THE MAGIC NOTEBOOK
Chapt 2 from Remembrance Writing 101 Guidebook:
The Easy Way to Write and Share the Stories of Your Life.
Claudia Carroll (c.) 2011
Wayne Dyer say that whenever he “proposes” a book topic to his publisher (he can do this, getting a “yes, we'll publish it” before he even writes the book, having earned the “write!”), he asks them to send him, as soon as possible, a mock up of the cover design. He takes this, wraps an old book in it, and places the old book with the new cover, near his computer. This action (and the actual visualizing of the finished book, probably), encourages him to get on with the writing.
What I recommend: A three ring notebook.
I like the flexible, lightweight kind with a transparent, slip-in front cover. You can then create an 8 x 11 drawing, computer graphic or collage of your prospective Remembrance Writing 101 book and easily create a cover. Feel you are not artistic? Then just take a magic marker and write (in bold letters): My Book, by _________(your author name). Even if you don't buy a notebook with the transparent front, you can paste something onto any notebook cover. One of my workshoppers found a beautiful leather notebook at a thrift shop!
Add some file dividers (the kind you can label at the edges), and a couple of pocket file dividers. These pocket dividers are great for filing away a napkin from a favorite place you've eaten, a travel brochure that reminds you of a place you've been, a notice of a writing group meetup, a letter that you may have been inspired to write to a family member or friend.
Add a plastic or cloth pencil pouch. I prefer mechanical pencil to writing with a pen. The preference is yours, but writing with a pen makes a piece seem “finalized” for me, and I'd rather it stay “open” for a while. You may want to add some colored pencils for sketching. Hand-written pieces with a little sketch are treasures to receive. You can have these copied to send like gift-cards while maintaining the original in your notebook.
When a journal works well:
If you are planning to do your writes as a single gift to a family member or friend: such as “Letters to My Granddaughter,” or “Loving Memories for my Love,” then a hand-written journal would be the way to go. Such a journal would be a treasured gift, and something to pass on through the family.
How about computer typing and filing?
I'd love it, if all of you who plan to print or publish one day were “computer savvy.” But many older adults are not. In fact, few in my workshops even do e-mailing or communicate via Facebook. So, if you do know about word processing, by all means, type up your hand-written workshop pieces. One method is to file them by title, so that you can reassemble them as you wish later on. Or, you could file your stories chronologically, such as “birth through grade school,” “middle through high school,” “college, work years,” “family,” “later years.”
You could also file your stories using any number of the “keys” given in 101 Keys to Open Your Memory Vaults, if you were, for example to write a whole series of stories about your life based on movies, or songs, travel or books, sports or even shoes you've worn at different stages of your life.
Why is a notebook is better?
If you have even an inkling that you might want to print or publish (more of this later), you'll find the notebook works for both your hand-written workshop writes, as well as any computer writing or typing of your hand-written writes you or another might do for you.
Do, always keep your hand-written pieces. I would give anything to have a single note written to me, or a poem, a letter, written by my mother, who died when I was six years old.
If you engage someone else to do your typing, you'll want to compare what the typist has done, with what you wrote. This applies to use an editor also. Remember! Remembrance Writing 101 is not about grammar, punctuation and clever phrases. In my workshops I constantly remind writers to “allow yourselves to write...” This means stifling the inner critic, and the critics (family, teachers, friends) to whom you may have exposed your writing to before, and just writing what YOU wish to remember, in your own way.
Of course, use all that you know about language when you re-write (careful now, or your spontaneity may disappear), but when working with an editor, be sure that the person respects your “writer's voice and style.”
So, whether hand-written or computer generated writes, or both, using a notebook is an easy way to file your pieces, organizing them however makes sense to you. You'll find then, when you are ready to print/publish, you can easily reassemble your writes. (See above: “How About Computer Writes and Filing?”)
Your notebook: a portable writing lab!
When you can, keep your notebook with you. You'll literally have a portable writing lab with you. Having coffee at Starbucks? Write a note about how it is now, re getting a cup of coffee, and the coffee shop diners you might have stopped in, during a cross-country travel. Waiting for a bus? Writing a note about how it was when you marched in a Peace Rally. Stranded in an air terminal? Write about the way it was to travel when you were a kid, or your first plane trip. Going for a walk in a beautiful wilderness area? Write a remembrance to go along with the photos you might be taking, and compare the current time to your first experience in the outdoors.
The notebook encourages You to respect YOU!
The notebook encourages you to respect you, the life you've lived and helps you capture those fleeting thoughts and experiences that would make really good writes if only you could remember them later! You'll start getting attention too, as people notice you are writing, and are, thus, “a writer.” Most important, you'll begin to see yourself as “a writer,” with things to remember, things to say, and things to pass on to others.
Something you may not have thought about: When you write your remembrances you encourage others to do the same. I've had so many experiences as editor/publish of our Remembrance Writing 101 anthologies: (at the moment: “Voices of Sea Turtles,” and “Lost, Then Found,” plus several individual workshoppers “chapbooks” - small collections of their own writes), where these writing remembrances by people the readers don't even know, have encouraged them. Younger people say, “Oh, there are so many questions I wish I'd asked;” older people say, “Oh, there are so many things I'd like to tell.”
Most all are intimidated though by the “idea” of writing, and definitely by the thought of publishing their writes. You'll find though, starting with Your Magic Notebook, and whether participating in one of my workshops, or forming a writing group on your own, using the ideas you find here, that a few minutes a day will produce a paragraph to a page of remembrance. In one month, even with two days off, you could have 20 stories, just the right number for your first chapbook! In one year, even with 52 days off, you could have a 300 page book!
Now, pick up your pencil and sign your name under this statement:
I will buy a 3 ring notebook, lined or plain notebook paper, file dividers, pocket dividers, plastic or cloth pencil pouch, a couple of automatic pencils (and maybe some colored pencils too!) I'm a writer, and I need this tool kit!
_____________________________________(Your signature) _________(Date)
Advanced orders are being taken for the completed guidebook. Please contact Claudia at cjcarrollbooks@yahoo.com
its glory– two facing, toxic pages featuring dinosaurs, and a Smilodon with its long, razor-sharp fangs, a true feline ancestor to my sweet pet, Vu-Vu.
