What's in my writer's notebook?

The practise that led me to becoming a full time writer

Hello, I’m Molly, a fulltime creator based in the Scottish Highlands. Subscribers can enjoy weekly posts around the themes of slow living, thriving in a creative career, books & nature. Members get access to ALL my content, including video tea times, slow scrolls of all my favourites and seasonal book reviews.

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The practise of keeping a writer’s notebook is not new. In fact, history is littered with famous writers (like Virginia Wolf) that have sworn by this practise.

A writer’s notebook can have many names. It may be called a diary or journal. Or a commonplace book.

Essentially this notebook is where ideas are born.

You’ve likely heard of a commonplace book. It seems to be ever increasing in popularity on the internet. In essence, this can be described as -

“The premise is having a central repository for ideas, anecdotes, quotes, observations, facts, and information that you come across in life.”

As with all internet trends, I’ve taken inspiration from this concept and made it my own. I now have three writer’s notebooks that I want to share with you today.

These are used to capture ideas from everyday life, which means I never run out of inspiration. My consistency in publishing online has underpinned my success in this creative career. In short, these notebooks have been essential.

A note on paper over phones

I appreciate in this digital age, where everyone has a smartphone on them 24/7, that taking notes in these devices can feel more convenient. However, in my experience, phones serve more as a distraction than anything else. Plain paper allows me to capture ideas and stay in my flow, so I’d highly recommend this method where possible.

Tour of my writer’s notebooks

Pocket notebook

I adore my pocket notebook. It comes with me everywhere. Whether this be my daily dog walks, trips away or even to the supermarket.

It is the closest to what is described as a commonplace book.

This is where I capture anything that springs to mind. Or record something beautiful that I can revisit later.*

It is the place where most of my content starts.

*The exception to this is quotes from my reading, which I store in my Notion bookworm planner (which is available on my Etsy store HERE)

Nature diary

Unlike my pocket notebook, my nature diary has a specific purpose as its where I store all my thoughts and observations from my rambles in nature.

I opt for a larger A5 size so I have more space to write and choose light craft paper notebooks that can easily fit into my small dog walking bag or hiking rucksack (my current favourite are designed by Hannah Longmuir - visit her website HERE).

Each page is topped with the date and location. The entries are generally free writing, but occasionally I respond to prompts, such as describing what I experience through my senses.

I often expand on this writing in my Notion when I return home and occasionally these lead to Substack posts.

You can find out all about my nature diary practise in this video HERE.

Personal journal

This is the notebook that I use the least but is still an important part of my writer’s toolkit.

This is a place that I can write in long form and tends to be more introspective than my other two notebooks.

Sometimes I will use prompts to get my writing flowing. These can be as simple as using ‘Today I noticed…’ but make the blank page look far less intimidating.

Occasionally I write something that I feel would be worth sharing, such as this post that was a response to the prompt ‘I want to write because’.

How I turn this into published content

Review regularly

It can be all too easy to scribble something in a notebook and never revisit it again.

I counter this by reviewing my notebooks on a weekly basis, where I pick out tangible ideas and store them in their correct places.

Much of these scribbles don’t lead to anything. But there are plenty of gems that would be a shame to miss!

Update my content calendar

The next step is to add this information to my Notion, which is the organisational tool I use for all of my work, along with my personal projects.

I sell a blogger planner on my Etsy store (which you can check out HERE) and this is what I use myself.

First I add these ideas to my ‘brain dump’ section. This is often just a few words to describe a potential topic and I split them into my different content buckets for my Substack publication e.g., slow stories, slow creative career, reading nook and Scottish nature diary.

Then, when I next review my content calendar, I pick ideas that can be scheduled in.

I usually have at least the next 4 weeks of content planned at any one time.

Plan my post

I always plan my content thoroughly before starting to write. I use the same template within my Notion to plan all my Substack posts.

This template includes -

• The purpose for my post

• The relevant call to action

• Title and subtitle drafts

• Notes on any imagery I’d like to include

• Research notes and links

• Lead sentence drafts

• A bullet list of my key points

I don’t need to plan in this detail for every post e.g., more personal reflections may not require much research, but it means I ensure that all my writing is packed with value.

Write my post

Once this plan is finished, I can copy it into a new Substack draft and get writing.

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Class recommendation

I really enjoyed this Skillshare class as Robin goes through how you can turn your own experiences into fiction -

Fictionalize Your Life: How To Keep A Writer's Diary | Robin Waldun

You can use this LINK to get a 30 day free trial with Skillshare.

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I hope you enjoyed having a wee peek into my writer’s notebook/s!

Please do share your own practise in the comments.

Until next week,

Molly

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