For those of us living the writing life, whether we realize it or not, we are constantly learning as we read. Often I'll find myself engrossed in a book where the author's voice becomes so familiar I swear I'll never forget its rhythms and style. And while I sometimes can hold onto a general sense of these things, I'm finding I need to be more intentional with my reading if I want these impressions to last.
This year I've started using my
commonplace book as a place to record quotes that have struck me as important. Sometimes it's a fresh simile, other times just a sentence to remember the atmosphere an author has so wonderfully invoked. I've recorded the last few pages of novels, those key moments when everything comes together. I've written down scenes when the protagonist reaches the end of his or her self and must become something new.
It's in looking for and taking note of things that I'm learning to grow as a writer.
Here are a few similes and metaphors I've collected these last few months:
"Alice's stomach was rumbling like an empty garbage can rolling down a hill..." PIE, Sarah Weeks
"I try to stuff myself between the seats, like coins." EMILY'S DRESS AND OTHER MISSING THINGS, Kathryn Burak
"Majid had a family network as complex and secretive as a walnut shell." THE RUINS OF US, Keija Parssinen
"Her voice sounds as hollow as the empty wasp's nests." CROSSED, Ally Condie
"The day is collapsing into dusk. The Gypsies in their white shirts are the only lamps. The moon is coming in like a pan on fire." SMALL DAMAGES, Beth Kephart
And some darn
beautiful truths:
"I lay my hand on my heart. Our parents teach us the very first things we learn. They teach us about hearts. What if I could be treated as though I were small again? What if I were mothered all over again? Might I get my heart back?
My heart is unfolding." CHIME, Franny Billingsley
"That taste is still in my mouth. I know what it is. It's the taste of pretending. It's the taste of lying. It's the taste of a game that is over." LIAR AND SPY, Rebecca Stead
"In spring, Amherst changes into a storybook. The students grow wings from their heels and run through town spinning and singing. You get the idea that some parts of life are pure happiness, as least for a while. The toy store in the center of town puts all its kites outside, on display, so that the tails and whirligigs can illustrate the wind." EMILY'S DRESS AND OTHER MISSING THINGS, Kathryn Burak
What helps you process what you learn as you read?
Thank you to all who entered my little giveaway. Really, I wish I had something for all of you, as your ideas were so lovely. Those of you who didn't win, go treat yourselves to a new journal.
And the winner is Beth, who said something I will copy into my own Commonplace Book:
I'd keep calming quotes and short poems, ones with a sense of Robert Frost's A Star ("They may choose something like a star/ To stay their minds on, and be stayed."
It's a poem about perspective.
Congratulations, Beth! And thanks to Mother Reader, whose Comment Challenge introduced us to one another.
Send your mailing address to me at carolinestarr AT yahoo DOT com, and your book will be on its way.
I am a sucker for blank books. I love the variety of styles and sizes available, and I love the potential they hold. Sometimes my blank books become journals. Some have become a collection of anecdotes, messages, and memories I'll share with my sons one day. I use one for brainstorming story ideas and taking notes at conferences. Another holds a book list five years in the making.
In the last week, I've come across two articles about blank books and journaling, one in February's
Writer's Digest called "
Unkeep a Journal to Grow Your Writing," one at Sara Lewis Holmes's blog,
Read Write Believe. Both articles have a common theme: writers should consider using a journal not as an obligatory place to record events but as a haven for quotes, observations, lists, poems.
In the
Unkeep article,
Heather Sellers says, "A journal is meant to be something you have with you when you are not at home, when you are bored, or grumpy or staring off into space...On a trip, you write down what people are saying in the airplane seats behind you. You sketch the banana trees outside your hotel. You listen to your grandma's recipes for cornbread and grits, and you wrtie them down, plus a description of her skin, her earrings, the wonderful way her hair wisps around in a circle...My journal is like a spider web; I catch stuff I can use later in it."
On Sara's blog, she quotes Jonathan Swift, who said, "A commonplace book is what a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that 'great wits have short memories:' and whereas, on the other hand, poets, being liars by profession, ought to have good memories; to reconcile these, a book of this sort, is in the nature of a supplemental memory, or a record of what occurs remarkable in every day's reading or conversation.
There you enter not only your own original thoughts, (which, a hundred to one, are few and insignificant) but such of other men as you think fit to make your own, by entering them there."
I have a beautiful journal I bought years ago -- blue velvet, a crimson and silver ribbon running around the middle, gilded pages big and thick and waiting for something important. Last week, I figured out its purpose. It's my Commonplace book. Already I've transcribed Johnathan Swift's quote above, a hymn that reminds me of my days teaching at my dear Episcopal school, and quotes about living an intentional life.
Here's where I tell you about the giveaway:The lovely journal pictured above is for one of you readers to
unkeep your own Commonplace Book.
In order to enter, leave a comment about what you might include in your own Commonplace Book. That's it. No need to be an official Follower (though, of course, that would be nice!). You international friends may enter, too.
The contest closes Friday, 6:00 PM CST. I'll us
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I haven't been purposeful about learning as I read. I do make it a point to talk about the books when I finish them, especially if something really worked for me, or really didn't. But this journaling idea is a good one.
I love those quotes!
I've really loved collecting sentences and scenes this way. It's been a great learning experience and is a bit like a scrapbook, too.
For years I've thought about doing this, but am too lazy or distracted to actually DO it. I'm impressed, Caroline. And I love the quotes you chose, too. And your pretty notebook!
I don't do it as often as I could, but every time I have, I've benefitted.