Your old notebooks are not storage.

We all take notes. Goodness knows I have notebooks everywhere. In every handbag, beside my bed, tucked into bookshelves, on the dining room table. Different sizes, different moods and different jobs. I have pages filled with fragments of ideas, sentences, drawings, overheard conversations, snatched thoughts as I listen to a podcast or chat with someone.

But notebooks are only half the work. Transcribing, taking those handwritten notes and moving them onto your computer, is the step most writers avoid. It can feel dull. Easy to postpone. But when you transcribe, you are not just copying. You are re-reading, re-thinking, re-seeing your idea.

A line you’d forgotten suddenly feels alive again.
An idea that once seemed small opens out into something wonderful.
A fragment of description finds its place in your story.

Without doubt, inspiration can be an old thought that you’ve finally returned to. It’s fabulous when you pounce on an idea that’s been in your notebook waiting for you for months, in my case, even years.

Diarise time to transcribe. Diarise a time to transfer your notes into your computer. Treat it as part of your work, not an optional extra. If life is out of control busy, go further. Set aside a day. A weekend. Or take your notebooks with you on a holiday and transcribe. It is deeply satisfying working your way through notebooks and scraps of paper, seeing how your scratchings can be used and inserted into existing text in one of your pages. Old notes are so often explored, extrapolated, and embellished later. 

Make time to transcribe regularly, as part of your writing. Your notebooks are not just storage, they are ideas. Some of those ideas you will toss with the old what was I thinking line running through your head. But often there is gold, real gold in those notebooks.

What am I reading?

I just finished Natasha Lester’s new book, The Chateau on Sunset. I’ve always admired Natasha’s writing and storytelling. But I wasn’t mad about this book because I don’t believe in running away to Italy or France to find yourself. My beliefs smash dreams, I know that. Sorry. They are contrary to so many women who think they’ll find happiness on the other side of the world, on another continent. Many do. Many don’t. I believe wherever you go, you take yourself with you. I also prefer stories that don’t tie every character up into a pretty little pink bow. That kind of storytelling may be popular in women’s fiction. But it’s not really my thing. I am far more of a realist. And though I read to escape, I don’t read to escape into that kind of bubble. 

 What am I reading now?

The Names by Florence Knapp – now this is my kind of book! Highly recommend it for its extraordinary storyline and beautiful structure.

News:

The Early Bird sale is still on for our 2-3 hour special Craft Clinic Zoom on Character and Conflict. May 14 at 7pm in Sydney and 11am in Italy.

In other news:

Organised by Woollahra Library, I am teaching a special in-person 2-hour ESSENTIALS OF STORY class on Friday night May 22nd at 6pm. Tickets are $10 Tickets available through the library here It would be so fab to see you there! It feels like a warm-up for our Sydney August 3-day event at Woollahra Library.

In important news, this link is to our August 3-day Sydney Art of Writing program. I couldn’t work out how to share the program online so thank God for patient sons who act as tech support for their Baby Boomer Mums. 

August 21, 22, 23. An intense 3-day writing extravaganza in Double Bay, Sydney. 

Let me know if you need a payment system. This retreat includes your premise introduction and in-person chat with Zeitgeist Literary Agency. Check out the link and write to me if you need help with your storytelling.

Our Rome Art of Writing is booked out!

Our special Rome creative writing retreat is now full. But if you want to chat about other Italian writing retreat opportunities later this year or next, just drop me a line! Clifford.lisa@hotmail.com

Let’s talk further next week.

Happy transcribing!