Jessie: Popping back and forth between New Hampshire and Maine because things are glorious in both places!
One of the things that I adore about being a writer is that it makes me look less crazy to be someone who collects so many tidbits of information without knowing why I wish to keep them. Eventually, I find uses for many of them, but when I first come across something fascinating, like the details of pigeon racing, or the rumors of a lost settlement, Norumbega in Maine I have little notion of where it will lead me.
I’ve been collecting notes for my whole life in one way or another. Like so many writers I have a fleet of notebooks, both used and brand new. I’ve used many of them to jot things down in a higgledy-piggledy sort of a way. After many years I discovered the joy of corralling notes into a commonplace book which is a far more organized and productive way of managing the flotsam and jetsom of my life. Mine contains lists of movies I want to watch, restaurants to try, museums to visit, and books to read. It also holds onto gift ideas, quotes I want to remember, and possible book titles. I keep it on my desk and either add to it or look it over often.
And then there is the traveler’s notebook style cover I picked up in the discount bin, along with two dozen paper notebooks to fill it. For some reason, the size of it is just perfect for noting down packing lists, menus for parties, and plants that would be just right for one of our gardens.
Additionally, there are the sticky notes clinging to my desk, the walls, and the backs of doors in my office. I live in constant fear of them losing their ability to stick and floating off somewhere that I cannot find. I even have brainstorming notes jotted down on the glass wall mounted to one wall of my office. I ran through dry-erase markers so quickly that I ended up buying some that are refillable in an effort not to be quite so wasteful.
But as we all know, times change. As wonderful as handwritten are, much of my world has turned digital, particularly my deliberate research. I was at a complete loss when it came to collecting those notes for years. I tried bookmarks, reading lists, and even a Word doc with links. Mostly, I just ended up with approximately 5,000 tabs open at any given moment. Honestly, I still tend to do that. But, somehow Trello came into my orbit and I had a way to save and organize those notes in a way that felt intuitive to me.
Lately, I’ve been noodling my notes and considering what sort of story I would like to tell next. I have so many intriguing snippets to choose from that I feel spoilt for choice. But as I poke and ponder I am quite sure that the next thing is already tucked away in my hoard somewhere. After all, it’s worked for nineteen novels so far!
Readers, do you have a love affair with notes? If so, how do you collect them?
The Wickeds 
I’ve kept daily journals for decades and still have all of them. If I ever want to go down a rabbit hole, all I have to do is select one from way back and start reading. I have a notebook for each series for random thoughts notes, ideas, and brainstorming sessions. I have notebooks scattered throughout my house and in my purse for story ideas and for jotting down a really fabulous word that might fit into my WIP. Then there are the sticky notes and index cards stuck to and scattered across my desk.
I really need to sit down and organize all those snippets into on cohesive file. Ha.
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I know just what you mean about that rabbit hole! I’ve been there many times myself!
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I used to keep lots of paper note pads around. These days, I use an app on my phone called “Keep Notes.” I have a few book ideas and other odds and ends there.
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I use a note app on my phone too, especially to corral ideas before I add them to Trello.
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Lots of notebooks, various notes on my whiteboard, the occasional (yellowing) news clipping taped to my office wall. I like the thought of a comprehensive Ideas notebook, but I’d have to be organized enough to actually write in it…
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Honestly, Edith, I often take notes on a scrap of paper or a sticky note and then migrate the information to the commonplace book later when I have time and inclination. After all, I don’t always have my commonplace book with me when a thought strikes or info surfaces.
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Notebooks, phone notes, sticky notes, whiteboard, journals, computer notes and files. All of the above. Now, if only someone would come up with a way to organize them and make the searchable… Trello? I’ll take a look.
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I love Trello and hope that you do too!
