Aah look what arrived today! @AlyssaC_HK So excited to start reading, hehehe :) pic.twitter.com/nPIwUwV4mo
— Taile (@appletaile) April 2, 2015
Congratulations on the fabulous pick, and thank you again to everyone who participated!Moving on, I always have paper and a pen with me. Everywhere. Ever since I decided to start writing seriously, it's become a necessary habit — and I thought I'd share with you where I normally write.
1. The Tiny Notebook: it goes with me everywhere. Six notebooks worth of short stories, Shadowplay, and random ideas on the road. Plus handy elastic for a pen.
2. The Post-its: lurking by my bed with a thick marker, in case the night is dark and full of ideas.
3. The Competition Notebook: Free notebook from competition organiser? Use it to write, of course ... plus a few chemical equations tested the next day.
4. The Attempt at Revisions: Wherein I note down smileys, winces, and other things on a first draft I'm trying not to line edit. Printed and bound neatly to increase self-esteem.
5. The Almighty Computer: They all get transferred here in the end.
Where do you normally store your fruits of labour? Have you ever tried the above places?
Twitter-sized takeout:
- Where do you write? @AlyssaC_HK shares 5 fav #writing places. (Click to Tweet)
- 5 places where @AlyssaC_HK is #amwriting. (Click to Tweet)
This was a very good post, Alyssa. I normally have a hardback Virginia Woolf notebook with me for poetry, and a owl notebook with elastic for ideas.
ReplyDeleteThe post its are a good idea. I normally have ideas floating through my mind before I sleep (why is it always at night?), yet I'm too lazy to get up and grab my notebook to jot them down.
Thank you, Cindy! Ooh, a Virginia Woolf notebook sounds amazing. Very good inspiration for poetry indeed, although Plath remains my fav lady writer.
DeleteYes! Post-its are great because you can toss away the unintelligible in-the-dark writing, and it's so difficult to remember to bring your notebook to bed. And why it is always the night ... the night is dark and full of ideas. And writer's ideas are always terrors.
I love notebooks and post-its! Big yellow legal pads are also great, and sometimes I'll write notes or outlines out on loose lined paper and store them in a binder. Sometimes I think I love all the different "tools" I use much more than I love actual writing!
ReplyDeleteOh yes! There is a certain flair to legal pads. I used to write on holed line paper as well, but they had a tendency to fly away before I stored them in the binder :S
DeleteTrue! Although these tools are just fixations as we try to delay the actual writing XD
Aw, I love tiny notebooks. xD I have a whole pile of them for different things, but I mostly use the computer because my handwriting is HORRENDOUS and I can't ever read most of it later. So notebooks are usually for scribbles of things that I won't need again, I just need to get out on paper. I'll use sticky notes when I have a particular quote that pops into my head that I want to use in a story, or an immediate idea or something. I'll also use those sticky notes for cool quotes I come across in books.
ReplyDeleteTiny notebooks are indeed lovely! It was so hard to find some of the perfect size. And I feel you on the handwriting. THAT IS SO TRUE. Sometimes, though, the ideas are so sluggish on the computer (and so distraction-prone) that I have to handwrite -- although I have yet to revise by hand.
DeleteSticky notes for quotes! That even rhymed, ahaha -- I should really put some writing inspiration quotes on my desk :D
This is so accurate it hurts :') except for me, everything starts from the nano notebooks to the ultimate, megabook. I like your scribbles!
ReplyDeleteAhaha, thank you :D NaNo notebooks sound fun, although I've yet to participate in one of these!
DeleteLove the idea of post-its next to the bed. My most frequent place for writing is actually in my work notebooks that I use to jot down notes in meetings. There are random pages in the middle of important proprietary information that are just me working on my story or jotting down ideas. This is particularly bad when I travel and don't want to carry a lot in my carry-on :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you find it useful -- feel free to steal one! And yes, it's so easy to find bits of writing where they don't belong. (If only homework came so intuitively ...) I just hope that those notebooks don't get seen by authorities who do not see the glory of multitasking XD
DeleteYour Monkey face post-its look so cool :P
ReplyDeleteThis is a good habit I think.I should start doing such stuff you have no idea how many good idea's got lost in my mind because I didn't make a note of it. :P
So you have a writing idea and you scribble it somewhere.How do you know which of the scribble to pick then?Do have any order in which you do that??Or randomly??
Neal Kind
Daily Diaries
Thank you, Neal! They were a gift from my aunt :D And yes, when you're lying in bed and too exhausted to get up, you convince yourself that you'll remember it in the morning, but no!
DeleteI log all my scribbles in a file called "Misc Ideas" in my computer, and whenever I have a development on that idea I add it to that file. Whichever idea calls to me most is the one I'm writing -- but it takes so long to write and revise a novel I haven't had to worry about not having enough ideas!
I haven't written in ages, so I'm not as thorough as you when it comes to taking down notes. Even with reading notes I tend to just grab my phone and punch it in because...laziness. really impressed with all your notetaking though Alyssa, and I'm so impressed that you're already editing your book. That's so exciting! Hoping to see it on shelves one day ;)
ReplyDeleteOhhhh, yes. Phones are great. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a snail when it comes to phone typing, so I either use a computer or just scribble.
