Monday 23 July 2012

Making notes

When participating in the Silverfish Writing Programme a number of years ago, we learnt that we need to always have a notebook with us - for jotting down what we observe around us, descriptions of interesting people we see or meet; in other words, anything that could make good material in our writing. An exercise that we did during the programme was to order a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe, sit at an outside table and make notes of what was going on around us. We also had to create a story based on our notes; I wrote an imaginary conversation between two men I had been watching while drinking my coffee.

Notebooks these days come in all kinds of sizes, colours and designs. I can spend a lot of time just browsing through a bookstore's stationery section, looking over the notebooks; it's hard to resist buying one. Much as I'd like to buy a Moleskine, I still haven't been able to justify buying something so expensive for my note-taking. After all, there are so many cheaper alternatives that will still do the job. I prefer notebooks with blank pages rather than ruled ones - besides writing, the blank pages invite me to doodle or draw as well.


Above are a few still-to-be-used notebooks that I have. The gilt-edged notebook and the one in the middle are both gifts. I had bought the one on the right from the Islamic Arts Museum shop, which sells beautiful stationery items. An exquisite notebook (below), which my sis-in-law gave me, is from Japan and attests to the craftsmanship of the Japanese. It's handmade and so pretty that I don't think I shall be writing anything in it at all.


I have been following the tip learnt from the writing programme till today - there is always a notebook tucked into my organiser, which goes from bag to bag with me.


Writers are not the only ones who carry notebooks with them. This site delves into the pocket notebooks of 20 famous men, including Mark Twain (writer), Charles Darwin (scientist) and Ludwig van Beethoven (composer/musician), while this one takes a look into the notebooks of several people, including Marilyn Monroe (actress) and Frida Kahlo (artist).

So start carrying a notebook with you (and use it) - you will be in distinguished company!


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2 comments:

  1. Snowflake23 July 2012 at 10:20

    IOk I will try to bring a notebook as of today because I do sit alot at those hang-ins ie CB, Starbucks etc etc be in in a shopping mall or a sidewalk cafe. There are so many scenes around us and that can be a story telling (not gossips eh) for sure. Oh by the way, before the existence of these hi-techs gadgets, my notebook had always been my outdated PDA. but now, I write my notes on my iPhone. Good article Idah. I think I will spare time for the Islamic Arts Muzeum that my son talked alot about it. He went there on a school trip.:)

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  2. Zuraidah Omar23 July 2012 at 20:57

    I guess people would make notes on an iPad or Samsung these days. But there's nothing like actually writing in a notebook, scribbling and doodling in-between. And yes, the Islamic Arts Museum is worth a visit.

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