December Daily: what you carry

[resonant]

jjhunter says, "What do you carry with you?"

I debated over whether to answer this question literally or metaphorically, and then I realized that I could do both in one response:



Little spiral notebooks.

Every bag I own has at least one of these in it. There's one in my nightstand drawer and one under my favorite chair. I pick up a suitcase I haven't used for a year, and in one of the pockets I find a little spiral notebook.

I fill them in from the front, and from the back, and sometimes from the middle too. I fill them with lists of chores, and with snippets of stories that might or might not ever get written, and with a lot of what's basically talking to myself, only in writing.

(I have difficulty following a train of thought inside my own head. I have to externalize it, either out loud or on paper, in order to get through it without getting distracted. The kidlet is the same way. The spouse, on the other hand, can construct lovingly detailed thought structures in his head -- but he doesn't know what he feels without either saying it or writing it.)

Since there's no wifi at the Spousehouse, I'll be composing tomorrow's entry in this little spiral notebook.






1 -- goss, "VENOM! Why do you think it's been such an instant hit with Fandom, and what are some of your favourite fanworks so far?" and nestra, "Any Venom recs?"
2 -- anitac588, "How do you relate to different fandoms? Do you revisit them? Sometimes I find it difficult to go back to reading stories in 'old' fandoms after discovering new OTP."
3 -- marginaliana, "what is your favorite physical non-living thing? Not a person or a pet, but it could be something you own or a piece of art, etc."
4 -- cesperanza, "I'll ask an HP question, actually, because I wasn't really ever in it and I'm interested in the reactions of people who were. It seems to me from the outside so spectacularly meh now; like, it was the fictional equiv of Lost (which I also didn't watch) where it was fascinating as a piece of serialized fiction but where the execution simply couldn't live up to the collective imagination. Am I wrong?"
5 -- teigh_corvus, "Your thoughts on James Joyce and Ulysses."
6 -- kass, "If the you of 10 years ago could see you now, what would surprise her most?"
7 -- jjhunter, "What do you carry with you?"
8 -- mific, "Sounds like you commute to and fro still. How do you pass the time traveling? Music? Audiobooks? Something else? Any reccs? :)"
9 -- torch, "favorite advent songs!"
10 -- princessofgeeks, "How did you go about changing fandoms? Was it, historically, something you did or something that just happened? Did friends lure you? Did you find new shows to watch?"
11 -- reginagiraffe, "(It's MrGiraffe's birthday so...) Have you ever written a birthday themed story? If not, what couple would have the best/funnest/easiest birthday story to write and why?"
12 -- laurenthemself, "What are your thoughts on Thor: Ragnarok? I know ya boy Steve wasn't in it but did you have any shippy feelings?"
13 -- allheadybooks, "13. What's your least favorite thing about splitting your time between two houses? (My wife and I are also in a commuter marriage at the moment, and I get so frustrated every weekend when I have to go grocery shopping AGAIN because I thought I had eggs but that was at the other apartment!"
14 -- schneefink, "how about your field of study/work/specialization/hobby and how a book/movie/series/canon got it terribly/hilariously wrong?"
15 -- china_shop, "What hooks you into a fanfic? Is it banter, characterisation, tropes, or...? Is it different from what hooks you into original fic?"
16 -- muccamukk, "Describe a long fic you always wanted to write, but never have and likely never will."
17 -- ride_4ever, "rec two due South fanworks: a favorite that you created and a favorite that someone else created. (Anything! Triggers and squicks not a concern for me.)"
18 -- kass, "What have you read recently that you've enjoyed?
19 -- jjhunter, "What are five words you like or find especially meaningful + 1 word you despise? Why?"
20 --
21 --
22 -- mekare, What would Ben Fraser do in 2018?
23 -- marina, "What was the last book you read that wasn't fanfic and that you intensely loved, and why."
24 -- wychwood, "Something about SGA! What's the one fic you're sorry you never wrote? What was your favourite episode? Do you still love John/Rodney? How gay WAS John Sheppard? Where in Atlantis would you live if you could pick any room you liked? Pick one or a topic of your choice."
25 --
26 --
27 --destina, "how has your relationship to fandom changed over the years? By which I mean not just participation in it, but your level of tolerance/interest for the cyclical things about it, the way old arguments never really stop or die, etc, but also the ways fandom changes and new ways of doing fandom evolve. (And old ways evolve out, and terms evolve, etc.)"
28 -- kass, "What do you like best about where you live?"
29 --
30 -- china_shop, "Your favourite book you read this year."
31 -- wolfshark, "what is your favorite story to reread of your own stuff? what was your favorite story to write?"

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

Hey, me too. Just so. ♥

[resonant]

I've tried expensive ones, but I always come back to the Mead Fat Little Notebook.

[china_shop]

I use an A5 notebook, and only one at a time because otherwise I wouldn't be able to find anything. I take it everywhere with me except the bath, where I use scraps. Because yes. :-)

[mekare]

Ah it‘d suspenders-Benton. *stares dreamily*

[resonant]

You'd think it would be possible to write on a smartphone, wouldn't you? I can only do it if I'm in the grips of an incredibly powerful inspiration. (Which is why sometimes my to-do list says -Milk -Cucumbers -What if Sam and Sybill have a daughter next?)

[china_shop]

Actually, I bought one of these bluetooth keyboards and am finding it really useful for writing on my phone. I just can't write with my thumbs, it turns out. (I am the slowest texter ever. :-)

[resonant]

Hm -- I've been considering getting a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard when this laptop wears out, but it hadn't occurred to me to get one for the phone. That would be cool, actually; I have a journaling app, but I don't use it as much as I could because of the issue with the thumbs.

[china_shop]

I've been writing chunks in draft emails in Gmail and c&ping into Word on my desktop when I get home. One advantage of the keyboard over a laptop is that there's no boot-up time. It's just a flick of a switch to turn it on/off. Not much use for editing, though, particularly if you're prone to sore neck/RSI issues. /2 more cents :-)

[jjhunter]

I carry a hardbound mini notebook with me everywhere I go! There is a dedicated page for growing my wordhoard; I gather people's contact info in the back. In between, where my head's been.

Currently on vol. xxxiv and counting...

[resonant]

Wow! Do you keep them all?

[jjhunter]

Yes! I've been keeping my version of commonplace books since high school - I've got all but the two that got accidentally lost on trains over the years. It's pretty neat to be able to go back and flip through where my head was at in a given timepoint - lots of neat little bobs and bits of things.

[mekare]

I used to write in notebooks a lot but somehow don‘t much anymore. I loved it when I was doing it, but nowdays I do art in my free time. It‘s not the same, but I needed to set my priorities anew.

[resonant]

I've actually been tossing around ideas about how to do the writerly equivalent of a sketchbook.