My life revolves around notebooks.

One of the most important things that I was told on my first teaching practise was to keep everything that you've got to do in a notebook. The temptation in teaching is to scrawl to-do things onto post-it notes and chuck them into the bin when you've done them. Don't do that.

Why? Because once that post-it is gone it's really easy to forget all the work that you put into getting those things done. If you keep everything in a notebook then you can record how far you've come through your to-do. I've taken that advice very to heart. Almost too much.

I've always liked notebooks. Not so much writing in them but just owning them. However, I've really got into using them for different things. So here is a little window into all my little notebooks and what I use them for.

Blog notebook

I got this a while ago in a sale. It's got a cute pug and a slogan that made me giggle. I write down ideas about blogs that I'm planning on writing. In fact I'm writing this blog in the notebook right now (Blogception...). Hopefully the notebook will help me keep up with posting.


Teaching notebook

Self explanatory really. This is where I keep all the things I need to do for school. I'm not always good as using it as I should but it's definitely been helpful!

WIP Character notebook

This is a recent addition to my notebooks pile. I started it when I was working out dome ideas for my WIP. Usually I just bomb straight into writing. Perhaps now that I've got my character notebook with some extra bits and pieces about all the main characters and the main plot, then I might be able to make it past 15,000 (which is where I usually get really stuck!) I've got pictures of actors that are inspiration for the characters, some family tree stuff, a rough plot and a few other bits and pieces knocking around.

Writing book

I'm currently going through a phase where I can't actually write at the computer. My fingers freeze up and there is nothing translating from my brain to the screen. So I've taken to writing long hand. I have this big beauty to help me with that. Hopefully she'll help mend the broken bridges between my brain and my keyboard.

Journal

One of my things on my New Year's To-Do list was to start keeping a journal. For a writer, I find that I've stopped writing quite so much. So I've the idea that if I don't write down anything fictional or blog related that day that I, instead, will turn to my journal and fill in a paragraph about my day.

Empty notebooks

As I said near the start, I just like having notebooks. I have a range of empty ones that I've collected or been given that are just waiting to be filled with ideas!

Do you use many notebooks in your life? What are your favourites?

Sarah x