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Remember shopping for school supplies? You combed the store aisle to pick out the perfect binder. You couldn’t wait to crack open that brand new box of crayons.

Getting ready for school is a lot more than checking items off of a list. It’s a rite of passage. Fresh markers, pencils, and notebooks get kids excited about learning. Compared to used or donated supplies, brand new items match the excitement of a new school year and new possibilities. When they have the tools they need, kids go to school with confidence.

If you serve kids in need, you can help instill that confidence with new supplies from the First Book Marketplace. There is more to a backpack than meets the eye — it’s not just textbooks, paper, and pencils. The anatomy of a backpack includes items like calculators, for when students run out of fingers and toes to count. It includes gluesticks, because sometimes tape just doesn’t do the trick. It includes highlighters, so students can learn how to focus on key parts of what they’re reading.

When many students’ backpacks are put on the examining table it becomes clear that some things are missing from their anatomy. Maybe they have fresh paper, but nothing to write with. Perhaps they have pencils, markers and paper, but no backpack to put them in. The First Book Marketplace offers educators and program leaders the opportunity to help fill a child’s backpack with what they need.

And if it’s the backpack itself that they need, First Book has those too.

Please visit the supplies section of the First Book Marketplace to find more items that make up the anatomy of a backpack.

The post The Anatomy of a Backpack appeared first on First Book Blog.

Before summer began, we at Two Writing Teachers planned this blog series, and I blithely volunteered to write a post about the value of notebooks in writing workshop. Notebooks. What was I thinking?!… Continue reading →

All of us at Two Writing Teachers are thinking about and planning for summer writing. Summer writing inspiration for our students and summer writing goals for ourselves. Kathleen wrote this fabulous post about using… Continue reading →

Beginning to think about Exploratory Notebooks and easing into a research writing unit.

Beginning to think about Exploratory Notebooks and easing into a research writing unit.

As much as I LOVE notebooks, even I have to admit there is a time in every writer's process when it is time to pop out of the notebook and onto a laptop or lined paper.

With some set-up, modeling, and direction instruction, your students can go from okay to great note-takers.

I'm back from summer break! Not that summer is entirely over: here in Colorado, it's still a balmy eighty-something degrees, with no end in sight... I'm kind of looking forward to fall, to tell you the truth.

But it's back to school time, which means I'm back to work. I'm writing a crime novel for adults (work-in-progress, stay tuned), and generally getting caught up with what's happening in mystery, YA, MG and for us grown-ups.

And back-to-work also means I'm stocking up on school supplies while they're on the shelves, including a good stack of spiral notebooks. They're my tool of choice when outlining, brainstorming, pretty much anything to do with writing. I should plant a tree for all the paper I go through...

How about you?? What are you up to? Read anything good lately?

When I visit a classroom, one of the first things I often say to kids is, "Today, please don't erase. I want to see ALL the great work you are doing as a writer. When you erase, your work disappears!" Often, this is what kids are accustomed to and they continue working away. But sometimes, kids stare at me as if I've got two heads.

On my mind constantly of late: notebooks, sketchbooks, art journals, and combinations thereof. Conversations are swirling in several of my circles—

• at Sketchbook Skool there is always lots of chatter about what people prefer to draw on and with;

• over at Wisteria & Sunshine, Lesley has been revisiting the topic of daybooks (especially handmade ones);

• Kortney is posting wonderfully enticing things about right-brain planning;

• Amy Ludwig Vanderwater is hosting a summer “Sharing Our Notebooks” project that I plan to participate in, soon as I get a chance…

Once a week I meet a small group of teenaged girls (one of them my Beanie) at a coffee shop to discuss literature while their younger siblings take piano lessons in the studio upstairs. This is hands-down one of the best hours of my week: meaty stories; lively analysis; word-collection; chitchat. A couple of weeks ago we ran off on a tangent of comparing one another’s notebooks. The conversation coincided with a similar thread at Wisteria & Sunshine, so I was primed. I’ve been using graph-style spiral-bound steno pads for the past year or so, with a modified bullet-journal method. (Chiefly the use of an index page at the front of each notebook—that was a game-changer for me.) But I was hankering after something less utilitarian-looking, and one of my lit girls had a new kraft-brown Moleskine that set me swooning. Back at home, I looked it up and it was exactly what I wanted. Slim paperback in the size I favor (Moleskine calls it “large” but it’s only 5×8), and—this was crucial—they offer a “squared” (graph-style) version.

