PRACTICAL IDEAS--TINY BOOKS

Inspired by Kim Stafford's description of his small notebooks in The Muses Among Us, I made these. The cover is a 3X5 index card; the pages are one sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 paper folded and cut in particular way.

I sew them on the sewing machine, but you can also staple them. I date the cover, then carry it around with me until it is full. I jot down ideas for writing, but also for art projects.

Driving, I once ordered my sister to pull out my booklet and write: "Make a little backpack with unzippable purse." 


When a booklet is full I put it on my desk, and then glean it for ideas. I'll talk about how this process has changed my writing life at our Two Birds Summer Workshop on August 4th.

Give yourself a challenge!

When I'm feeling dragged down by heat and the press of things that never seem to take form, no matter how good my intentions, I remember this talk by Matt Cutts and his challenge to try something new for 30 days.
Take a look at this video, if you want to make a small, sustainable change in your writing life.

Make a commitment to do one, small, project for a month.  It could be to write a journal entry or a small essay, to send a notecard, letter or email to friend, start a blog, write towards an essay, story or epic novel, maybe something you never really had the time to tackle all at once (who has that kind of  leisure time?).

Matt Cutt's TED talk was the spark for my own project, 31 Haiku. As my 30 day project, I decided to write and post a photo and haiku each day for a month. I started it twice! But this year, I kept to it, and though there's not a haiku for everyday, there are haiku for many days. I've learned about the form, I've taken lots of photos, I've been outside a lot and looking closely at the growing world. And this year, I'm still keeping it up, after 3 months. I'm going for a year of haiku poems and photos, and then...who knows?

There's no end to the ideas and projects you might try. It takes very little time, and builds good habits of writing, observing, sharing and learning,.and ...who knows where it might lead?