Your notebook as a private space

I shared this page from my notebook over on Instagram recently and it seemed to resonate with people.

It sometimes feels as if we all need to talk publicly about everything. But as writers and artists - actually, as human beings - it’s so important to have a private space where we can say anything, make mistakes or, as Keats wrote, be ‘in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason’.

When we write with sharing in mind (on social media, for example) we tend to edit, craft and shape. We feel that we need to know things, or at least have a more fully-formed opinion.

When we write privately, we can write to find out what we’re thinking and what we’re afraid of. We are more likely to find out what we don’t know yet.

Many of my students - and not just those signed-up for writing courses - tell me that they have found their writing practice transformed when they allow themselves this private, secret space.

The irony of this blog post is not lost on me. I hesitated before sharing this particular page because, when I wrote it, it was just me talking to myself. I think if I’d written it with the aim of sharing it on Instagram, I’d have written it differently.

I love to see other people’s notebooks. I think most of us find it fascinating.

But write for you first.

You can craft and shape it later. You can decide what to share and when and with whom.

Writing and editing are not the same thing.