The words Walt Whitman jotted down were beginnings. He recorded scraps of ideas and then put them together and worked on them more carefully at home. The notebook was a net to catch all of the ideas that floated to the surface. Walt Whitman did not judge the ideas he wrote down in his notebook. He knew they weren’t the final product. They were the ground into which he dropped the seed.
DAY
33
“My first notebook was a Big Five tablet, given to me [at age five] by my mother with the sensible suggestions that I stop whining and learn to amuse myself by writing down my thoughts.”
— Joan Didion
Joan Didion’s mother was no dummy. Her “no whining” attitude laid the groundwork for a great American writer. Joan Didion is yet another example of using a notebook as a tool for success.
A notebook is outwardly such a simple and unassuming item—boring even. But put it in the hands of a human being, and it has unlimited possibilities. It may become the next great novel or the plans for an invention or a sketch that will later become a sculpture.
Your assignment today is to stop whining and grab your notebook. Take it outside or to a quiet corner in your home or to a coffee shop, wherever you feel comfortable. Now, spend about thirty minutes amusing yourself. Write down whatever comes to mind; draw pictures; doodle in the margins; turn it upside down if you want or write in circles instead of along the lines. Break whatever rules you think exist for writing in notebooks. You don’t have to start on the first page. You can start at the end if you want. Today is a play day.