Pro tip: I spent $15 on a cheap notebook for my story ideas and it totally backfired

Last month I bought a little spiral notebook at the dollar store to jot down writing prompts. Figured it'd be easier than my phone. But now I've got 30 half written ideas scattered across pages, no order, and I can't find the one about the time traveling librarian. Meanwhile my buddy just uses a note app and has 12 finished drafts. Anyone else find physical notebooks more trouble than they're worth for creative writing?

2 comments

2 Comments

martin.riley8d ago

I grabbed a cheap notebook a while back for design brainstorm stuff and it was a total mess, same thing happened to me. What finally clicked was using just one page per idea with a big bold header and a date so I can flip through and spot what I need in seconds. I also started leaving blank pages between ideas so I could add notes later without everything bleeding together. Notebooks are still great because you don't get distracted by notifications, they just need a little system to keep from turning into chaos. You might try a different layout or a binder where you can rip out and rearrange pages, that helped me stop chasing down lost librarian stories.

davidkim8d agoTop Commenter

Wait, you actually kept a free library book for over three months and they just let you pay a flat fee?? @martin.riley I would've been sweating bullets the whole time, our library starts charging like a dollar a day after the first week. That's wild they didn't even send a stern email.