#miscellaneous notebook

[sharpiefumesandnotetaking]

Empty Notebooks

If you’re like us, you probably have multiple empty notebooks lying around and few ideas on how to fill them. So here’s a compilation of ideas, that hopefully will inspire you to fill those notebooks. Some may seem rather obvious, but it doesn’t harm to cover the basics.

1. Bullet Journal

For ideas on how to start your bullet journal have a look at our 2019 setups here and here.

2. Recipe Collections

A place to write down your favourite/most used recipes is useful. Having to search through various different websites/apps trying to remember what that one recipe was called is a pain. If you don’t have a notebook with dividers use sticky bookmarks to mark what type of recipe each page contains (e.g. meat, veggie, vegan, deserts etc.)

3. Dream Diary

4. Book/Reading Journal

A place to write down what books you’ve read and what you’ve thought. This journal is also a good way to keep track of what books you have borrowed or loaned, and when books by your favourite author are due to be released.

5. Finances

A notebook solely for a log of what you’ve spent or earned is very helpful in organising yourself and adulting.

6. Diary/Journal/Brain Dump

A place to write down thoughts and feelings.

7. Miscellaneous Notebook

A small notebook that can fit into any bag (and maybe a pocket) that you can take anywhere with you to write down anything that may pop into your head, shopping lists and ideas.

8. Lists

This could be a place where you keep shopping lists, to-do lists, favourite movies or tv shows you are currently watching.

9. Blog Posts

Ideas for blog posts can strike at any time or they can take a while to form, a notebook is a perfect way to keep those thoughts organised.

10. Stories/Ideas

Writers know that inspiration can strike at the strangest of moments and sometimes those ideas aren’t needed in that point of the narrative. A notebook keeps those ideas safe until needed.

[bloggingwithauthorialintent]

Pencil vs Keyboard

When I talk about my writing process, a lot of non-writers look at me with horror in their eyes "You write by hand?!" they say To which I very helpfully smile and nod I've often joked that I think better on paper, and for my writing I find it to be especially true. Having a notebook that no-one else is allowed to read takes a lot of pressure off, which makes it easier for the words to flow I like to cross things out while still having them around in case I change my mind (I have separate word documents for this when I type too). I make notes in the margins and leave blanks for things to come back to. These can be done while typing, but I find them less intrusive by hand I do eventually type up my work (I actually like to alternate days handwriting and typing to give each a moment of rest and reflection), and when I do that's part of my revising process. Sometimes the words on the paper are the same as the ones in the word doc, but even then I often shift things around or add new bits Writing by hand also means using pretty notebooks! I like to put encouraging stickers on the cover of my main writing notebook, but I also keep a miscellaneous "this doesn't count" notebook. The miscellaneous notebook is specifically allowed to have any writing at all in it (main project, random idea, fanfic, a neat phrase, literally anything) and no-one else ever gets to read it. Sometimes I've felt like I needed separate notebooks for each WIP, but having one where anything goes makes it easier to focus on writing things instead of organizing them. I often add post-it notes afterwards so I can find things in the misc notebook, especially when some of the writing in there is a continuation of writing elsewhere in that notebook. It's a bit chaotic, but it's also a lot of fun to flip through later and see what I experimented with earlier