I’ve used Moleskines before but mostly the Volant model with the bright solid-colored covers. So pretty on my shelf but you can’t really fold them back on themselves, and I don’t like writing on a double-page spread. That’s why I’ve mostly sighed and made do with spirals. But Moleskine’s Cahier model with a heavy paper cover is flexible enough for me to fold back. And I love the pocket in the back, such a nice touch.

Kraft paper is one of my favorite surfaces for decorating, so of course the cover cried out for some decoration. I started on the back in case I messed up. Still haven’t decided what I want to do on the front.

gridded steno notebook, kraft brown Moleskine Cahier journal, Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

I love a skinny notebook not only because it fits easily in my bag, but because it fills up faster. I am mad for the fresh start. I had a few pages left in my May steno book but I craved a clean slate for June, so I’ve been using up the steno pages with hand-lettering practice.

I use my daily notebook for list-making, idea-sorting, story-outlining, note-taking…basically anything that involves words. Words + doodles, really: my “work” pages are always margined with crosshatching and basketweave and spirals and mushrooms…whatever. I used to try to keep things compartmentalized: one notebook for current book-in-progress; one for medical & insurance notes (I always seem to have volumes of these); one for quotes/commonplace book entries; one for to-do lists…but they always wound up melded together, and then I’d have three or four mishmash notebooks going at once, which was ridiculous. So I gave up and embraced my brain’s clear need to dump itself onto a page, melting-pot style, and now I let all those channels of thought intermingle. (Messily, much like the mingling of metaphors in that sentence.)

And these days my word-notebooks are overrun with drawings, too. I have a separate sketchbook—two, actually; a smaller (5×8) hardcover Moleskine that fits in my bag, and a larger (7×10) Canson mixed-media sketchbook that is my place to experiment with drawing techniques and paint. That’s where I do my Sketchbook Skool assignments—it’s my it’s okay to screw up place. Consequently, it sees way more action than the Moleskine sketchbook, which I pretty much only use when I’m 1) away from home and 2) feeling unobtrusive enough to draw in public. I don’t mind kids looking over my shoulder but I’m way too shy about my work to want adults eyeballing it in progress.

Interestingly, the Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook is the one that got a thumbs-down from Roz Stendahl (THE source of in-the-field info on all things art supply), and when I read her review I had a major light-bulb moment: Ohhhh, so you mean the paper isn’t supposed to buckle when I paint? This Canson (I’m in my second one now) is the only sketchbook I’ve ever painted in, so I thought that’s just how it went, unless you bought one with watercolor paper. Roz’s report clued me in to the possibility that the book I picked (entirely because it was on sale at Michael’s) may not perform as satisfactorily as other brands. I’m nearing the end of this one (you guys!!! I’ve filled two whole sketchbooks with drawings!!) and may take Roz’s recommendation and try a Strathmore Journal Series’ Mixed Media book next time. Does Michael’s sell them, I wonder? Got another coupon burning a hole…

bad phone photo; can’t be bothered to scan

Okay, so I was saying that in theory I have the sketchbook(s) for, well, sketching, and the notebook for all the word things, but the truth is that ever since I started working on my drawing skills last fall, I’ve got rough sketches running wild all over my word-notebooks. Again, this is something I’ve just decided to be at peace with. So much of my work involves a rigorous process of polishing and structure, and I think perhaps my mind really needs a place to be messy and unfiltered, a place to set itself down in raw form. It’s like a test kitchen for my thoughts, I guess. This is where the index is so invaluable: it allows me to quickly locate the notes from that Very Important Phone Call without having to hunt through pages of nonsense. I try to update the index at least once a week—just a mild leaf-through to note down the page numbers on which I have recorded important information. I number the pages of my notebooks in the bottom right corner, about ten pages at a time. I like to write my to-do lists on a Post-It that can travel from page to page. As each task is crossed off, I jot it down in the notebook for a record of what I’ve done.

