P.S. Six of My Favorite Notebooks on Substack

Six Love Notes

Until relatively recently, people didn’t share their notes widely. Typically, publishing a person’s notes was a scholarly—and posthumous—undertaking. But the age of the internet has changed all of that. One of the privileges of reading creative peoples’ newsletters is that we get to see them thinking in real time. We get to see their process. We get to see their notes. And I, for one, can’t get enough!

As I did last year, I decided to follow up Monday’s post on varieties of love with six love notes of my own—to some of my favorite writers on Substack who have shared pages from their notebooks.

So, here are six love notes to six of my favorite note-takers.

1)

Wendy MacNaughton

Craving more art in my life, I joined Wendy’s 30-days of drawing this January. And I’m still drawing every night! It’s become my favorite part of the day. Wendy not only teaches us how to draw, but she encourages us to be imperfect—something I need more of in my creative life.

Of course, I also love the glimpses Wendy gives us into her notebooks—and all the gorgeous art therein.

Wendy’s drawings for day 4 and 5 of “30 days of drawing”

And here’s my version of the day 5 exercise. It made me feel like such a talented artist!

My response to Wendy’s prompt for day #5

If you want ideas for how to fill the blank pages in your notebook, head over to

DrawTogether with WendyMac

and feel inspired.

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2)

Jason Chatfield

Another artist, Jason Chatfield is as much of a process-nerd as I am. In his newsletter

Process Junkie

, he takes us on tours of his studio (which looks to be filled with notes) and shares his favorite tools.

In a recent newsletter, Jason takes us to the Chelsea Hotel and shows us what he’s sketched.

He also has a new book coming out—perfectly titled You’re Not a Real Dog Owner Until…

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3)

Maggie Smith

I have a particular affection for essays written by poets because they attend to every single word. This is one of the reasons I love reading Maggie Smith’s newsletter. The other reason is that she shares some of her notes with us, including this annotation of her poem, “Slipper.”

This is a brilliant exercise—and one I might steal for my classes. Consider printing out your writing and annotating it. Try explaining exactly why you chose to write in the way you did. You can read more of Maggie’s exquisite writing at

For Dear Life with Maggie Smith

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4)

Petya K. Grady

Petya K. Grady decided to try keeping a commonplace book, and I have to say, for a newbie, she pretty much nailed it. I particularly appreciate how she pasted a folder into her notebook to capture loose scraps.

She even made an index!

You can learn more about Petya’s commonplacing practice here.

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5)

Bronwen Tate

I consider myself a good note-taker, but I aspire to be at Bronwen’s level. She developed one of the favorite commonplacing practices.

Bronwen explains that this is “An August 2023 sample commonplace book entry on Chessy Normile’s terrific Great Exodus, Great, Wall, Great Party. “

On the Left-hand page, Bronwen includes a citation and quotations. On the right hand page, she includes personal reflections and questions.

Learn more about Bronwen’s commonplacing practice here.

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6)

Jane Ratcliffe

Finally, Jane is one of the most brilliant interviewers out there. She’s got an interview with Lidia Yuknavitch coming up, so she shared some of the notes she took in preparation. She begins by marking passages in Lidia’s books. As you can see below, she also starts to brainstorm questions in the margins.

And then she starts working out questions in a notebook.

You can read Jane’s interviews at

Beyond with Jane Ratcliffe

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I know I’ve left out some brilliant note-takers! So let me know in the comments whose notes you admire!

Yours in Note-Taking,

P.S.

Share something you love with us in our “Love Notes” chat!