Monday, January 30, 2006



USEFUL WRITING DISTRACTIONS - NUMBER ONE - JOURNALS

Not writing them, that actually helps your writing (see Jane Urquhart's wonderful pages of architectural drawings and notes) but choosing the perfect one that's going to allow you to write best-sellers for ever.

There are certain criteria it has to fill for me. It has to fit my hand, to be tactile, to have lined pages, a ribbon (oh, a ribbon) bookmark, and best of all one of those elastic band thingys that go round so I can swack it satisfactorily when I've finished my notes. Most of all though - it can't be too pretty or expensive. That just freezes me.

There are shelves of journals now in bookshops (will there be a time when there are more blank books than published novels for sale? Now that would be frightening!) - and also on the internet, which have been giving me hours of non-writing pleasure. I keep clicking on the palmistry one. Will that tell my fortune as well?

My writing prompt comes from a news story over the weekend that teenagers are using the word 'book' instead of 'cool' nowadays because it's the first choice of the predictive text on their mobile phones. I love that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is no better way to idle away a half hour to oneself than a visit to a stationers, looking at all the blank notebooks available these days. There are beautiful collaged covers, stripes, plains, spots, photos, your elastic band thingy - I agree, a must. The ones in their own slipcase have a satisfying importance too.
I'm linking to your post for my own blog this morning. Thanks.

Sarah Salway said...

Thanks Shirl and Analytical moments. Yes, Shirl, the importance bit is interesting - particularly in relation to what analytical moments says - I'm not sure get what you're meaning though, A.M. That what you actually write ON isn't important in writing, because the result is nothing compared being involved with the actual process? That's interesting. (I'm not in America, btw, Kent - the garden of England!