Another example – I remember thinking, why would I ever write something freehand again, when electronic typing is so convenient? But it certainty has its uses.

Back when I were a gnipper

I remember I used to like writing everything freehand on a first draft. The moment I changed my mind was when I had to copy up an overdue essay for school. Time was precious, and typing the whole thing up was a real chore.

I vowed never to do it again.

Since then writing electronically has become more and more useful. All my drafts are done on a word processor (I actually use Writeroom so even the distracting clutter of word processor writing is gone); my blog posts are written on my iPod Touch, and some of my notes are too.

Yes the convenience of writing something and being able to change it and move bits around is invaluable, and now it can go everywhere with you. I can’t imagine writing out a full draft and then having to copy it all out again. I find it hard enough to get things done as it is!

But you’ll notice I said (wrote, whatever), “some notes” earlier and not “all notes”. Yes, there are still some things that just don’t feel natural to type.

The freehand list

Freehand is still good for satisfying red pen action!

1. Editing. This is a numbered list because editing is the number one king of freehand uses. I have edited straight into my electronic draft, and I can do it. But I just love scribbling all over a piece of work, crossing great chunks out of it, writing notes in the margins. It’s just so satisfying, and it goes quicker too. Sure I have to copy up those changes again and that’s a drag, but it’s worth it.

2. Notes as you type. Some people use freehand for all their notes. For me it depends on the writing I’m doing. If I’m making notes to get me out of a hole, I like to write in full paragraphs, and I’m aware that I might use some of it later. That’s for the word processor.

   But I always have a notepad next to me when I write in case I need it. It might be a note on an idea I’ve had for later in the story; something I need to research; an idea for another story altogether. I don’t want to change what’s on my screen though. I don’t want to start a new document or swap out to another one. It feels distracting. Jotting down a freehand note with one hand somehow doesn’t.

3. Journalling.This is a slightly odd one, because it’s hard to put my finger on why I do this and don’t type them. I have a journal that is strictly for new story ideas. One idea per tiny page. I love journals, but I actually had to have a long think about what I would use one for!

   Writing these ideas down freehand in the journal makes them feel special, and the space restriction is useful too (there is literally no space restriction in electronic work of course). I’m also worried about losing them amongst a virtual pile of folders. Most of all though, our ideas are personal, and freehand is personal. It feels good to keep these initial flashes in as raw a form as possible.

4. Planning and mindmapping. I actually don’t use freehand for this, but it gets an honourable mention because I know many people do. For mindmapping I use Freemind, because I like to put useful links and images in my maps. Bt there’s no denying the freedom of scrawling on a blank page, and the least resistance we can put between our brain and the outside the better. It can also be useful to shuffle things around quickly and easily to see how they look, and there’s no better toolset than a pen and some post-its for that.

So there you go. Freehand is not dead, and never will be, so I’ll hear none of this freehand goo-goo or ga-ga. What I will hear more of however is your own uses for freehand, so hit the comments with your ideas!

Where do you keep your notes?

Ok, that isn’t entirely true, I do have a writing notebook. I even have it divided up into different sections, so I can scribble notes and ideas for my various ultra-projects. And in the back of this notebook, I even have a name bank. That’s right, I list names. This is because I have a terrible time with character names. Anyone who has read through a large portion of the body of my writing will no doubt come across the same names over and over. Which is why (back when I actively kept this journal) whenever I came across a new name (I’m not a fan of using the “everyday” names, you see) I would make a note of it.

The problem with my notebook is that I never take it anywhere (it’s a little cumbersome to carry a notebook around all the time), and therefore never jot anything down.

No, I do something much worse…

It’s All in His Head!

