Using a Daybook to Develop My Creative Habit

I’m trying a new experiment (partly inspired by Merlin Mann). I’ve decided to keep a daybook, which is simply a notebook that I write in…uh, daily. Some people use them strictly for a single purpose or project, but I’m using mine for everything: grocery lists, short story ideas, project ideas, screenplay ideas, short scenes that are apropos of nothing, but that I think sound good and could find a home later in a bigger project.

The daybook itself is no different that any other notebook I use, except that I think about it differently. It’s like this: I have a notebook that I carry around, and I use it to write down any story ideas that I might have. But I hardly ever write anything in it for any number of reasons: didn’t think the idea was good enough, or whatever. Doesn’t matter. The problem is that the notebook is there to support my main activity of “idea creation”. But what if I just flipped it around and said my ideas were there to support the notebook instead? In other words, the goal is not to first have ideas, and then write them in a notebook. The goal is simply to fill that fucking notebook with ideas.

Rather than use the much-loved (and more expensive) Moleskine-type notebook, I opted for something less “serious”. Last year, I read Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones [affiliate link], and I remember her saying she sometimes chooses a notebook with kittens, or a cartoon character, or something silly on it as a way to keep from taking herself too seriously. I loved that idea. It’s a great reminder that I should be having fun. Not everything that goes into the notebook needs to be “deep” or “meaningful” or “worthy”. If something comes to mind that I like, I just write it down. It’s the catch-all notebook.

I’ve also started using the daybook to develop a habit of acting on my ideas sooner rather than later. It’s easy to keep putting things off (especially after you have those things written on a to-do list somewhere), so if I have an idea, and the opportunity presents itself to work on that idea, I make more of an effort to take advantage of that. I haven’t decided if this is a good idea or not (because I come up with some pretty stupid shit, let me tell ya), but the important thing is that I allow myself to look past the fears, doubts, and self-judgments, and just do something without talking myself out of it.

I’m sure you’ll be seeing the results of some of the notebooks’ content soon enough. Good and bad. Bwahahahaha!

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Tagged as: creative habit, daybook, ideas, notebook, project development, Writing