DeleteAaaah, thank you, Joy! That's the highest compliment I could've asked for :D
Funnily enough, I'm doing a post kind of like this on Monday, but not. I have no real rhyme or reason to the way I write in my notebooks, but I always think it's interesting to see how other people manage. I haven't really been writing in notebooks though, which makes me sad. I really like writing in notebooks, it's just hard when I'm working on computer stuff, too. :/
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike. *nods to convince self that I am great* I've been loving your notebook interviews, because they're so diverse but so ... Heather. Yes, that's now an adjective.
DeleteWriting in notebooks is hard? Try revising. I honestly have no clue how one would revise on paper without line-editing.
You are great. :) I enjoy that adjective. (Although actually it was already an adjective, because heather is also a color.)
DeleteOh goodness. I didn't even stop to think about that. The scarier bit is that that was probably how most books originally got revised...
Ohh, is that the reason SiaS has purple everywhere? That's such a clever stealth pun, Heather!
DeleteBeing a writer nowadays is so much easier than, like, twenty years ago ... at least now we can order takeout to survive through writer's block ...
Ooh, I loved seeing all your notebooks! I have so many notebooks that it's actually ridiculous. Some notebooks are for school, but the large majority are for writing since I mostly use a binder for school. For me, notebooks are for writing down ideas as well as short pieces such as short stories and poems. They are also for plotting and outlining novels because for some reason I just can not plot or outline on a computer. Then, the only thing that actually gets done on a computer is typing up my shorter pieces and my novels. I don't even transfer my outlines.
ReplyDeleteI normally keep everything school-related in my computer, but that's more a byproduct of an IB student -- I used to have so many maths homework books it was distressing. I also can't plot or outline on my computer! I just draw out the idea and scan/log it into my computer somehow.
DeleteI guess it really depends on the level of tech you're comfortable with -- I think I rank slightly more to the tech side on that spectrum than many writers.
Oh, I use technology all the time for school, but when it comes to math and chemistry, it's so difficult to do that because there are numbers everywhere, and it's so hard to do math by typing it out.
DeleteTRUE. Equations on computers are horrible. I'm okay with chemistry, because the most annoying thing about that is the subscripts and superscripts, and Pages handles those quite nicely. But yeah, maths is much more instinctive on paper. Much like writing, I have to say.
DeleteThat's so cool! I have a lot of notebooks for different tasks, too! I have a few for school (obviously), one for writing poetry, one for writing story ideas, two for blog planning, and a bunch of other ones that I haven't really figured out their purpose yet :P I just love collecting notebooks, even if I never use it.... I guess that kinda makes me a hoarder XD.
ReplyDeleteOh, I NEVER use the notebooks I buy. I'm so focused on keeping them pristine and clean. "How will I know this idea is worthy of this beautiful notebook? What if I make a mistake?" Argh, my inner perfectionist :P
DeleteI love love love notebooks, but I use them to keep track of the things I have to do.... I like making lists, and I'm not sure why but I work better with pen and paper :)
ReplyDeleteHmm, I prefer to handle scheduling things on my phone or in my head. Of course, the latter leads to me forgetting I have things to do.
DeleteMy room is covered in post-its, so I'm not entirely sure what the original colour of my wardrobe is... but if there's one thing I find really frustrating, it's that I can't write entire scenes on paper. At all. I have to sit down in front of the computer, or my writing doesn't flow.
ReplyDeleteOh! Last year, when I was still formulating plots and not really writing, I found the last 24 pages of my accountancy notebook very helpful to scribble down descriptions and scene summaries, especially since there were so many margins. :D
Ha, that is rather excessive. My wardrobe doesn't have a flat door, so I use the back of my room door instead. I can write entire scenes of paper, but it's so annoying to type all those words back into the computer without compulsive line-editing.
DeleteOoh, dear. I do hope that wasn't turned in for class.
I admire all your notebooks!! I have a HUGE notebook collection but I never seem to actually....use them. 0_0 I use sticky notes a lot though, but mostly my iPod note feature. It's great to tap in things in the middle of the night, after, of course, I recover from being blinded by the light. -_-
ReplyDeleteSAME HERE. I just don't want to tarnish them, because I'm afraid my words are not worthy of that beautiful creamy paper ... I don't use electronic notes much, mostly because I come up with the most ideas when I'm daydreaming in class or showering, and neither situation allows for phone-using. XD
DeleteI thought I was the only one who keeps post-its by my bed xD I use my phone and school books most of the time because I'm scared of losing a notebook entirely dedicated to notes- the loss would be huge.
ReplyDeleteNo, you're not! I know lots of writers who do that -- it's a sign of wisdom by acknowledging that you won't be able to get up to write down that idea, especially in winter when your bed is so much warmer than outside. Oh, yes, that was such a terrible feeling when I was writing my novel in those tiny notebooks and I kept obsessively checking whether they were on me :S
Delete