I started keeping a Writer’s Notebook in 1997 after attending an Advanced Placement Summer Institute in Norman, Oklahoma. The presenter, Cindy O’Donnell Allen, had sections and lessons in her presentation about having students keep a Writer’s Notebook. I had “journaled” or kept a diary since I was a child, but this concept was different. It is not a diary, not a journal/diary. I embraced it because I liked the set-up and purpose.
Why Keep a Writer’s Notebook
From my notes, I gleaned these ideas about keeping a notebook:
What we choose to record reflects a lot about who we are.
We use Writer’s Notebooks to help us:
*remember the best and worst of times
*to stay on nodding terms with the world – choosing to see the world in terms of words
*for honing craft and consciousness
*for writing regularly
*for preserving details
Using Writer’s Notebooks in the Classroom
I would encourage students (because Cindy O-A suggested) to buy a blank journal type book. Not a spiral notebook because it is more personal to buy something that reflects the person. The day the students brought the notebook, they were instructed to copy this quote at the front of the notebook:
“Creativity is the courage to express our mind and heart exactly as they are. You must not care about consequences or the opinion of others. Trust your own convictions, knowing that delivering your heart and mind can make things change.” May Sarton
I instructed students to write only on the right side pages and use the left side pages to make sketches, flowcharts, collect significant words, quotations, ideas, pictures, whatever might be significant in connection with the right side writing.
I used Cindy O-A’s lessons and ideas with my students from then on for the next nineteen years. I used them in my grade-level classes as well as AP classes. Obviously, some students highly embraced the concept while others balked at the idea, but most did what they were asked. In the notebook we collected ideas and completed writing activities that eventually led to memoir pieces (prose and poetry), walking compositions, pieces about significant people, anecdotal compositions, and moments captured. Numerous students thanked me by the end of the year because they had creatively written more than they thought possible.
Student Thoughts on Writer’s Notebooks
Two of my seniors one year wrote an essay about having to keep the Writer’s Notebook.
One student wrote in her introduction:
“At the beginning of the year, my teacher assigned a writer’s notebook. At first, it was just another assignment for me to keep on top of throughout my senior year, but as time progressed I began to discover its underlying objectives. Self-discovery, the expansion of the mind, and a look back on the past are a few of the underlying meanings behind this assignment.”
The other student concluded her essay:
“This book, though only a month or two in progress, has already grown to mean so much. It has become a guide to who I am, what I love, and to what makes me, me. Though this book can pose such a threat to the security of “me”, I am glad it exists. Because of it I have learned a bit more of who I am and why I am the way I am. It is and always will be greatly appreciated.”
My Own Writer’s Notebooks
I have several notebooks now with my own collections of details and thoughts along with the memory joggers that fill the left side pages. Admittedly, the notebook for me hasn’t just been for capturing ideas and thoughts for future writing projects. I also have captured twenty-two years of experiences, frustrations, hopes, struggles, and joys. When I look back through them, though, I am thankful for the memory joggers and for the details I captured because they are no longer at the forefront of my mind.
I recently found journals and writings from my childhood. (Yes, I too can’t believe I kept them packed away, moving that box each and every time I relocated.) I thought surely I had tossed them until I went looking for something else packed away in the garage, and there they were. Some are just “diaries” of a young girl – with one or two-line entries (because, after all, it was a five-year diary and that’s all you could write in that little space). Some are papers taped together to make a journal, some are spiral notebooks full of stories, some are stenographer pads filled with poems. Anything I could get my hands on to write in is what I used. I am so glad I kept them. They remind me that I have always wanted to capture the moments.
I suppose today that some would rather keep their Writer’s Notebook in an electronic format. Yes, I suppose for the current and future generations that would be appealing. I like the touch and feel of the pages and my special writing pen. I would like my children to see their mom’s handwriting if they ever choose to read them. To me, it is more personal and special to see the handwriting.
One minute you are ten years old, thinking you will remember everything forever. The next minute you are thirty, with two children and a thriving career. The next minute you are fifty-six, and what you thought you would remember forever gets lost among the massive accumulation of thoughts and life experiences. I will continue to keep my hybrid Writer’s Notebook.
I encourage you to keep a Writer’s Notebook, too. Whether electronically or old-fashioned pen and paper, I think you will be glad you did. Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer, why not capture moments and memories in a place that you can look back on and remember?