Some ideas to fill your notebook
What will emerge on your next blank page?
There is something marvellous about a brand new notebook or sketchbook - all those empty pages bursting with potential. But does anyone else ever have that feeling of just not knowing what to do with those first blank pages? Should I write something? Draw something? Stick something on them? Frankly, it is your book so you make the rules and therefore anything goes :-)
But for those days when inspiration doesn’t immediately strike, or when your muse is suspiciously silent, or even when you have more ideas than you know what to do with, here are a few things that can help to chase away the blankness of the page...
a) A list - I love list pages as a way to organise my day, collect ideas, remember important things (without actually having to remember them!) and generally declutter my brain. And yes, if I do something that wasn’t on my to-do list for the day, I absolutely write it on the bottom so that I can cross it off :-)
b) Books you want to read - keep a note of titles to look out for, authors who have been recommended by friends, the next bestseller or new books by local authors. You can even doodle a star-rating once you have read them.
c) Collect something - fill a page with stickers, news headlines, washi tape strips, ink samples, fonts or letting styles that catch your eye...neat and tidy or higgledy-piggledy the choice is yours!
d) Daily doings - not a diary as such, but these pages can include a few jottings to recall the key points from a day, sketches or doodles of things that caught your eye and even actual keepsakes to stick in, like a ticket stub, event flyer or business card.
e) Exercise tracker - make a note of when you go for a walk, ride your bike, go to the gym, take a fitness class or whatever your preference is. Can you make a chain of 30 consecutive days? Or maybe a pattern of alternate days?
f) Free writing - just put your pen on the page and see what words come out! Let the stream of consciousness flow directly from your brain to your pen, even if what lands on the page to start off with is ... I don’t know what to write...this is daft...whose idea was this?... Often this will turn into your thoughts about the day, something you are planning, a story someone told you, something that made you laugh...give it a go, you might be surprised!
g) Gratitude journal - write down three things that you want to say thank you for: they can be big or small, important or seemingly insignificant, anything goes! These are lovely pages to look back on if you are having what Winnie-the-Pooh might call a ‘Difficult Day’ as there will be many wonderful things to make you smile.
h) Holiday planner - time to write down all the places you would like to travel to, all the people you would like to visit, all the wonders of the world that you would like to see. Add pages from brochures or your own sketches to illustrate your plans. Go on, go wild!
i) Inspiration page - new DIY project, home decorating ideas, party plans, wedding gift list, art projects to try, recipes to experiment with, colour palette swatches...fill a page with notes, cuttings, pictures, doodles and anything else that inspires your project.
Well, there should be a few things there to get you started. We will return to this and continue with the middle of the alphabet in a future post. Have fun!