Since the ugly steno books all look the same on the shelf, I would run a highlighter down the sides of the pages, a different color for each new book. But so far the kraft Moleskine is serving beautifully, and I doubt I’ll go back to the steno grids. I might use a bit of Washi tape on the spine to differentiate the Moleskines on the shelf, once they’re filled.

***

Back to my coffee-shop girls. We had so much fun that day, comparing notebook preferences, that we decided to all bring our sketchbooks the following week. Which was truly delightful—what a treasure, this look at the outpouring of creativity from these girls. Beautiful design work (I mean really breathtaking, some of it), whimsical drawings (much more skilled than mine), and illustrated quotes, and just so much wonder, so much evidence of curious minds sifting the world. I felt really honored to have this work shared with me. We are nearing the end of the topics we charted for our class, but the girls begged me to keep going through the summer. So we’re thinking of spending a few weeks on sketching and notebooking. I have all sorts of ideas for things we can do together—heavily Lynda Barry-influenced, naturally, because who better to guide you through an exploration of all the things a sheet of paper can become?

Last week I had a conversation with a middle school teacher who has spent her summer studying writing workshop and is excited to make writer’s notebooks the backbone of her writing instruction. This… Read More →

(Because even when you have Freedom switched on there are always ways to procrastinate)

- The David Tennant Doctor Who figure is taller than the Matt Smith figure and for some reason I thought it would be the other way around. I should Google who is tallest. (To which the answer is a) yes David Tennant is taller and b) what an odd site and c) my Google-Fu found that in one click).

- Why have trays on your desk if you're not going to use them for anything sensible? And yes, labelling them WIP / Ideas / Guidelines / Writing Tips isn't much good if you're just going to throw everything into whatever tray you feel like.

- Making graphs is an awesome way to track your progress even if you're not making any progress because you're busy making graphs.

- Scribbling short story titles and throwing them into the trays would be awesome if you used the right trays or maybe had a short story title tray. Ooh, see now I have another reason to procrastinate and then later on I could blog* about all the silly things I write short story titles on like fruit pastille wrappers and gift tags and whatnot. You'd think there were no notebooks in this room.

- If you count all the unused notebooks in your office, you may find they total 30 (at least).

*I won't really blog about that... Although, in the words of James Bond, never say never.

I wonder which James Bond figure is the tallest?

I was watching or listening or reading something this week — I don’t remember what — but the message was: You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. True. (And probably the reason I don’t remember who said it since this little tid-bit is fairly common knowledge.) The person went on to say: [...]

I was watching or listening or reading something this week — I don’t remember what — but the message was: You can’t be a writer if you’re not a reader. True. (And probably the reason I don’t remember who said it since this little tid-bit is fairly common knowledge.) The person went on to say: [...]

Defrosting the Deep Freeze

by Karna Converse

Two or three times a year, I sort and organize the contents of my deep freeze; once a year, I defrost it. Many of the contents are unrecognizable due to ice crystals or the white of freezer burn, and I throw much of it away. But I usually find something that’s worth keeping, and sometimes, a treasure or two: a container of chili that’ll feed two -- perfect for a meal when only half the family is home. A package of sweet corn or a frozen fruit cup that brings a taste of summer to a cold, winter night. A chicken casserole that simply needs to be reheated. A roast I’d forgotten I’d purchased.

I do similar exercises with the contents of my writing files.

Some of the writing I find is truly awful and I send it to the trash bin, but some—rejected from a first round of publications--meet the guidelines of a new publication I’ve recently encountered. Like the casserole or container of chili, these pieces simply need to be defrosted and reheated. I’m re-energized by these discoveries, but the ones that bring the biggest smile to my face are the pieces I’d forgotten about, the ideas I’d begun to develop but never completed. Most are journal entries, and they’re begging to be thrown into the crock pot.

