A thought on why you should always but always have a notebook
“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever.”
— Will Self
A quote like this always resonates. While I’m grateful for things like the notes app on my phone, I prefer to jot things down on paper. I feel uneasy when I reach for the pen almost always on my shirt … and find nothing there. It’s an ever worse feeling when I don’t have a notebook on me.
Yes, I’ve reached for serviettes, fetched sheets from a recycling bin, scrawled things on the top of flyers, jotted contact information into a book. Needs must.
I’m not terribly picky about my notebooks, but I do know what I like. I have a variety of notebooks from Muji, so anytime we’re travelling in a city with a Muji store, Martha and I are going to be stocking up. They’re also economical, and while I love a nice, fancy notebook, I like the thrifty kind, too.
Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones was published in 1986, and has had an impact on writers for many years. One of her key bits of advice is to write every day, no matter what; even if it feels like junk, just write it down. To facilitate that, Goldberg herself used cheap notebooks like the kind kids used at school. When she finished one, she started another.
I have a habit of starting and stopping with my notebooks. The one I’m using at the moment can be seen at the top of this post, and it is small and efficient. From the first few pages (judging from things I was working on), I know I started using it in October 2019. I only used a few pages before evidently putting it in a safe or obscured place. I found it recently when I unpacked the belongings I took home from the office.
That little notepad is in one of my pockets most days of the week. It’s very good company. You never know when an idea will come to mind, and Will Self is right — you can lose an idea in minutes flat. (Self, incidentally, has a new novel coming out in March.)
A final thought. If you’re like me, a parent whose kids watched Blue’s Clues, you might just say a phrase like “handy dandy notebook” to yourself.
