Jillian I absolutely loved this post! The frame review will be tested today in my diary, and I'll sure try the poetry exercises! Really loved this!
And OMG the final tip about filtering the Substack e-mails! This is a life saver, cause my inbox is pure chaos, and making me feel anxious with all the mails! Thanks so much for that, Jillian and Bronwen!
I loved this post (and all your posts). As a poet/long-time keeper of various notebooks, I’ve also wondered this: “Are they documentation? Material for future writing, part of an artistic process? Are they a tool for my mental well-being, a way to stay with my thoughts a bit, listen to myself? Are they objects in their own right?“ and, as you said, maybe they are all of these things. I love writing in my notebooks most of all. I also love reading others’ notebooks. This really should be it’s own publishable genre!
Jillian...this is the very first post I had to mark for followup because there was so much here. Your tutorial on using Gmail inbox rules is the path to serenity in your inbox. I would imagine I have at least 50 rules on my inbox as I've been using it for at least ten years. It just works. You can make sounds, auto-archive, pop-up windows and reminders. Just amazing and seems they just keep adding more ways to stay organized. I just recently discovered a Substack that promises daily writing exercises. Bronwen is a little intimidating for a newbie.
A brilliant post as all the earlier ones, thank you! These contemporary notes shows how the manner of taking notes can shape an author's, poet's or intellectual worker's way. This post serves one of the most important functions of your "Noted" newsletters, I believe. A brain is working on the path of different kinds of notes. How impressive!
This post is a treasure trove of delights, Jillian - I’m saving it to read again and again. Heck, I might even print it and laminate it!
I’m certainly going to try out some of Bronwen’s amazing practices in my own notebooking life - thank you so much for this very detailed breakdown.
I can’t be doing with any more than one pen for my notebooking practice during the day, but as part of my five-minute evening review I do use several different coloured pencils to distinguish my bullets. A red circle denotes anything I want to use in my writing projects, a solid pink circle a quote, a solid orange circle is anything to do with health, a purple outlined circle is family stuff. Et cetera! I use coloured pencil rather than pen because it’s erasable.
I find it so helpful to have this already marked-up information for when I’m looking back.
These posts are the best. I mentioned elsewhere that your previous post on notetaking has kickstarted my year into doing this as a daily ritual over coffee at 6am. I'm writing a diary of just the mundane of whatever I did the day before (mostly just for record keeping, along with some gratitudes), but then a separate diary that's a stream-of-consciousness process to just let writing flow and see what falls out.
My only wish is that I was artistic and capable of some of the beautiful writing/illustrations that I see in these posts and could keep a physical instead of digital diary.
Also, Scrivener has been on my radar for ages. I need to look into that. I've been using Google Docs for a long time simply because I can jump from device to device and everything is synced up. If there was a browser-based Scrivener then I'd be all over that.
And interesting to see how we each save / note our favorite quotes. I have a couple dedicated “Quote” notebooks where I jot down any quote that inspires me. For me, each notebook needs to have its own focus (poetry, quotes, big concept ideas, illustration drafts etc).
I found this fascinating and have just done a review frame exercise with my day. Thank Bronwen for me please. I’ve ordered her latest book from my bookshop.
Really interesting, thank you. I especially like the idea of writing quotations in red. I do a similar thing in that I encircle quotes in red or pur a red asterisk in the margin, but writing it in red is better. I also like the review frame and two purposes for one notebook, though I should imagine it's rather inconvenient when you come to the middle and there's no room to continue. And I've long been a fan of sequential art but not much good at the graphics part, which is something of a disadvantage! I shall save this to read again and again.
Wonderful post Jillian! Bronwen is such a dedicated note taker! I loved the idea of writing Quotes in red ink---so simple, but such a great idea. Also loved the notebooks that had repurposed covers. So wonderful for your group to have each other's support! Thanks for sharing. xx
Jillian I absolutely loved this post! The frame review will be tested today in my diary, and I'll sure try the poetry exercises! Really loved this!
And OMG the final tip about filtering the Substack e-mails! This is a life saver, cause my inbox is pure chaos, and making me feel anxious with all the mails! Thanks so much for that, Jillian and Bronwen!
