes, my new teachers, my own kids--things I want to say or do
Lesson plans
Things other people say that strike me as important or stupid or that I don’t understand
License plates (4U2NV) that make me want to respond, noticing my world
Books I’ve read and what I thought about them…sometimes I stop reading and copy a
section and respond to it, then go back to reading
Visuals: plate, heart, hand…with related words for memories or ideas for writing
Poems I love
Sometimes journal-kind-of-entries, but usually not that orderly
Life
The world is busy, but the mind tenacious.
The writing life is all about faith in a fragment.
Kim Stafford
- Thanks to Penny Kittle