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I’ve kept a chronological notebook every year for decades. It is filled with to-do lists, Christmas gift lists, notes from meetings, notes related to books I am writing, and until the last two years when I finally went digital, a monthly calendar with all meetings, appointments, trips, etc in it. At some point I realized it was easier for me to remember WHEN something happened as opposed to how I might have categorized it in the moment. I do use a Levenger Circa notebook, so pages can be easily moved, for example all those pages related to a particular book go to a notebook for that book, all the pages that are a trip diary go, eventually, to form the basis of a scrapbook about that trip. As storage has run low, i have thrown out bunches of pages related to organizations I am not longer part of, but it’s nice to have the calendars and to-do lists and see them march through time. As you say so much is now digital. The notebooks for each Maine Clambake Mystery have become successively slimmer, which makes me a little sad. I should toss them. Who would want them? But I’m not ready yet.
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Your system is inspiring! I do hope that you won’t toss those notebooks! I expect someone will be interested in your process, if not right now, then in the future!
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I must be the least organized person in the world. I have no notebooks anymore. But I use the notes and reminders functions on my phone to keep me organized.
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Phones seem so sensible since people always have them at hand! Still, no notebooks? I feel like I should pop one in the post to you!
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Fantastically fun, Jessie. A tried and true method for inspiration ( ;
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Thanks so much!
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I tried Post-its and notebooks – nope, not for me. I lose them or I never seem to have the notebook with me when the idea hits. So I went digital. I used Evernote for years, until they took away the ability to have multiple notebooks in free accounts – which was the thing I liked best. I had notebooks for every book, one for general research links, one for odd snippets, etc.
Now I use a combination of Microsoft OneNote (which I don’t like as much as Evernote, but at least I don’t have to pay extra for it since I’m an Office 365 subscriber) and the Notes app on my phone, which syncs to my laptop and iPad.
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Changes to favorite apps and software are so jarring! Even though it has been several years now, I am still furious about the way that Dragon Dictation dumped Mac users.
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I’m not very good at notes. “I’ll remember that.” And I never do. Or remember it at the wrong time. Of course, I often can’t find my notes when I do take them, so they don’t help that much either.
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That happens to me sometimes too. It is such an aggravating feeling!
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Think I’ve always been a list maker/fact note taker. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve narrowed it down to things that can make my life easier, things left to do (read, new recipe, books, etc.) and most importantly things to remember. 🙂 Paper notes have been replaced by the computer folders I have for such as those. They take up less room and are easier to alter (like after a trip listed what worked and didn’t, what I forgot or would have been nice to have along) or delete if no longer right for me now. Those that don’t use notes try to make themselves believe they can remember it all. Maybe they can, but I’d rather use those brain cells for something else – like what’s for supper that we haven’t just had, where to find the best deals in town and does my pantry have all I need to make a certain dish. 🙂
2clowns at arkansas dot net
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I can’t agree more with you, Kay! I love to think of my brain as a factory rather than a storage unit! Notetaking helps me with that.
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I do. I make notes all of the times. I have scraps of paper everywhere. Finally, a friend gave me a large notebook and I organized that one with labeling like Christmas ideas, and so on like yours. I also have spiral bound one with quotes form books and movies, Spanish phrases and their English translation, things my husband has said, things the pups have done over the years and facts on each dog, Merry Christmas in many languages, and so on. Every once in a while, I go and look through the smaller spiral one and enjoy what I have written. I do not write books, though recently I have written a couple of articles on my grandmother and one on my father and myself–being a Daddy’s girl. These have been published in an online newsletter from where I grew up in Harlingen, Texas in the Magic Rio Grande Valley called RGV Memories put together by an 85-year-old returned to Harlingenite with a team of 14 called a whatateam. He just added me to that team. Cool! It is amazing, that as I wrote more and more memories came back to me. I have a couple more articles in mind. One on a best friend’s father from before birth who was a colleague of my father and had an interesting life and another on my maternal grandfather, my mother and me. Many articles have been written on my grandfather and a couple of books, so this will be a different look. Good to know that someone else does that besides me. Every once in a while, I go through them, place the info in one of the notebooks, or sometimes type it up on word and get rid of the notes stacking all around me.
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