Ralph Fletcher - A Writers Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You

Once, when I was a boy, a telephone repair truck pulled up in front of our house and two workers got out. They had come to lay a telephone cable. My brothers and sisters and I watched them work hard for almost three hours digging a long narrow ditch in our backyard. Finally, when it was starting to get dark, they left the ditch and went home, promising to return and finish the job the next morning.

Early the following morning I went outside and looked into that empty ditch. But it wasnt empty at all. I was amazed to find all sorts of small animals caught in there: four toads, two frogs, even a small box turtle. They must have wandered into the ditch, gotten stuck there, and been unable to climb back out. I let all the animals go. The two workers returned, finished laying the telephone cable, and covered up the ditch.

That got me thinking. The next day I decided to dig my own ditch. I dug it at the edge of the woods (I didnt think Dad would have appreciated seeing another ditch in our lawn) and made it about a foot wide, ten feet long, and eight inches deep. Next morning I hurried outside and discovered thatyes!the same thing had happened. A number of small creatures had been caught in there.

A writers notebook is like that ditchan empty space you dig in your busy life, a space that will fill up with all sorts of fascinating little creatures. If you dig it, they will come. Youll be amazed by what you catch there.

Writing is what I do for my job. Ive written books for adults and books for young readers. Ive published a novel, several books of poetry, short stories, and books for teachers on how to teach writing. In this book I want to explore with you the most important tool I use: my writers notebook. Keeping a writers notebook is one of the best ways I know of living a writing kind of life.

What is a writers notebook, anyway? Lets start by talking about what its not . A writers notebook is not a diary: Today it is raining. We have a substitute teacher named Miss Pampanella. She seems very nice. We are going to have gym right before lunch. Its not a reading journal in which your teacher tells you to summarize the main idea of a book, or write a letter to a character. A writers notebook is different from any journal youve ever kept before.

Writers are pretty ordinary people. They have favorite songs, favorite movies, favorite TV shows. Writers have Evil Big Sisters (and, occasionally, sweet ones). They get good or not so good grades, take vacations, paint their houses

Writers are like other people, except for at least one important difference. Other people have daily thoughts and feelings, notice this sky or that smell, but they dont do much about it. All those thoughts, feelings, sensations, and opinions pass through them like the air they breathe.

Not writers. Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions.

Thats what a writers notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and dont want to forget, to record exactly what your grandmother whispered in your ear before she said good-bye for the last time.

A writers notebook gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day .

A few years ago I was walking in Wheeling, Illinois, and I saw a rainbow so enormous it seemed to stretch from one horizon to the other. But there was something wrong with itthe topmost arch was missing. I came back to my hotel room, took out my notebook, and wrote:

The skies are so huge in the midwest! They just dont make skies like this back east. Today I saw a rainbow, beautiful and damaged, the top part washed away, gone. Never seen anything like it. Wonder what makes that happen. Had the winds swept away the highest clouds?

Months later I began writing a series of love poems. I reread my notebook and found that entry. The words a rainbow, beautiful, and damaged seemed to jump off the page. I used that phrase like a piece of flint to spark this sad poem I wrote:

First Flight

All the way home

I tried to forget

how your lip twitched

how your face flinched

I walked alone

under a huge rainbow

beautiful and damaged

upper arch worn away

just two broken pieces

dangling from the sky

What does a writers notebook look like? Theres really no right answer for this except that your writers notebook should reflect your personality. Some writers prefer a pad small enough to stick in a back pocket. Others have beautiful notebooks with wildflowers on their covers, and others with plain brown covers. My wifes notebook has unlined pages because she likes to sketch in it, as well as write. My notebook is really supposed to be a business ledger, with lined, numbered pages. It has a hard cover and a very sturdy binding, which is good because I drag it with me wherever I go and it gets banged up a lot.

A notebook doesnt even have to be made from paper, really. Often I work on my notebook computer while Im flying from one city to the next. But a notebook doesnt have to be expensive or fancya plain notebook from the stationery store will do just fine.

I hope youll get yourself some kind of notebook and begin to write in it on a regular basis. In this book I suggest lots of ways you can use your writers notebook to sift and collect important things from your life, stuff that may prove valuable in later writing. Well also look at ways to reread your notebook and use what you have collected to generate your own polished writing.

In this book youll find many examples from my writers notebook, the notebooks of published writers, and the notebooks of young writers like you. By sharing all these examples I hope to give you an idea of whats possible. Use the ideas you find here as springboards into what you can do with your own notebook.

Your notebook is uniquely yours, like your wallet or backpack. Only you can decide what to put in it. You probably wont use every idea you find in this book. If an idea doesnt grab you, just move on to the the next chapter. If you read an idea that appeals to you, try it out in your own notebook. Experiment!

When you come right down to it, a writers notebook is nothing more than a blank book, but within those pages youve got a powerful tool for writing and living. In the pages that follow, well explore ways you can use your notebook so you can begin to live like a writer.

Does this ever happen to you? You stay up late on New Years Eve and watch TV. Seems like everybody in the country has gone bananas, especially the crowd of people waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square in New York City. Happy New Years Eve! people are shouting, jumping up and down as if theyve just won the lottery. Happy New Year!

You say to yourself: Whats the big deal?

You watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Next day at school, people are talking about how beautiful it was, how colorful, how awesome . But you didnt find it the least bit beautiful, colorful, or awesome. You wonder: Is something wrong with me?

Then one summer day you happen to notice a small black ant dragging the body of another black ant along the sidewalk. Nobody else sees it, but for some reason this sight captures your interest; you squat down to take a closer look.

The ant is really working, straining to hoist a weight nearly equal to its own. A dozen questions crowd your mind. Is the ant carrying the body of a friend? A brother or child? If so, does it feel sad? Do ants have feelings? (Probably not.) Where is the ant taking the body? Is it going to feed the body to its babies? Are ants cannibalistic? You read that some ants actually build graveyards for the dead. Is the ant going to bury the body?