So, you’ve got a notebook. Great. Now what?
It seems every creative person, or every person who fancies themselves as creative, has a notebook. Mine happens to be a Moleskine, which are very popular, but yours may be something else. It doesn’t matter, really, what it is, because they all serve the same purpose. To be filled with ideas for later development. Is it?
What are you writing in your Moleskine? What fills your sketchbook?
Of course, the obvious answer is that you do, but that’s not what I mean. What inspires you? For ages now, I’ve carried that little, black notebook in my pocket, much to the amusement of some of my friends, jotting down the odd bit of intellectual fluff that gets stuck on the brier patch of my mind. In some ways, I fill my notebook with those mental irritants that I need to scrape loose so I can think about other things. Sometimes, it’ll be quotes or odd phrases that I jot down. Other times, it’s titles or names. Occasionally, whole paragraphs of thought will squeeze their way between those black covers. Mostly, my Moleskine is filled with the flotsam and jetsam of an over-active mind that washes up on that paper shore. Things I think might lead somewhere or that I might eventually use, either in a story or a blog post.
But, the thing is, only the things I actually bother to record there are what fill the pages. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter so much what it is, as long as it’s something I find interesting or important or worth tracking. One day, I hope to actually, you know, use those things, which is why I record them, but, at least it’s a step. For many of us, who long to be more actively creative, recording even the smallest bits of our creativity is the first, most important step to actually producing something.
Of course, everyone will find different things to fill up their notebooks or sketchbooks, Moleskine or otherwise. But, only if they work at it consistently.
So, now, what are you waiting for? Get to work!
