I told you all last week that the first draft of my Princess for a Day story was done. In the past week, I’ve been doing all those edits that start inching the story toward being completed like rewriting, deleting, adding, and sometimes daydreaming. In fact, if I were to tell you that one of the most important tools I’ve had in finishing my story is daydreaming, would you be surprised?

In the past few days, I’ve found it handy to have a notebook/journal nearby because I just never know when something is going to strike a chord that will have me molding a scene to something better than it was. While doing something mundane, an idea pops up. Getting that idea down on paper immediately is super important. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an idea that I’ve told myself I’d write up later only to find that when later finally arrives, I remember few of the details that seemed so good at the time.

Writing in a notebook also helped to shake things up. When I became stuck, I picked up one of those old fashioned pen-things and began writing. It felt like inspiration in the form of ink. Perhaps the same can be done by using your voice and cell with the disadvantage of not being able to see what you’ve written. You could also use the note feature on your cell or an app like Evernote that not only takes notes but makes lists, etc. (Note: I am in no way affiliated with Evernote, except that I’ve used it once or twice.)

It strikes me now as I write this that I love using pen and paper the way some readers say they must read real books and not electronic ones. Sometimes I feel inspired by using paper, gathering energy and ideas from my fingers gripping the pen and writing. Something organic. Something as old as, well, writing. Certainly my ideas and fingers can fly more quickly with a computer, but there are times when the process feels like it should be just between me and pen and paper.

In the past few years I’ve found some wonderful little notebooks that can be slipped into your purse or back pocket. One cutie was this tartan commonplace notebook:

I found this commonplace notebook after being inspired by another writer who kept a commonplace notebook, and, of course, I had to look it up to see if it would be useful to me. While a cell can do the same thing, to me it feels more sterile. Not to mention that I don’t ever have to back up my handy notebook.

Factoid: In case you didn’t know commonplace notebooks have been around for centuries. They are a place to keep information that you find interesting or useful, including quotes and other bits of inspiration. Some people also place pictures or other types of cut-outs in them.

Here are some ideas for tiny notebooks:

Do you have any tools or apps that aid your writing process that you’d like to share?

More to come on the evolution of Princess.

Happy bountiful writing to you!