Writing Tricks: The BFF-Notebook

Do you ever watch movies or television and notice characters keeping a little black book, a diary, a journal, or some other recording device and wonder: "Do real people do that?" I do. I have recently been watching the very horror-funtastic show "Supernatural" with my buddy, and it seems like everyone on that show (even too-cool-for-school Dean) has a journal. Their journals are to make notes on how to kill supernatural things to be passed on to the next generation, etc.

For me, it would be incredibly nice to have a vast majority of my ideas in one place. As of right now I take notes on napkins, scratch paper (usually with something belonging to someone else written on the other side), my pants, my arms, in a long string of text messages to myself, my iPad (which has been nice for syncing notes through Dropbox), various notebooks, and probably other places I'm not thinking of. The idea here is basically, once I have it written down it's all better. My brain stops screaming at me, I stop trying to repeat things to myself so I don't forget - only, when a few words down on a matchbook, I often forget about them instantly.

If I don't compile my notes (which is total waste of time) in some way when I get to my computer, I lose them. Notes disappear in the garbage, they get wet from soda or water on my desk and become unreadable, stashed in a drawer "for safe keeping" and forgotten, or I even have a puppy that will eat paper if it's something important. So I made a designated journaling notebook for future use. This is me convincing myself to use the silly thing.

It's a notebook I've had for years. I've recorded grocery lists, directions to important places, and taken notes at various gaming conventions. I have no idea where I got this notebook. But it's mine. It's my hideous pink notebook. I "installed" a note card in the back cover of this notebook using tape in order to store my business cards. In the front cover? Sticky notes. On the spiral spine of this notebook I attached one carabiner, a pen, and a decorative cell phone attachment.

Now, this notebook isn't for writing lengthy paragraphs or even complete thoughts. That's what my iPad (named Rover) is for. This little almost-pocket-sized notebook is for the jot-worthy notes that come to mind at inopportune moments like when you should be paying attention to someone talking to you, when you're at a restaurant or watching a movie, or playing kickball.

The first page has some mumbo jumbo about a short story idea. It's a few words at best, but I have the general idea stored on paper for the life of the notebook at the very least. Assuming I don't lose this notebook, which so far has been impossible (it's been my most faithful notebook, probably because it's disgustingly pink), I will have a compilation of half-complete ideas, titles, maybe even some particularly terrible poetry. Either way, I'm journaling in one place for the next generation to either steal my ideas, or laugh at me for writing five words and expecting it to make sense to anyone but me.

Notes should be taken in top secret code. My handwriting counts as top secret, since no one else on the planet can read it.

Also, doesn't "BFF-Notebook" look a bit like a Star Trek reference? Like USS-Notebook, only...never mind.