My Madeleines
I write my novels on the computer, but before I start I take extensive notes…usually on paper.
Not just paper, but whatever paper is handy when I get an idea. Others may have elegant journals ever at their side, but I don’t. Instead, I scrawl my thoughts on old receipts and the backs of maps, pages torn from spiral notebooks and computer paper so spindled and mutilated it would jam even the most forgiving printer.
When I mentioned this habit on Facebook a few days ago, people asked if I subsequently transfer my notes to computer files. The answer is: No, I don’t. Regardless of how indecipherable they are, I leave them as I wrote them.
The question is, Why?
It’s more than just laziness. In their original state, my notes, however frayed and messy, do more than record my thoughts: They open a window to the moments when I was most inspired, to the rare times when a too-often-silent part of my creative brain kicked into gear and my stories seemed to unfold almost on their own.
Just by looking at the frayed printout, the ticket receipt from StubHub, the pages of lined paper that recorded a friend’s adventures in Kenya, I’m instantly transported to the moment I first grabbed pen and paper and started writing. More importantly, by traveling back in time in this way, I can reclaim my inspiration. I can tap into what first excited me in a way I never can when looking at notes transcribed into a Word document. Sometimes a single scrawled note can, weeks later, grow into an entire chapter or plot thread–all because I remember who and where I was when I first wrote it.
So, regardless of how messy my system is (and it is messy; you should see the notes I used to take after swimming laps in the town pool!), I’m not going to change a thing. For me, inspiration is hard enough to come by. If it requires filling file folders and envelopes with scraps of marked-up paper, that’s a tradeoff I’m happy to make.
The post My Madeleines appeared first on Marmaduke Writing Factory.
