The Writer’s Notebook




The writer’s notebook, it’s not a diary or a journal but a valuable tool to help you develop your writing skills.  It’s a place to be a writer.

A writer’s notebook can help you develop your writing skills through a variety of ways.

  1. A writer’s notebook will help you to pay attention to the world around you. By recording events, ideas, dialogue, people that you come across in your day, you become more aware of your surroundings, the setting, how people interact. In your notebook capture what moves you in the day. Perhaps it was a conversation you overheard, or person you saw, or something in nature that caught your attention. Write it down, explore what it means to you. Practice transforming what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste during your day in to words on the page.

 

  1. A writer’s notebook will help you develop ideas. Your book is a place to capture seed ideas. Whether they are ideas for stories or scenes or even if you’re not sure what you plan to do with them.  It’s a place to nurture ideas, keep them safe until you’ve ready to explore them further.

 

  1. A writer’s notebook can help you develop your creative writing skills. Practice scene writing, dialogue and descriptive writing. Heard a conversation,  recreate it in words on the page, what did they say, how did they say it. It can teach you to listen. It can teach you to be aware to details.

 

  1. A writer’s notebook can help you to expand your vocabulary. Record favourite words, unusual words you hear in your day, or a new word you’ve recently learned.

 

  1. A writer’s notebook is a place to explore your memories bring them out of your head and onto the page.

 

  1. A writer’s notebook is a place to map a story, draw a plot line, sketch a setting, or draw a character, maybe an ancestor?

 

Spend 10-15 minutes a day free writing in your writer’s notebook. Carry it with you throughout the day. It will help you to develop your voice and your sense of self as a writer.

 

Don’t restrict your entries to family history thoughts and ideas. Our ancestors lived in the real world. They interacted with the world around them. Observing your world today can help you add tremendous detail to your stories and help you to learn the tools of character, setting, dialogue and description enhancing your creative writing skills.

 

Here are a few prompts to help you get your notebook started.

 

  • A gesture, word or phrase you found interesting
  • A conversation you overheard
  • An interesting person who you met or observed
  • A person from your past, you want to remember
  • A description of a photograph
  • What you see outside the window
  • Surroundings you may have passed in your daily travels
  • A quote you heard today
  • A dish or meal that you made or ate, note its characteristics using all your senses or just one.

 

One thing is certain, to become a better writer; you must be an observer of the world and you must practice writing.  Starting a writer’s notebook is an opportunity to incorporate both into your daily routine.

 

Related Post

How to Create a Content Plan for Your Family History BookHow to Create a Content Plan for Your Family History Book

The most important thing you can do before beginning to build your family history book is to create a content plan. Whenever we take on a project of this size, it’s always best to invest in some time upfront to think through your project.

Why you need a content plan

If you start to write without a content plan, you’re likely to waste a lot of valuable time staring at a blank screen. This is because you’re trying to simultaneously figure out what you want to write, who you want to write about while trying to write. You don’t have a clear idea of structure, organization and contents of your book.

With a plan, you’ll be more likely to start writing immediately. You’ll have a clear outline of each section, chapter, story and profile, the contents and how each will flow into the next.

By creating a content plan, you also engage your brain.  The process of thinking your book out in advance will result in you brainstorming about your book as you work, drive, relax, even sleep. You will continually be searching for ideas and making connections.

Trying to put together a family history book without a plan is an invitation to disaster. Most likely resulting in false starts, wasted efforts and low productivity.

You don’t have to know the content of each paragraph, each sentence, but you should aim for a well-thought-out strategy.

Step 1. Start with a Brain Dump

 

  • The best place to start creating the content for your family history book is with a brain dump. Dump all your ideas you have about your book into a mind map.
  • Start by identifying the focus of your book? One ancestor, a couple, a family group or one or more surnames?
  • You then want to break down the focus into smaller components, subtopics, maybe even themes.
  • What are the main points you want to cover? With a highlighter, mark each of the big points with a single colour. These might become sections or chapters in your book.
  • What are the subtopics? These will become individual stories or profiles within the chapters or sections of your book. Highlight each of these with another colour.

 

Step 2 Organize your brain dump

There is no one single right way or tool to organize your family history book. What might be a productive process for one can be very frustrating an inefficient for another?

But there are many planning tools available to help you take your brain dump ideas and organize them. We listed a selection below including both low-tech and high-tech.

 

  1. Lists & outlines. After identifying the “big picture” of your book, the next step can be to expand your list from the main idea into key supporting points for each chapter in the form of a simple list.

 

  1. Index cards. Index cards are another time-proven writing tool. I use index cards to organize my stories, but they can be equally beneficial in assembling a book. Each card contains an idea which is then inserted into the right location in the organization of your book. Index cards can organize the topics of a book or the scenes and summary within a family history story. 

 

  1. Sticky notes. Sticky notes work much like index cards and help you to identify and organize your thoughts quickly. Add just one thought, idea or supporting detail to each sticky note, then attach the notes on a wall or whiteboard or tabletop. Move them around to organize your book. You can use different-coloured sticky notes to colour code your idea.

