Making notes

Documenting my life in creative form is all I know how to do

The sun keeps peeking out over the clouds today. I see you, my love! It’s still quite cold out but the anticipation that spring is in the air makes my skin prickle with glee. The clocks go forward at the end of the month and I will honour the change of season by switching out my mug. Goodbye mushrooms for autumn/winter, hello strawberry for spring/summer!

I started a new notebook this week after being really inspired by Carmy’s journals on The Bear. He keeps track of what inspires him to be a chef the most, and details all the ingredients and methods he learns about. Seeing these pages of incredible drawings of the inside of an onion or photographs of beautiful dishes really resonated with me.

I can’t get enough of them!!!! Seriously look how beautiful they are!!!

I’ve read On Keeping a Notebook. But long before I ever knew the name Joan Didion I have always kept some form of notebook — whether that be the autobiography I began writing at the age of 10, my angsty teenage scribbles protected by lock and key, little black books filled to the brim with drawings/scraps of poems/fleeting thoughts, half-completed bullet journals, my ‘junk journals’ before they were cool. I’ve had every type of notebook in existence, because I’m a scatterbrain at my very core and my biggest fear is losing my train of thought.

I agree with Didion. I think that notebooks are important because they are unique to their owners. I don’t think that there’s a wrong way to keep one, either. That’s the beauty of it. You can take it and fill it with whatever mad things you think of because it’s yours.

Currently I have 4 notebooks. I see a lot online about ‘journal ecosystems’ — where each notebook serves a different purpose. I do like that idea a lot, but I worry that if I indulge the concept of splitting things apart I’ll end up with too many notebooks to keep track of. If that’s even possible.

I have a notebook that functions as my diary. I don’t think there’s any shame in being 24 and admitting you have a diary — because I need somewhere to unleash all of my deepest and innermost thoughts. I don’t write in it like “Dear Diary, today I did this”, it’s more like stream-of-consciousness writing. It’s been a really useful tool for when my mental health isn’t doing too hot.

The is another character’s notebook, Richie, from The Bear. It’s different to Carmy’s in that he jots down his ideas and opinions in it, which I also really vibe with! His is very stream-of-consciousness too!

Then I have a notebook that originally started as a ‘commonplace’ notebook — one where you keep track of quotes that inspire you or topics you’ve researched that are interesting to you. However, before long it got demoted to a general notebook because while I do get along with the ‘commonplace’ idea in theory, I realised that what I actually needed at that time was somewhere I could also write a list or plan out my disseration or jot down notes when I needed a scrap of paper. Once I started using it for that purpose I knew that all of the quotes and inspiration would just get lost and buried deep under the number for my water provider and the angry scribbled “SUBMIT THIS ASAP!” reminder. Unfortunately in my world you can’t compete with a notebook that is used for… notes.

My third notebook is my junk journal, which I started adding to last year. It was quite a shocker to realise that when bullet journalling was trending, this is what I was doing instead. I had this little Muji notebook and would spend hours creating these wonderful collages in there and surrounding them with lists, my thoughts, me weekly schedule, etc. Because it can be very time-consuming and I’m lowkey a perfectionist it stopped being a habit with time — but picking it up again has been so much fun. There’s something really fulfilling to my documenting life-obsessed self about collecting craps of ‘junk’ from my day and making the most beautiful spreads out of them. I find it very relaxing.

This is Marcus’s notebook, another character from the show. He tends to use his notebook for planning recipes and brainstorming, then sticks up photos of what inspires him around his workstation so that he’s constantly surrounded by it.

The last notebook I have is my newest addition, she is my pride and joy. As I said, Carmy’s journals inspired me so much that I thought I’d start my own. Not to fill with things about cooking — but taking the idea of ‘commonplace’ and putting my own twist on it. Having more than 2 notebooks, personally, is too much. If I go on a trip I have to decide which ones are the most important to take with me. So my idea is to m erge my junk journal with a ‘commonplace’ notebook, to have somwhere I can put my crazy collages but also discuss and keep notes on what moves me. I feel like my diary is for detailing my emotions and getting things off my chest, but this new notebook is more like a journal — it will document all the things that I deem important, in whichever format I see fit.

And what a beautiful thing it is to be able to have the right spaces to develop and create whatever mad thought comes into my mind. If you don’t journal or keep a notebook, I really thing that you should try it.

It might just change your life, like it has with mine.