N is for Notes

Note-taking is one of the most important parts of writing, and yet it goes largely unmentioned. Dialog with self happens on the page. Figuring out your questions and the range of answers and then narrowing down to what you’ll pick and moving forward: all of this happens in scribbled jottings, in dicated-to-phone notes. The form is individual, varied according to preferences and circumstances, but try this. Keep up a steady stream of discussion with yourself about what you are trying to do, what’s stopping you. A problem or fear written down becomes a question to which your mind or imagination or other creative hot spot will begin to produce answers.

At AWP, I heard Elizabeth McCracken and Jonathan Franzen talk about taking many, many notes. A relief to hear this habit reflected. Note taking can like one of those necessary activities it is easy to discount. I’m not writing, I’m taking notes. Writing about the writing. But this is the way forward–the lab journal, the ethnographic record, the place where your creative committee works it all out, day after day.

A Practical Alphabet for Writers: Find all the letters so far at https://bookwritingworld.com/blogs/