Terrific post, Jillian, and I love the bringing of images and doodles into notebooks. Going to try the 10 keyword exercise, thanks for this.
I loved this post (and all your posts). As a poet/long-time keeper of various notebooks, I’ve also wondered this: “Are they documentation? Material for future writing, part of an artistic process? Are they a tool for my mental well-being, a way to stay with my thoughts a bit, listen to myself? Are they objects in their own right?“ and, as you said, maybe they are all of these things. I love writing in my notebooks most of all. I also love reading others’ notebooks. This really should be it’s own publishable genre!
Wonderful ideas and inspiration. Thank you both! I was gifted Scrivener over the holidays and would love a post about it.
This was another great read. So inspiring. Thank you so much!
How absolutely perfect to make journaling a family activity!
Jillian...this is the very first post I had to mark for followup because there was so much here. Your tutorial on using Gmail inbox rules is the path to serenity in your inbox. I would imagine I have at least 50 rules on my inbox as I've been using it for at least ten years. It just works. You can make sounds, auto-archive, pop-up windows and reminders. Just amazing and seems they just keep adding more ways to stay organized. I just recently discovered a Substack that promises daily writing exercises. Bronwen is a little intimidating for a newbie.
A brilliant post as all the earlier ones, thank you! These contemporary notes shows how the manner of taking notes can shape an author's, poet's or intellectual worker's way. This post serves one of the most important functions of your "Noted" newsletters, I believe. A brain is working on the path of different kinds of notes. How impressive!
This post is a treasure trove of delights, Jillian - I’m saving it to read again and again. Heck, I might even print it and laminate it!
I’m certainly going to try out some of Bronwen’s amazing practices in my own notebooking life - thank you so much for this very detailed breakdown.
I can’t be doing with any more than one pen for my notebooking practice during the day, but as part of my five-minute evening review I do use several different coloured pencils to distinguish my bullets. A red circle denotes anything I want to use in my writing projects, a solid pink circle a quote, a solid orange circle is anything to do with health, a purple outlined circle is family stuff. Et cetera! I use coloured pencil rather than pen because it’s erasable.
I find it so helpful to have this already marked-up information for when I’m looking back.
A phenomenal post - thank you so much!
These posts are the best. I mentioned elsewhere that your previous post on notetaking has kickstarted my year into doing this as a daily ritual over coffee at 6am. I'm writing a diary of just the mundane of whatever I did the day before (mostly just for record keeping, along with some gratitudes), but then a separate diary that's a stream-of-consciousness process to just let writing flow and see what falls out.
My only wish is that I was artistic and capable of some of the beautiful writing/illustrations that I see in these posts and could keep a physical instead of digital diary.
Also, Scrivener has been on my radar for ages. I need to look into that. I've been using Google Docs for a long time simply because I can jump from device to device and everything is synced up. If there was a browser-based Scrivener then I'd be all over that.
And interesting to see how we each save / note our favorite quotes. I have a couple dedicated “Quote” notebooks where I jot down any quote that inspires me. For me, each notebook needs to have its own focus (poetry, quotes, big concept ideas, illustration drafts etc).
I found this fascinating and have just done a review frame exercise with my day. Thank Bronwen for me please. I’ve ordered her latest book from my bookshop.
Really interesting, thank you. I especially like the idea of writing quotations in red. I do a similar thing in that I encircle quotes in red or pur a red asterisk in the margin, but writing it in red is better. I also like the review frame and two purposes for one notebook, though I should imagine it's rather inconvenient when you come to the middle and there's no room to continue. And I've long been a fan of sequential art but not much good at the graphics part, which is something of a disadvantage! I shall save this to read again and again.
Wonderful post Jillian! Bronwen is such a dedicated note taker! I loved the idea of writing Quotes in red ink---so simple, but such a great idea. Also loved the notebooks that had repurposed covers. So wonderful for your group to have each other's support! Thanks for sharing. xx
I had no idea I needed your newsletter until I found it. So inspiring!
Another very interesting post. Thankyou.