A peek inside my pocket notebook

35+ pages of notes, clippings, doodles, and thinking on the page

Hey y’all,

I finished a pocket notebook last week and thought it’d be fun to show you inside. This is a Leuchtturm1917 A6 hardcover notebook with a Meow Wolf sticker and a Pilot G2 gel pen. (For an explanation of the notebooks I keep, see my previous letter, “My 4 notebooks.”)

I started this notebook on January 12 this year, when I was deep into writing the manuscript of Don’t Call It Art. I always fill the first page with a guardian spirit — this is Marie de France, a 12-century poet.

I bring my notebook with me when we go out to eat as a family, and when we’re waiting on food, I’ll ask my favorite artist if he wants to draw in my notebook. I love seeing these mixed in with mundane things like my to-do list and the seeds of a newsletter. (“3 tricks for self-editing.”)

Here is a mind map of a Brian Eno songwriting course I took online.

These are clippings from a NYTimes article about Michael Palin’s diary habit.

Sometimes I will see something that makes me kind of agitated online and I’ll scribble a little paragraph in my notebook and post it online.

These are some blind drawings I made while sitting in a doctor’s waiting room. One thing I love about drawing is that no matter how abstract the drawing is, I can remember exactly where I was and how I was feeling when I drew it.

A to-do list and some clippings from a review of a book about Margaret Fuller.

These are doodles of cover ideas for Don’t Call It Art. I have dozens and dozens of these thumbnails in my notebook, and doubt I’ll use any of them.

Some notes on the creative seasons, an ongoing interest of mine.