Keep Writing!

Congratulations! Today marks the twenty-sixth day of this challenge. It's important to mark all of your successes on this long journey. I'm grateful for every single day of this journey. Some days are easier to show up to the page than others. This week, I didn't blog at all. My focus stayed on my pages and my book. 

Have I told you that? That I'm writing a book...it's about notebooking. Through my journey of writing this book, I've discovered that the most important thing about writing is to show up to the page. The second most important thing is to have a supportive community of writers to encourage you to continue on the days you want to give up. Whether you're notebooking or composing on a laptop, show up- even when you don't feel like it. To me, that's what makes a writer. 


Here are some ideas for notebooking: 
* Make a list. Lists are a great way to create an entry for a notebook page. Here’s a favorite of mine...A List of Things that Annoy Me. Have fun with it!

* Write a recipe for perfection. What ingredients will you need? How will you cook it? Be creative. 

* This page is just for you. Give yourself permission today to write just for you. Don’t worry about how your page looks or who will see it. Just write. How does it feel to write when you know it’s only for your eyes? 

*  Set a timer and just write. No planning. No judgment. Just let everything fall onto the page. Keep your hand moving. Don't stop. Start with seven minutes. Work your way up to ten minutes or more. Pay attention to how this kind of notebooking is different than other pages. What purpose does this serve? 

* We are one-quarter of the way through our #100days already. Reflect. How do you feel? Go back and look through your pages. Have you changed as a notebooker? Has it gotten easier? Harder? Has your attitude about it changed? What’s your plan for the rest of the challenge? 

* I love quotes. I’ll share a quote each week to trigger some writing. Read this. Copy it into your notebook. Write about it!
“When you love someone you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom”
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

* Be creative with your pages. Turn your notebook upside down. Scrawl across a blank page. Write with your opposite hand. Use it. Get messy. See what happens. 

* Find a favorite book or a book you’re reading now. Use this book in your notebooking. Use the colors of the cover in your pages. Write to the character. Write as the character. Change the ending. 

* Here’s an excerpt from a poem. Print it or copy it into the pages of your notebook. Allow these words to inspire your own words. ​

I held a Jewel in my fingers
By Emily Dickinson

I held a Jewel in my fingers
And went to sleep
The day was warm, and winds were prosy
I said, "Twill keep"

I woke - and chide my honest fingers,
The Gem was gone
And now, an Amethyst remembrance
Is all I own

Happy Notebooking!
#100DaysofNotebooking