notebook | betsybeadhead

I have more “seeds” for posts than I have time to write. I carry a notebook with me all the time. I have a list of ideas in my phone as well. Any time I get an idea that I think is worthy of expanding on later I’ll put in one of those places.

Sometimes I get to write from these idea-seeds.

It seems that I never run out of things to write about. While I have those storehouses, I don’t often need them because when I find time to write I always have another topic to write on. Sometimes two or three.

It is like I am storing them up in case I hit a dry spell.

And then I’m reminded of the story of manna in the desert. God provided food for the Israelites in the form of manna. Yet he provided only enough for one day, except right before the Sabbath, where he would provide enough for two days. Every day they were to gather up just enough for that day. Every day after the gathering time the rest would disappear. They had to trust that God would provide for them the next day, and the next day, and the next day.

If they gathered up more than they could use for the day, they got sick.

So by saving up all these ideas, am I hoarding? Am I not trusting in God’s providence? Or am I being a good steward of what I am given, by keeping it for later?

Anne Lamott says to keep a notebook at all times, and write down any and all ideas. She jokes that if you don’t, she will, and she’ll get the idea and make money off of it. She also says that by keeping a notebook you are letting the Universe know that you are open to ideas and are a good place to send them too. I certainly can attest to the truth of that. The more I keep a notebook, the more writing ideas come to me.

I don’t always use them, but when I do, I’m grateful. Sometimes, just keeping a notebook helps me stay focused. Sometimes an idea will just not stay quiet until I write it down. I tell it that “I’ll get to you later” by writing it down. Sometimes I’ll use the idea in a post with a few other ideas and not even know I’ve already jotted it down in my notebook earlier. That is OK too. Better to have it in two places than none.

I’ve always heard that if you want to be a writer, just write.

While this is true, it makes it seem so simple. And it is that simple. Yet it is very hard. Anybody can write. Not everybody can write well. What makes a good writer is a lot of practice and not a lot of self-editing at the beginning.

We think we should be able to write well without any work. We are surrounded by language all the time. We talk in complete sentences (mostly). We are able to make ourselves understood. But writing is a skill that has to be learned and practiced. It doesn’t come naturally.

It is a lot like running a marathon. It isn’t something you just go do. It requires training, and the right mindset, and the right equipment.

I have a degree in English, with a concentration in writing. This doesn’t help me at all. What helps me is that I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. I’ve written in a journal for most of my life. The only time I stopped writing was when my parents died, and at that point I switched to beads as my creative outlet. I strung together beads like I did words. Each bead was symbolic of an idea. I still work with beads even though I’ve gone back to writing. It is refreshing to not use words all the time.

Julia Cameron tells us in “The Artist’s Way” to write three pages every morning. This is very helpful. Write three pages of whatever. It is your warmup. Write about the weather, or how scratchy your pen is, or how much sleep you didn’t get. It doesn’t have to be wonderful, and it probably won’t be. Morning pages aren’t for public distribution. Morning pages are to get things going. You may come up with something fabulous or a seed of a blog post from morning pages, but don’t worry if you don’t.

Carry a notebook with you at all times. Become a sifter, a picker. Ideas will come to you and your job as a writer is to catch them and save them. Anne Lamott says ” Carry a pen with you everywhere, or else God will give me all these insights and images that were supposed to go to you.” This way, when you are ready to write, you already have the ideas captured. It is then simple to string them together into paragraphs and pages.

This took me a long time to figure this one out – divide the notebook in sections. Put a topic at the top of each page as it comes to you. Fill in the pages as more of that topic comes. This way you aren’t flipping the notebook pages back and forth trying to find similar notes when it is time to write.

Margaret Guenther in “Holy Listening” tells us that it is OK to cover the same topic. You won’t ever exhaust certain topics, and by approaching them from different angles on different days, you’ll find out different things. Go ahead and write what you have to say now, knowing that you might have other things to say about it later. You won’t ever have it all in one place. Write anyway.

It takes a pretty high level of self esteem to write when you know other people are reading it. It means you think that you have something worthy of being heard. Here’s the important part – everybody has something worth being heard. Every single person’s voice is important. Use yours. I’m giving you permission. Even if you think it is just silly rambles, write anyway. Somebody will get something from it. The more you write, the better you’ll get at it too.

Do something rather than nothing. Your post might not be as wonderful as you think it should be. It might be OK, but not stellar. It is better to post it and move on than to not post it at all. I’m always surprised when people say that they really liked something that I thought wasn’t my best.

Whatever you write, it will look pretty ugly at the beginning. Nobody writes perfectly composed pieces at the beginning. This is true at the beginning of writing in general, and writing each piece. Let go of the self-criticism and just keep working.