Thank you for another thoughtful piece Yasmin. You will see me out and about with a pen and notebook! I studied geography at university and got into the habit of using a field notebook to make notes and sketches about the things I see to help with observation. These field notes do sometimes make it into my writing but not highlighted as field notes, merely part of the story and I may improve on what I have written as I edit. These notes help me to remember all the sights, sounds and smells of a place and my impressions. I also like to note down some conversations word for word as soon as they happened and they may make it into a travel piece.
Yasmin, I so enjoy your posts as a reader of course, but also as a practitioner who 'writes place' to/and generate 'place writing'. I appreciate your untangling of that and like the way they become a phrase palindrome sort of, that expresses the process of both together. When I'm writing place in your conception I makes notes and take photos but they rarely make it into the final piece. They are simply memory aids. I was also thinking though about my days as a geologist in the field and the way we were taught to make those field notes and sketches in pencil to be inked in later. So there was something interesting for me in the 'provisional' nature of that which is perhaps why I would rarely think to include the pencil work as final. Anyway, there are few things I like to talk about more than this, so thank you for the invitation to comment.
Interesting contemplation, Yasmin. I keep what I refer to as a log whenever I’m roaming—which is quite often. Over the years, there have been periods where I have, for various reasons, used these logs more as journals or diaries than as field notes. I have learned that, both during the noting, and, especially, after the fact, I much appreciate the latter and have little use for the former. ;)
I use a field notebook at specific times, for example, when I’m measuring the biodiversity in a metre of hedgerow, I’ve been carrying out projects like this for many years and love my notebooks - They feel intimate to me, Some of the information I record in my field notebooks works its way into my writing but in a different way. Every day, though, I use my voice recorder and phone camera, and transcribe into a large diary/aide memoire/scrapbook when I get home or wherever I’m staying. All of this is a big part of my day, takes a big part of my day, and works for me in my particular situation (not to mention the Cumbrian weather.) Thank you, Yasmin for another interesting piece to ponder.
I do keep a journal/diary especially when travelling, the notes they contain are invaluable if needing to produce an article later. Alongside the journal notes I sometimes sketch a relevant scene or item, though this is more for fun than anything else. Photos are another great source if needing to describe a scene/location.
Coleridge wrote field notes on his walks through the Lake District in battered little notebooks now preserved in the British Library. Unedited they're still some of the finest writing there's been about that particular place. Intended as raw materials for poems that never got written. Similarly his letter to Sara Hutchinson written in situ on Scafell summit. Again no editing required!
Thanks for sharing these thoughts, Yasmin. Visiting key spaces/places has helped me to write all three of my novels. The first few chapters of Something So Precious play out in the South of France - where I whiled away every summer as a kid/teenager - so I travelled back there to revisit some of my old haunts. Most of I Saw Red is set in Madrid (where I lived for a time in the noughties) and I went back and spent a week wandering around like a modern-day flâneur. Topsy & Co is centred on the life of William Morris, so I visited his houses - Water House, Red House, Kelmscott Manor, Kelmscott House. It’s such a great way to connect to the spaces where narratives unfold. My writing is always energised and enriched by trips like that. ✨
Thank you for another thoughtful piece Yasmin. You will see me out and about with a pen and notebook! I studied geography at university and got into the habit of using a field notebook to make notes and sketches about the things I see to help with observation. These field notes do sometimes make it into my writing but not highlighted as field notes, merely part of the story and I may improve on what I have written as I edit. These notes help me to remember all the sights, sounds and smells of a place and my impressions. I also like to note down some conversations word for word as soon as they happened and they may make it into a travel piece.
Yasmin, I so enjoy your posts as a reader of course, but also as a practitioner who 'writes place' to/and generate 'place writing'. I appreciate your untangling of that and like the way they become a phrase palindrome sort of, that expresses the process of both together. When I'm writing place in your conception I makes notes and take photos but they rarely make it into the final piece. They are simply memory aids. I was also thinking though about my days as a geologist in the field and the way we were taught to make those field notes and sketches in pencil to be inked in later. So there was something interesting for me in the 'provisional' nature of that which is perhaps why I would rarely think to include the pencil work as final. Anyway, there are few things I like to talk about more than this, so thank you for the invitation to comment.
Interesting contemplation, Yasmin. I keep what I refer to as a log whenever I’m roaming—which is quite often. Over the years, there have been periods where I have, for various reasons, used these logs more as journals or diaries than as field notes. I have learned that, both during the noting, and, especially, after the fact, I much appreciate the latter and have little use for the former. ;)
I use a field notebook at specific times, for example, when I’m measuring the biodiversity in a metre of hedgerow, I’ve been carrying out projects like this for many years and love my notebooks - They feel intimate to me, Some of the information I record in my field notebooks works its way into my writing but in a different way. Every day, though, I use my voice recorder and phone camera, and transcribe into a large diary/aide memoire/scrapbook when I get home or wherever I’m staying. All of this is a big part of my day, takes a big part of my day, and works for me in my particular situation (not to mention the Cumbrian weather.) Thank you, Yasmin for another interesting piece to ponder.
I do keep a journal/diary especially when travelling, the notes they contain are invaluable if needing to produce an article later. Alongside the journal notes I sometimes sketch a relevant scene or item, though this is more for fun than anything else. Photos are another great source if needing to describe a scene/location.
Coleridge wrote field notes on his walks through the Lake District in battered little notebooks now preserved in the British Library. Unedited they're still some of the finest writing there's been about that particular place. Intended as raw materials for poems that never got written. Similarly his letter to Sara Hutchinson written in situ on Scafell summit. Again no editing required!
Thanks for sharing these thoughts, Yasmin. Visiting key spaces/places has helped me to write all three of my novels. The first few chapters of Something So Precious play out in the South of France - where I whiled away every summer as a kid/teenager - so I travelled back there to revisit some of my old haunts. Most of I Saw Red is set in Madrid (where I lived for a time in the noughties) and I went back and spent a week wandering around like a modern-day flâneur. Topsy & Co is centred on the life of William Morris, so I visited his houses - Water House, Red House, Kelmscott Manor, Kelmscott House. It’s such a great way to connect to the spaces where narratives unfold. My writing is always energised and enriched by trips like that. ✨