Textual Play

Let’s start, as we do, with text. A definition.

creative notebook
noun
A place to hold your ideas.

Let’s break it down.

First, it’s a place, a holder, a container. It is typically a notebook of some kind. A place to put thoughts and ideas and doodles and whatever else comes up in your life. But it doesn’t have to be one specific physical notebook. Think of the term “creative notebook” as a concept rather than a specific form and make it work for you.

It could be physical. It could be digital.

It could be big. It could be small.

It could be expensive. It could be a few pages of computer paper stapled together.

It could be one notebook. It could be several notebooks.

The physical reality of it is less important than its use.

I use one composition notebook at a time. Use whatever works for you.

Second, it’s for your ideas, your creativity, your life. Creativity can be an intimidating, nebulous word. But again, think of it in broad terms. The “creative” in “creative notebook,” means, to me, the raw materials of life. Your ideas and notes, whatever the context.

It could be for a typically creative endeavor like painting or writing. It could be for your work as a lawyer or project manager or content creator. It could be both. It could be neither.

It could have nothing but words. It could have nothing but images. It could have both.

My creative notebook includes a little bit of everything:

• charts
• ideas
• drafts
• research
• notes from classes
• work notes
• free writing about stuff on my mind
• swatches
• collages
• lists
• quotes
• writing exercises
• poetry
• brain dumps
• diary-like entries
• goals
• lettering practice
• doodles
• ephemera from life
• any other kind of note or idea I have.

It is not your job to find the creativity and then write it down. It is your job to write it down, and the creativity will emerge.

Practice

Artists call their notebooks sketch books. Writers call them writer’s notebooks or commonplace books.
It doesn’t matter what you call it; it matters that you do it.

I recommend starting with putting everything in a designated notebook for a while and see what happens.

The lovely thing about a creative notebook is, if you keep it around and put things into it, the creativity will appear. The mishmash of notes and ideas coalesce, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. When you see your thoughts and swatches and collages and doodles and lists and whatnot juxtaposed with the others, new connections are made, themes emerge, creativity is found.

I hope you try it.