Yes. Whenever I “make notes”, I keep them in my head. Terrible writing practice, I know. This is, I believe, one of the reasons I have such an ‘up/down’ cycle with my writing. I imagine that someone who keeps a journal, or a notebook, and is constantly jotting notes, is far more likely to maintain a consistent flow of writing. Similar to my much used gym analogy, or Matt’s dieting analogy. If you don’t keep notes, or don’t maintain a journal, then yes, you may go through periods where you can get a lot of writing done. But without that small element of daily practice, you can get complacent, and go through long periods of inactivity/over eating/not writing.

Fortunately I have been blessed with two things: An overly obsessive personality, and a very good memory. Now, I’m not claiming to be some kind of mega-mind here, and I am not condoning this practice for other writers (we all know we should keep track of any notes and ideas we have, and the best way to do so is to write them down!) but I can honestly say that out of the many random ideas and thoughts that I have to do with my writing every day, I can retain at least 85% of them. Yes, I know, writing them all down would allow me to retain 100% of them, but it’s not easy to write things down if you’re on a treadmill, or somewhere equally writer unfriendly.

So yes, I have developed the practice of ‘taking notes’ in my head. Yes, again, I know, terrible practice. You can put those pitchforks and torches down. I’m also getting to my point, if you’ll bear with me.

The advantage (and I guess this could be said to be the only advantage) to such a practice is that you can cultivate ideas at the speed of thought, so to speak. Don’t worry, I’m not being overly pretentious when I say this, at least I’m not trying to. If you think through your ideas, then you can scrap the bad ideas you have instantly, without having to take up the time of writing them down, before realising that they’re, well, rubbish.

Brainstorming

Once again, I admit, this isn’t something that I do on a regular basis (at least not on paper), but it is related(ish) to keeping a journal. It’s a process of making notes, just jotting down anything that comes into your head, and then wading through all the material to get to the good stuff.

Over the past year or so, I have been involved in an on-again, off-again collaboration with one of my non-writerly friends. And this is what has led me to the brainstorming. Because we can throw ideas around at each other, and just go off on tangents with different ideas and so fourth. Now collaboration is itself an entirely different topic, but I bring it up here because this experience has taught me something, why it’s always good to bounce ideas around and get feedback. Because this friend of mine is totally unafraid to tell me that an idea I’ve just come up with is moronic, and should be burnt (You can tell he’s not a writer, because he has no concept of my sensitive writerly feelings!) I try to keep him away from my other projects, just in case he tells me, ‘well, this is just crap!’

Brainstorming though (in terms of the thought process, as opposed to the writing it down) is a little more sketchy. Just letting your thoughts flow freely might throw up some really good ideas (I know I’ve come up with some killer dialogue from this in the past), but as opposed to the more direct thinking about your work (which is what I usually do) then it is very easy to forget (and I have forgotten a lot of this killer dialogue – go figure), so you should of course write it down! If you can’t do it there and then, try to retain it until you can write it down, and do so! There has been many a time when I myself have thought ‘Nah, I don’t need to do that, I’ll remember it.’ Only to – you guessed it – not remember it.

So what can we take away from this? Yes I suppose it is much easier to take notes in this modern world we live in. You can take notes on your mobile, or your blackberry, or palm pilot, or whatever other technical knickknacks people carry around with them nowadays. So it isn’t as necessary to carry around a leather bound journal, and so announce to the world ‘I’m a writer, damn it!’ You can tweet to yourself, or add a note to yourself on Facebook, or hell, email yourself, so you can take stock later. We have so many ways of taking notes now, so I guess the question is, why don’t I? Because I stubbornly refuse to take advantage of all these technological marvels that we have? Well, yes, really.

I hang my head in shame.

This is my new notebook. Only mine has funky embossed letters. Because I am special, and my wifey loves me.

First, thanks to all who gave comments, both on the site and elsewhere on the interwebonetosphere. It’s always great to get feedback from everyone!

I’ve decided this new journal will be used to note story ideas – with some strict rules. When I get an idea, I just want to get it down. I can elaborate on it later when it’s not distracting me from my current project. So, it will strictly be one story idea per page – just the date, descriptive title, and a brief synopsis of the idea. That way when I next need an idea for a story, I know exactly where to go!

This satisfies the criteria laid down in my last post:

• Notes do not need to be copied up
• Entries are brief
• The journal has a specific purpose
• It prevents simple story ideas from being lost amongst my other notes on my iPod Touch/computer, which might well be a problem in the future

And that’s that. I shall now write in my first entry, and pop the book in my bag.

This is my new notebook. Only mine has funky embossed letters. Because I am special, and my wifey loves me.

Now there’s this journal. I almost don’t want to write in it, because it’s such a nice item, and I wouldn’t want to “spoil” it. On the other hand of course, it is a notebook, and should be used. And it was a gift, intended to be used.

So, what to do with it? Where can it fit in my system? I’m really not sure at the moment, but there are at least some restrictions to its use that I can think of:

• I prefer my notes to be electronic. This is because copying things up is extremely dull, and having lots of notebooks runs the risk of them being lost or never read. Therefore anything that does get noted down must be brief, and probably not something that would need to be copied up.
• The book itself is rather small, being A6. This means I can carry it around easily, but again puts restrictions on what can go in it. It’s certainly not appropriate for rambling paragraphs, but might be better suited for lists (for example).
• I want it to have a very specific purpose. What I don’t want is to have random assortments of notes for various stories mixed in with actual sections of stories, diary entries, lists and ideas. One purpose, so that I know to always go to this journal for this specific thing. I would add to that that it should ideally solve some problem not remedied by the rest of my system.

That’s my problem, and I’d like to appeal to my readers for a possible solution. I’ve had the notebook a while now and still haven’t thought of anything to do with it, so any suggestions welcome. Feel free to chat about your journalling (made up word?) methods in the comments below. I would be especially interested to read that you have more than one journal and what you use them each for.

Oh, and the image is of the actual notebook, which you can get here (via the longest URL in the world). It’s nice, huh? And mine is embossed with my initials, so it’s even nicer

I understand the principle of course. A journal encourages you to write your ideas as they happen, meaning they are never lost (unless you lose your journal of course), and you always have a history of recorded ideas to fall back on. A very useful side effect is that you are likely to write more often (every day even), whether you are working on a particular project or not. Also, you are training your brain to be more aware of potential ideas and inspiration (more on that later perhaps), and it provides an extra outlet for creative expression.

So with all that in mind, have I ever tried to keep a journal? Of course I have! But my attempts have been intermittent and abortive. Nevertheless, I would like to share these experiences with you and see what you make of them. In the future I will give updates on how I am journaling (if at all), and whether I think it is worth doing (for me).

My first journal was an unconscious attempt. I would write notes, poems, lyrics and bits of stories in an old school exercise book, just whenever inspiration struck. I also had a big ring binder where I would put stuff I was proud of – mostly work that got copied up from the exercise book.

That was way back when I was in high school. At uni I made several more formal attempts at keeping a journal. I had one where I would write notes, and fragments of ideas, but I wanted somewhere where I could write up work as well – so I had two books. Generally though, the idea of keeping work in a book didn’t feel right when you could do so much more with notes on a computer.

Eventually the two journals became one, and that in turn morphed in to more of a diary, which was fine. Except there wasn’t much to do with writing in it!

Now I have something I am much more comfortable with. I have a projects folder on my computer, and every project (or potential project) has its own folder within that. This is good for me because I travel with a laptop every day, so I have access to the files and folders most of the time.

I still keep a book, but it’s more for planning, and reviewing how said plans are going. As much as I love computers and prefer writing on them, sometimes it’s just nice to open a book and write in it. Plus, I love the look of a book filled with notes, and have something of a fetish for notebooks. So, this way I get the best of both worlds!

By the way, the thing that really helps with the projects folder, is a little thing called Dropbox. I have provided a link, but it deserves a special mention in a blog post of it’s own, so look out for that.

Do you keep a journal? Never felt the need? Let everyone know in the comments section below.