The Importance of Notebooks

I ended up with five pages yesterday on Shards, the next Saint McGuinness book. I’m quite happy with that considering I had to work and then storms took out power for almost three hours after work.

If you follow me on TikTok, you saw me post about a Metallica song coming on the radio on the way to work a couple of days ago and how it sparked a story idea for me. This idea would be a stand-alone horror. I quickly jotted down the idea in my notebook in the car so I wouldn’t forget it. So for those who always ask why I seem to collect notebooks left and right- that’s why.

Too many times in my youth I had an idea: in the middle of the night, in a dream, from listening to the radio, from random conversations, from walks in the woods. I lost several stories simply because I didn’t make a quick note, and as the day went on I simply forgot. This especially happened if I woke in the middle of night and decided to just go back to sleep.

Never. Again.

So I have notebooks scattered everywhere: my car, on my nightstand, throughout my living area, I have a notes program on my phone in case I don’t have a notebook on my person (because I’m not a big fan of carrying around a big bag when I’m out and about walking), and when I’m hiking I have a small notebook in my hiking backpack.

But it’s not just story ideas I need the notebooks for. As I mentioned yesterday, writing long hand helps when my story has slowed or stopped completely. Well, sometimes, the fix for the story comes randomly: in the shower, in the middle of the night…etc. That’s important information that I don’t want to lose *smile*

So, I will continue to collect notebooks because there is no such thing as too many when you’re a writer.