I had no particular plans for the notes I started scribbling notes into spiral notebooks 12 years ago. I was a stay-at-home mom with young children, and to be honest, didn’t have time to develop them into full-fledged pieces. I just knew I needed to capture the moment. Some entries filled a page; others, only a few lines. A few entries were written in response to a writing prompt but most are simply notes about the particular day’s triumph or disaster; a parenting-related news story or controversy; or the questions and funny comments my children made.

Now, as one of Literary Mama’s blog editors, I’m expanding these random thoughts into short essays for readers who understand and can appreciate them. My “For Your Journal” writing prompts connect a parenting issue with a personal experience and encourage readers to keep a journal about their own parenting experiences.

Even though my children are now in high school and college, I continue to make notes in a journal. I’m not sure when, or if, I’ll develop them into longer pieces but I know I’ll be glad I’ve captured the moments. So, I encourage you to pour a cup of tea, settle yourself into a comfy chair, and defrost the contents of your writing deep freeze. You might be surprised at what’s already simmering in the crock pot.

Don’t have a spiral notebook? Get one. Now. Jot down the funny things your friends and family say, the experiences that make you proud, the conflicts that make you angry. Write about the family pet, a favorite board game from your childhood, the first time you tried to teach your child how to cook, the role religion plays in your life, the childhood events that influenced your present-day relationship with a sibling.

And who knows? Maybe you’ll discover a character for your next short story or a theme for a narrative essay. Or maybe you’ll use the idea to create a special holiday card or photo album for someone in your family . . . Or maybe the memories will simply be captured, to be defrosted months—or years---down the road.

* * *

3 Comments on Friday Speak Out!: Defrosting the Deep Freeze, Guest Post by Karna Converse, last added: 10/17/2011

If you are a regular reader, you know a lot of my thinking lately has been about writing process, and specifically nudging third grade writers into more traditional drafts. Today’s post is a collection of my thoughts about drafting. I hope it is applicable to a range of writers — not a specific grade level. [...]

Writers' notebooks are personal, valuable, essential. Somewhere to jot down thoughts as they occur before they disappear back into the ether. They contain the germs of ideas, solutions to problems, plots and titles that never went anywhere - a nostalgia-fest for the writer and a boon for literary biographers and critics in the case of the famous. Reading them is like looking into lit, uncurtained windows on a winter night, especially those in the backs of houses passed on the train. They give a privileged insight into the interior life - the writer in the wild, roaming his or her territory unaware of observers.

I've been using a facsimile of Bram Stoker's notebooks for Dracula while researching my own vampire series, Vampire Dawn (Ransom, March 2012). They look familiar. Spattered with odd jottings that are hard to interpret later, but also with longer pieces meticulously copied or summarised from books and conversations. There are typewritten notes and annotated bits of typescript as well as pages of handwriting (thankfully neat in his case). They offer a fascinating glimpse into the process of composing Dracula. The bits he didn't use are just as interesting as those he did.

He was very thorough. He went to Romania and interviewed local people. He wrote long lists of Romanian words he might use. He researched boats that had sunk off the coast of Whitby and boats that carried their cargo to shore. He recorded any odd episode or story he could use. Just as we all do.

I have two types of notebook. There's always a general notebook that is carried almost everywhere, and filled with odd ideas, observations, scribblings of any kind. Those are a chaotic jumble that probably make little sense to anyone else. Then there are specific notebooks for each project. These show the genesis and evolution of a book. It's interesting later to see the bits that never made it, the ideas that look really stupid later, and how far the final book has wandered from the original idea or plan.

My notebooks will never be of real interest, like Stoker's, but I can't show his as the facsimile is copyright, so here's a peek inside mine as a poor substitute for the curious.



This is a Moleskin softcover brown notebook. On the cover is a printout of an early version of one of the covers of the series (the first cover we fixed on).

I always stick a picture on a notebook or folder as it's the quickest way to see which is which.







Inside... these are bits printed from the web. I needed to know exactly how a guillotine works and the position of the body of the victim just before execution. This continues on further pages. In case you ever need to know, there is a tilted bench that the beheadee lies on.

