#notebook november

[sunmaea]

I had a wonderful (albeit slightly stressful!) time participating in the Notebook November event designed by @astorythatwritesitself. The aim of the challenge was to fill up a notebook over the course of November.

I opted to use one of the many, many notebooks I had in my stationery crate. My notebook was A6 in size and had about 80 pages (I think). Thankfully, those pages were fairly wide-ruled!

I actually began scribbling in my notebook on the 11th of November. It quickly became clear that I wouldn't be able to complete the book if I fastidiously stuck to only using it for plotting stories – which had been my original plan – so I tried to be flexible. That turned out to be much more fun and, interestingly enough, much more productive.

I completed the notebook on the 30th of November. Here are some of the pages (be awed by my dodgy handwriting):

A bit more about the photos:

The notebook itself. I think it came as part of a pack of three. I remember it being fairly cheap

A word search puzzle featuring a few fruits. Solve the word search and look at the remaining letters to find a secret message...!

A bit of poetry. I had fun using different colours. I've typed up the two poems to make them easier to read

Some strips of metallic washi tape. I also used a paper puncher to create some teeny hearts from the washi tape

A snippet of my initial plans for Four Choices, my 200-word RPG. It was so good to write this out by hand as I edited slightly more than usual

A snippet of my word count tracker for The 3-Day Novel, a challenge where I wrote 50,000 words in less than 72 hours. It's definitely one of the most ambitious writing challenges I've undertaken to date!

I hope to take part in Notebook November again next year!

[astorythatwritesitself]

Notebook November (Notevember) 📓

Looking for a new challenge, in light of the dumpster fire that was once the NaNo organization? Not a huge fan of the 50k goal because of time, motivation, lack of a solid enough concept, or generally don't vibe with it? Do you desire or hoard new stationery the way a dragon desires and hoards sparkly rocks? Notevember just might be up your alley!

What is Notevember?

Some bullshit I made up like a month ago & I absolutely doubt I'm the only one with such a concept, either 😂 A variant of the NaNoWriMo challenge; for those who find specific word goals daunting, who prefer to work longhand, and/or who get more satisfaction seeing... tangible results, as it were? Like, you can absolutely do this digitally if you really want, but this is very much aimed towards folks who find writing longhand just hits a little differently.

Rather than aim for a given number of words, you're aiming to fill up a notebook!

Supplies?

You will need:

- An empty notebook. My personal preference is a 70-100 page spiral or classic composition notebook, but use one that's however large or small you want! This is also an excuse to finally crack open any empty notebooks you might have lying around, yeah?

- Writing implements of choice

And... that's it! Throw in stickers or whatever else you might want, but all you'll really need is a bundle of paper & something to mark it up with.

How to play?

Start filling the pages.

It can be a single story! It could be character or general writing exercises. It could be research notes, timelines, observations of people around you, overheard conversations, a collection of passages, quotes, poetry, or lyrics that speak to you. It could be a little of everything!

The only goal is that, by the end of November, you've filled up each page - and it's your call, if that only means the front of a page, or front and back.

Notevember is meant to be flexible & relatively forgiving, especially if you tend to have a lot going on. The notebook could be one small enough to keep with you throughout the day so you can jot down lines on a lunch break, in a waiting room, on the bus - or it could be something you do at home, after waking up or just before bed or whenever you've got the time.

Other Thoughts?

I have found that I get more satisfaction and more motivation to continue when I can like... see a result. Number Going Up just doesn't quite work for me like it does for other folks, but seeing empty pages fill up, seeing the distortion and wear of the notebook as it gets used? That gets me to feel, 'Ah! Something Is Happening!' There's also (a little) less tendency to try and edit as I go; working longhand with a pen does better for me to get that zero draft/concept on the page, rather than agonizing over creating a polished product from the start.

I've also found I get more into that... 'no one will ever have to see this, it can be as messy & misspelled & senseless as it needs to be' mindset easier, than writing on a tablet or laptop? -shrug- idk It Just Hits Different and that's all there is to it.

Share snippets, characters, whatever you're doing, if you want! But this is a little more aimed at those who just need to get things down, who want to have An End Product, but maybe don't have fully coherent plots or polished pieces, and don't usually have much to share - it's just between you and your notebook. You don't have to share or invite anyone else in, if you don't want to.

So! That's about the long and short of it. If you think you like this idea, feel free to join in; and whatever you are or aren't doing for November Writing Time - good luck, and take care!