 

  1. Create a table. Using a word processing program, like Microsoft Word, you can create a detailed content plan your book. For example, create a 2, 3 or 4 column table in Word, you can list your book into sections, chapters and stories and profiles.

 

  1. Spreadsheet. Consider using a spreadsheet program, like Microsoft Excel, to plan your book. The process is similar; in the first column, enter the title for each story or profile. In the second column, summarize the main idea associated with each story or profile. In the third column, enter the events and ideas you want to include. Check out the spreadsheet created by one of my students in our recent course, Plotting a Family History Story. This is part of an outline of a family history story. But the same can be done to organize an entire family history book.

 

  1. Mind maps. I use mind mapping software for all my projects in the very early stages to get down my ideas and help organize them into a logical process as I mentioned above. But mindmaps can also be used to complete your outline. You can make your mind map on a simple piece of paper, a whiteboard or in a digital program like Scapple. I use Scapple for all my brainstorming tasks because first I can use it do braindump but then easily rearrange my brain dump into a logical order for my book. I rearrange as many times as I like never killing a tree.

 

  1. Digital Storyboard.  Another option is to create a digital storyboard. One of my favourite digital storyboards comes in the Scrivener software. Scrivener uses a digital corkboard with digital index cards to help you outline and organize your story and book. Watch this video to learn how to make a storyboard in Scrivener.

Before diving in feet first to create a family history book, take the time to brainstorm and organize your thoughts into a content plan. Explore the various options to outline your project and choose the one that works best for you.

 

 

 

 

 

The sooner you come up with your own efficient way of organizing your ideas before you begin writing, the sooner you can embark on your journey of writing your book!

Brainstorming and organizing a content plan is just two steps in the process of building a

 

family history book. In our new workbook, Build a Family History Book, A Planning Guide to Getting it Done, we identify an 8-step process for creating a family history book. It includes numerous templates to help you clearly define and organize the content for your family history book and the process to get you across the finish line.

 

How Reading Can Improve Your Writing with 6 Actionable TipsHow Reading Can Improve Your Writing with 6 Actionable Tips

 

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” —Stephen King

 

I believe three things make you a better writer.

Learning the craft of writing.

Practice, practice, practice.

Reading books by other authors.

 

I can help you to learn the craft of writing. The practice, well, that’s on you. So today,  let’s address the third item on the list, reading. Let’s first look at why reading can make you a better writer.

A good writer should read for pleasure but to also learn the craft of writing. When we read the books by other authors, styles, voices and other genres, we expand our knowledge.  Most importantly, it presents us with writing that’s better than our own, and through osmosis, as well as applying the techniques it helps us to improve our own writing. Reading can help you to expand your vocabulary and to craft better sentences. It helps you to understand language better. Quite simply reading helps you to learn from the best and gain new knowledge.

Reading can help you to understand how others think and process information.  This is an important skill to learn if you wish to express yourself through the written word to others. When you analyze what you read and share it with others, you learn to understand a book and in turn convey that understanding to others.

Reading reveals the secrets of a writer’s job in practice. And finally, you will find reading will offer inspiration.

 

6 Tips for Improving Your Reading Skills

 

  1. Establish some good reading habits.

    Dedicate a set amount of time each day for reading. I like a minimum of 60 minutes. Somedays, I will read more. But no less than 60 minutes every day. Carry your book with you to maximize your time. Consider making a book list and plan your reading for the year. I choose a minimum of 24 books each year. That’s 2 books a month. My goal is to improve on this each year. Choose your books wisely, plan your books, read from a variety of books from classics to trash to contemporary literature. Read outside your genre. Join a book club – it forces you to read books outside of your genre, to read with a deadline and to read with a critical eye.

 

  1.  Take notes.

Break down the stories you read. Analyze character, plot and theme. Highlight passages, make notes of words or passages that stand out for you and the effects they create. Make notes throughout the reading process. I love Kindle for this reason. I can highlight passages and make notes right in the Kindle. After finishing the book write a one-page Keep a binder with your one-page summaries of each book you have read.Write reviews, Amazon, Goodreads, or consider a book review on your blog. It helps you to analyze the book and think about the story with a more critical eye.

 

  1. Consider creating a reading journal. 

A reading journal combines the skills of reading and writing. You record your impressions and ideas about a book you’ve read in your journal.  A reading journal will help you record the not only the feelings it created within you as you journeyed with the characters but the writing lessons you learned. It is worth taking a few minutes after each book to record your thoughts in a reading journal. All these things can help you become a better, offer inspiration and build your confidence.

 

  1. Try the techniques you’ve learned in your writing.

Experiment with what you discovered, and then give the techniques you’ve discovered a twist to make them your own.

 

  1. Don’t read more than two books at a time

I recommend limiting the number of books that you read at once. If you do read two books at a time, read from two different genres, for example, read a fiction and nonfiction.

 

  1. Enjoy your reading.

Don’t waste your time reading books you are not enjoying. Life is too short to read a book you dislike. But before you put it down learn from it. Identify why you are struggling. Write down your analysis of why the book is not landing for you before you move on. We can learn from the bad books as well as the good ones.

 

To learn more about how to read to write, I recommend. How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. For more books visit our Writers’ Resource Page.  (affiliate links)