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By: Ruth, on 8/3/2011
Blog: TWO WRITING TEACHERS (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: [email protected], on 3/8/2011
Blog: One Pomegranate (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: MP, on 2/4/2011
Blog: WOW! Women on Writing Blog (The Muffin) (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  writing, lists, letters, notebooks, prompts, getting ideas, Friday Speak Out, Story Inspiration, Betty Auchard, Add a tag

Lists I Love

by Betty Auchard

I am obsessive about making lists for story prompts, and have more than I can possibly use in a lifetime. Most of my ideas spring from letters I write.

Long ago I started a file called Stories in Letters, and it’s so large now that I have files within files. A few of the subtitles are Mom, Grandkids, and Teaching Junior High (I’m renaming that file My Gin and Tonic Period). Other categories are Menopause, Raising Teenagers, Mating the Dogs, Living with 12 Men, Catechism Classes, Escape from Las Vegas, Jury Duty, Student Teaching at 40, College Graduation at 42, and To Make the Bed or Not to Make the Bed. I get such a kick out of just reading my ideas that I’ve often thought of putting the lists together and sharing them with other writers in a program called Lists I Love.

In addition to computer folders, I have a drawer full of spiral notebooks filled with first drafts and notes about writing. Some notebooks are completely full and others contain many sheets of clean paper. (Does any of this sound familiar?) When I get an idea that I don’t want to lose, I grab a half full tablet, make sure I put the date on my new notes, and then start writing by hand. One tablet I grabbed recently is dated December, 2001. The date on the next page is January 1, 2011. The note read, “I am not making resolutions this year—period!” I love reviewing these entries. Some became published stories.

There’s also a Ziploc freezer bag full of stuff that is just as much fun to sort through as the notebooks. The bag is an odd assortment of first drafts dated 1998, thoughts I didn’t want to forget the year my husband died. These old drafts are written on all kinds of paper—used envelopes, napkins, the white margin of a torn out hunk of newspaper. I scribbled on scraps and journaled on junk. Writing kept me afloat.

One item I cherish from that plastic bag is a white paper placemat from The Fish Market. An idea struck and I just had to get it down. I pushed my almost empty plate a little to the left and wrote on the placemat over stains of tomato sauce and salad dressing. The shape of the story is curved like the plate on the left and straight at the edges on the right. I cried privately while writing, glad that I had already eaten most of my food. That story ended up in my first book.

Idea lists are precious. We might want to mine them for stories more often.

* * *

IPPY Finalist Betty Auchard is a popular speaker and the author of two memoirs. She lives and writes in northern California. Blog with the author at http://www.bettyauchard.com/.

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2 Comments on Friday Speak Out!: Lists I Love, Guest Post by Betty Auchard, last added: 2/4/2011

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hobbymomof4 said, on 2/4/2011 8:54:00 AM

I also have lots of notes written haphazardly. My question is: how do we organize them so we can locate similar threads so we don't have to reread every half-full spiral?

Anonymous said, on 2/4/2011 1:32:00 PM

Dear hobbymom of 4...

Good question. There's no way I could do this with all the notebooks full of vignettes that fill my top dresser drawer. They served a purpose at the time of the writing, and they still serve a purpose. I look at this way--I love reading them now because they've been composting for a long time and they seem ripe. If I feel that one of them must be used, I'll stop everything and get it ready for the stage. Those notebooks are like messy, disorganized diaries that are really fun to read 1 to 12 years after they were written.

HOWEVER, The Stories in Letters are written on the computer, so they get popped into that folder immediately...after mailing of course. Later, I put them into their "own" folders labeled "Mom Stories," or "Jr. High Teaching," or "Menopause Tales," or whatever. Those folders are the only clues that Betty Auchard actually does organize a few things.

Organizing my cumputer files is something I do only when I'm in the mood for simple work and not under pressure. I trash as much as possible, but I ALSO find old stories that I tossed into My Documents, which gives me a chance to file into an existing folder OR start a new folder. My most empty folder is labeled "Fiction Attempts," because I've tried writing fiction a few times. They are pathetic and never shared.

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