Job Number Three

At the SCBWI conference last month in New York, fantasy writer Susan Cooper said, "Job number one is to keep a notebook. Job number two is to refer to it often." When she said that, I thought, "Hm, I've got jobs number one and two covered. Does that mean job number three is writing?"

I think it is. For me, anyway. Pictured above are my beloved notebooks. If you care, they're Clairefontaine hardcover journals from France, lined, 196 pages, and I write in them from both ends. Notes for one project at the beginning, and another at the end; or maybe a glossary of fabulous words at the end, or jottings from my collection of folklore & supernatural books:


I don't "write" in my notebooks. That is, I don't sit down and print "Chapter One" and go at it. No no no, that's for crazy people, that writing stories longhand in notebooks. And I'm no crazy person. I'm perfectly rational in my method of having two documents open on my laptop, storytelling as well and as freely as I can in my "notes" document, where I do not have to cringe in terror of the expectations that come with typing beneath the words "Chapter One." And then, when the scene is all dusted off and spiffy and ready to be presented to society, it gets cut and pasted into the real document. Like I said, I'm not crazy. Sheesh.

But back to the notebooks. I love these notebooks. Love them. They're brimming with several years worth or weird facts, strange folk beliefs, awesome ideas (if I don't say so myself) and lists of names, cool words, kinds of trees in particular jungles, and like that. The world of Dreamdark is in these books. I'm really really keen on "job number one."

Right now I happen to be really really keen on "job number three," too and expect to be doing very little else for the forseeable future. So I guess what I'm saying is: expect boringness from me. The more interesting life in Dreamdark becomes, the proportionately less interesting Laini's life. Unless you consider sitting on a lime green bench, at a lime green desk, wiggling my fingers for hours and hours, well, interesting. I do. I'll try to keep my head in the "real world" enough to have something to write about besides my delirium over my daily word counts. Ha! We shall see.

I'm off to Dreamdark now, to harass an imp.