I took this exercise seriously as I have always struggled to stay focused and keep myself motivated in my writing goals. Capturing and organizing my ideas and thoughts, along with finding my writing rhyme has been a sad, exhausting road for me. I’ve needed ways to stay on task and keep myself inspired! I am embarrassed to admit that my entire writing life, I have been searching for a way to hold all the random ideas that show up in my head like a watercolor painting and bring them into focus.
Isn’t That Just How it Goes!
Great ideas start to take shape in my mind that I’m eager to pursue and excited about but just as fast as they appear like a dream, ready to be developed, molded, and sculpted, these fragile concepts fly away and disappear like a puff of smoke, fading away. My mind is hollow and empty again!
I picture my brain like SpongeBob skipping through Jellyfields with his net, going Jellyfishing. I’m the goof trying to capture lease fleeting thoughts and keep them from evading me!
The Exercise: Method of Recording
The choice was between a Google Sheet and a Notebook. Being old school, my choice was to create a writer’s notebook. Choosing to make an inventive and creative writer’s notebook allowed me to dress it up and make it specific to my needs in a very art and craft kind of way. If you like cutting paper, glue, makers, and making collages, then tailoring a Writer’s notebook might be perfect for you as well! I have shared pictures below.
The Cover of my Writer’s Notebook
I wanted to give myself room to add more tabs as I go. The next tab I might add is one for Goals.
The great thing about a Writer’s notebook for me is the ability to be crafty. This adds a unique touch that is truly my own (as I mentioned before.) Personally, I am terrible at spreadsheets. I would never choose that option because spreadsheets aren’t in my wheelhouse and give me anxiety!
I love the personal touch and creative outlet that designing a notebook gives me. This was the perfect way for me to tap into my writing mindset! My writing notebook gets my creative writing juices flowing and keeps my motivation by constantly inspiring and evolving!
This took me a few days to get going and to make, but now that I have this Writer’s Notebook, I am so excited to put it to work as I continue this writing journey! Plus, it was a surprisingly fun, and stress-relieving exercise that I needed.
Inside my Writer’s Notebook, Page 1
On the back of the front hardcover, I made a collage of inspiring pictures and quotes that moved me. You will see a picture that I used in my post on my Ideal Reader (click to read my post on my Ideal reader.) You’ll also see a few other quotes and motivations that I have referred back to over the years that have kept me returning to my love of writing. Two of these sayings or quotes I have saved on my home and lock screen on my laptop.
Someday you’re going to be someone’s favorite Authur. -Unknown
You’ve always had the power my dear, you just had to learn it for yourself. – The Wizard of Oz
On page 1, I added some tips on Writing Prompts Sentence Starters that I found on Pinterest. I always had these (what I felt were amazing ideas) but I needed help on how to get them started. It’s even harder when I am dealing with a complicated character with a tricky background. When I found this starter list, I knew I would refer to it often!
The Back of My Notebook
This is the very back of my notebook. Simply, I had too many favorites that I wanted to be added to my college and didn’t know where else to add them. So, I continued my collaged to the back of my notebook and it worked out fine! Here you will find more quotes that mean something special to me.
A writer, I think is someone who pays attention to the world. That means trying to understand, take in connect with, what wickedness human beings are caple of; and not be corrupted- made cynical, superficial- by this understanding. – Unknown
I wish I knew who said these words. They pierce like a knife. If you’re someone who has a strange fascination with true crime, the unknown, history, or anything paranormal; then you know how heavy it all can get. Sometimes I have to visit magical places, Holy places, to cleanse my palette, purify and relieve my mind, heart, and soul of it all before I can continue on.
Page 2, 3, 4 & 5… and 6
As we venture into my writer’s notebook and I flip the first page, you’ll find a change VERY list. I have found that I use the word very and really often so I wanted this at my fingers to refer to.
Next on page 2, we work on breaking that pesky writer’s block. Jumping ahead to page 4, I continue with more Writer’s Block tips and encouragement on page 4.
Back on page 3, I made a Writer’s Resource page and added another quote. This page I wanted to dedicate to helping create and develop my characters. I found two amazing resources I will link here. The first is 175 Positive Character Traits and the other is Character Checklist.
Page 6 is my last resource page before I have to get down to business. I did my best to utilize this last page with Story structure information, Plot template, and The 8 parts of speech. All these resources will surely assist me in my development in writing and crafting my upcoming stories.
Page 6, 7 & 8, My first tab: Creative Writing Prompts
Ideas will go here! As you can see above my first colorful tab. On page 7, you’ll see I wrote out some of my thoughts and ideas. You’ll find it at the top of the page Story Ideas. Here I decided to go with continuing with already published blog posts. These posts I could develop to grow into short stories.
Then working your way down the page you will find new thoughts. Here I jotted down a few things that have been floating around in my noggin for a while and just needed to find their way to paper.
Page 8, is all about questions and Expanding my Thought and Ideas. Here you can see I choose the idea of The Traveler. I need to know more about who this character is. I need to create a background for this person and a physical description. In doing so I wrote out questions to be answered and think about.
As I work and develop the story of The Traveler, I can move on to where this character is going and why. Then I can create their surroundings, along with why and how they got there. So any questions to be answered! Isn’t it exciting!
Last Tab: Writer’s Calendar
A writer’s calendar I understand is to keep a writer accountable and on track ( which I need.) You add things here such as, how many words to write a day, those are your writing day. You can plan for editing days or, character or plot-building days.
All this will be helpful to me when I get to the point of my writing. The link above explains how to create and use a content/writer’s calendar. It’s full of helpful tips that I will be using!
Now the next page is “A year at a glance” and labeled Writing Goals. I feel that it’s a good thing to be able to tentatively spread things out and plan ahead. Nothing is set in stone, yet you have the ability to set your mark, aim, and move toward it! Setting a goal that in 2 months you want this… in 6 months you want this… you get it!
This is what brought me to the idea that later down the road I should add another tab for goals. Having a clear goal as we have already learned is very important.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! I know I have enjoyed creating it!
SK
Tales of both real-life and fiction, personal and pure enjoyment. Come explore where fantasy and reality blur the lines. 
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