Carrying a notebook

To most of your, carrying a notebook around probably makes you think about carrying a portable computer around. After all, unlike the good old days, when portable computers cost a bomb and weighed like one, the netbooks available nowadays are small and cheap as well.

But no, I am not talking about computers here, I am talking about the paper kind of notebooks.

I used to carry a notebook wherever I went. I would jot down thought, phrases that came to mind. I would then use these to expand on for prose and short writings. The recent spate of works were results of my notebooks.

But I haven't been doing that for a while.

Then an established writer, You Jin, mentioned in a recent newspaper article that she always carries her notebooks with her wherever she goes. It reminded me of my past practice, and I have once again decided to stick with it.

A notebook allows you to capture your thoughts before your forget them. They serve as ideas or references for future expansion, even if eventually you choose not to work on them. The ideas noted down can be built on, expanded, combined with other thoughts/ideas. Or left alone. But if you don't capture them down in a notebook when you can, you will end up losing them. Because too many things race through our minds each day, it is just impossible for us to remember each and every thought/idea.