I go through a lot of notebooks. I love buying them. I love carrying them around with me. So far this year, I’ve counted nine completely filled notebooks that I’ve gone through. I jot down story notes, snippets of dialogue, and I’ll write entire scenes. I frequently get “blocked” or stuck and find myself staring at a blank computer screen. Other times I won’t even want to open up the laptop at all. Not a good thing when you’re a writer.

I’ll set the laptop aside, find a comfy spot, or a new location, open up my notebook and start to write. Usually if I can just start in the notebook, I can then transfer the words over to my laptop and keep on typing where I leave off.

The first entire year that I began seriously writing, EVERYTHING was scribbled in my notebook. That first book was written with one hand, and a baby or toddler in the other, sometimes both. It took me a long time to be able to “create” new words on the laptop, to be able to stare at the screen and get the ball rolling. So it’s not surprising that even now, when I get blocked, that I can turn to a notebook and pen and let the words flow.

So with that said, I’m closing the laptop, going to scrounge a few blank sheets of paper in one of my nine notebooks, and start scribblling. :writersblock: