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Apr 30Liked by Joanna Penn Cooper

My problem, among others 😂, is that I think I need a different notebook for everything I’m doing. So I buy 5 notebooks and title them: Hens Teeth (my AR Zoom Writers Group), Joanna’s Drop-Ins (self-explanatory), Tuesdays at Ten (thoughts on therapy), Too Rad or Not Too Rad (thoughts on breast cancer radiation), Songs for the Future (songwriting for Just Roxie in ATL). On the face of it, this seems like a good idea. But good ideas are allusive as brook trout and so, when I’m trying to catch one, I pick up whatever notebook I can find first and start writing. This really messes with the order of things. Still, it’s hard to find what you want when you want it when all your notebooks are a hodgepodge of different ideas for across several genres. Suggestions anyone?

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I know this struggle, Mendy! Sometimes I've tried to do one notebook with a table of contents, but even that is hard to keep track of (because I give up on the TOC after a short time) ...

I will say that I got a "Leuchterm1917" notebook that I liked recently. It looks like a Moleskin but has slightly heavier pages, and the pages are numbered with a TOC in the front (if you can make yourself use it!).

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OK, Imma have a look at that. Might work. You never know until you try. Thanks. So good to read your essays and work your prompts! I'm back, by the way, with the "good intention" (we all know where that leads) of writing more, better, more intently than ever. And you help!

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Apr 27Liked by Joanna Penn Cooper

I love your notebook check in's! Really helpful to hear another's process and reconsider my own :)

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Thank you so much! I'm glad they've been helpful!

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Apr 26Liked by Joanna Penn Cooper

I plan to keep the practice up as well! Thank you for this! You asked me once if I’d tried morning pages—they landed me in an MFA program.

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You're welcome, Mary! And I love that the morning pages led you to your MFA program-- thanks for sharing that!

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