….from yesterday’s post about an ideal writing space, The Literary Mom asked the question… “What do you need to write?”
Well, we’ve already talked about noise vs silence, so you know my views on that 😉 But what about the material side of things?
I discovered very early on, when I started my first Writers Notebook that, although I love words, and can be inspired by them, I’m also a very visual person. I love art, spent a couple of years doing collages (you’ll have to look at my Flickr page to see the kind of stuff I did) and enjoy being surrounded by colours.
Soooo, what do I need to write? Different coloured pens lol. I’m not fussy with my notebooks (although I do love a Moleskine!) but what I really hate is to have a whole notebook full of writing in the same pen, in the same colour. I like to flick back through my jottings and practice work and not only be gratified by the words, but be excited by the whole visual experience of it. My notebooks are a mixture of my writing, quotes, lists, cuttings, pieces of writing I have been in awe of and hints/tips. I get just as much joy out of compiling my notebooks as I do re-reading them and weeding out the great stuff.
I’ve just started a new notebook:
This little baby is affectionately known as No11 😉 It contains enough visual stimulation without me adding to it with a rainbow of coloured pens lol, but hey, it puts a smile on my face every morning 🙂
Is there anything specific that you NEED to write? A certain pen? A particular type of paper?
I spent most of yesterday evening going through an old stash of magazines, tearing out Horoscopes. Our homework for The Write Place this week is to come up with a 700 word story inspired by a horoscope….should be fun 😉
Today’s prompt about the empty street was a weird one lol. I managed to turn it into the start of a story about a woman leaving for work, only to be arrested at the bottom of her road by a large group of policemen dressed in riot gear….don’t ask me where that’s going 😉 Todays prompt is “the woman in the window” after Roger Aplon so I see a bit of research on the horizon 🙂
HUGE THANK YOU to those of you who went and voted for my story that’s up on the Flash Fiction World website. It is much appreciated 🙂
The View Outside 
When I write by hand, I’m a stickler for pens that glide easy. I can’t stand pens that don’t write well. I notice that I pick a pen and it becomes my favorite even if I have 20 other pens to choose from.
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Yep, I can understand tht….nothing worse than a scratchy pen 😦
Lol, yep, I have my favourites, but I have so many that I end up with about 10 favourites lol
xx
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I love, love, love your notebook! Where did you get that??
I have a favorite pen, but I’ll scribble in anything. 🙂 However, when I’m working on a novel, I can’t survive without a sturdy 5-subject spiral notebook.
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Thanks hon 🙂
I got it from Paperchase sat year. It’s actually a Travel Journal and inside, about every 20 pages is a photo of a place, clouds, collections of tickets…it’s brilliant!!! It’s made by a company called “Wanderlust” so it might be worth Googling 🙂
Ahhhhh, yes, I’ve used the spiral bound notebooks with the subject dividers when I’m doing Nano, to plan 🙂
xx
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Love the notebook and the idea of writing in different colour pens. Mine look drab compared to yours so it’s given me a few ideas! Just voted for your story, but although I left a comment I don’t remember it asking me to leave a rating – will go back and check
🙂
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Awwwww, thanks Sandra, it’s much appreciated 🙂
My notebooks are a visual feast lol…..I LOVE finding stuff to put in them….have magazines all over the house lol. Good luck 🙂
xx
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Cool looking notebook.
Sadly I like to write on the keyboard these days. I like the tactile feel of the keys on my Macbook, but I also like to be able to search things easily that I have done in the past. I like to Index them in Devonthink which has good search AI and picks up interesting connections.
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Thanks hon 🙂
Ahhhhh, that’s interesting. I think as the years go on, more and more people will answer the question saying that their electronic device is what they ‘need’ to write. Thanks 🙂
xx
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I have read this one obviously in the wrong order but I only have the time at the week ends for reading anything. The woman in the window was mentioned in the first story I read so I’m reading back to front if you follow me.
I envy your tidiness and organisation and the quality of being able to optimise time. Good Luck to you.
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Oh don’t worry Danny, I can just about keep up with all the blog reading and FaceBook….it can all get a bit much 😉
Thanks hon, but I’m not sure I do optimise my time…..but, thinking about it, what did we do before the Internet huh? Lol
xx
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