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.
'A field notebook' is a lovely thing. I've tried to be more disciplined and more organised when it comes to note-taking but it just doesn't work for me. I love the idea of sketches and conversations appearing in your notebooks. Do you keep them and refer back to them years later?
We all work in different ways, so don't beat yourself up about what you're not doing. I do still find writing by hand helps my brain to think of words and sketches can be creative and inspiring too. I work for magazines as a journalist and you are expected to keep your contemporaneous notes for six years (I think) on the off chance there is a challenge about something you've written. This is fair enough if you are a political journalist but travel writers don't get challenged often! I type up my notes and scan diagrams as an electronic copy and keep my note books until after publication as a work around to this. If I kept everything they would take over my small house! I refer to them constantly for a month or so while I am writing about a place and then put them away, unless we are returning somewhere or I am writing another article or blog post about the place.
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.
How interesting that you were taught to take pencil notes and ink them in later. I find this absolutely fascinating Ruth. I'm reminded of the artist who sketches a landscape and then goes back to the studio to make a painting - there is dedication in this type of practice. Although, as a geologist, I guess there was little creativity involved and accuracy would be expected.
Really interesting thank you. I make FN’s all the time, and my iPhone notes are a mess of observations which I don’t always use. I will think more about how to incorporate them (and other sources), in my writing.
Thanks for your comment Mary. Some people write poetic field notes but mine are all over the place and I have to work quite hard on them if I'm to include these observations in my writing, and then they're not field notes any more... so it's interesting to see how they evolve.
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 think you have hit on a salient point, Holly, and this is that field notes are written in various forms. Whether they're written in a log, journal, diary, notebook, on scraps of paper, or as digital text-notes or voice notes... they're all valuable in the moment and have potential for informing our creative writing at a later time. Thank you for your contribution to the conversation.
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.
Thank you for your comment and kind words. I admire your dedication to your craft, Bee, and totally understand the intimacy you feel for your notebooks and diaries. Your daily routine sounds to me like the best way to celebrate life.
Thank you. You know, I’m only just getting around, really, to reading your Substack properly. It takes time doesn’t it to find a routine to read all the amazing writing on here (let alone write ourselves.) Anyway, I’m so enjoying your Substack.
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.
I agree. It's essential to take notes in order to produce a piece of more considered writing later on and I also find photographs a good way of capturing the important things I want to remember. I wonder how many journals/diaries you have kept over the years.
Funnily enough Yasmin, diary keeping started as a work thing, which then doubled as a travel record when I went off to live in Nigeria. That was in 1984, and I kept that up until 2011 using standard, page-a-day diaries in A5 size. They were great for gluing in tickets and other paper bits and pieces accumulated en route. From 2012, I have been using a similar size book, but with blank pages, and just write whenever something interesting happens or when I feel I might have something of interest to say.
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!
The British Library is one of my favourite places for research. I've not seen Coleridge's field notes. I'll be interested to follow this up some time as I've really enjoyed reading Dorothy Wordsworth's diaries. How marvellous to be able to write poetry and prose in situ.
In 2002 I was writing about Coleridge's 9-day walk around the Lake District of 1802 - they let me see and handle his notebook with the sketch map based on hearsay that he used to find his way around with. There's a massive paperback with all STC's notebooks covering his whole life, but for extracts and letters covering the hillwalking years in Somerset and the Lake District 'Coleridge in the Lakes and Mountains' from the Folio Society is on Abebooks usually. Dorothy's account of her walk up Scafell Pike is in William Wordsworth's 'Guide to the Lakes' and transcribed on my own website.
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. ✨
Oh yes, James. I think it's so important to spend time in the places we write about. You have had some wonderful opportunities to absorb local culture and research for your books. Did you keep a diary or a note-book when you visited these places I wonder?
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.
'A field notebook' is a lovely thing. I've tried to be more disciplined and more organised when it comes to note-taking but it just doesn't work for me. I love the idea of sketches and conversations appearing in your notebooks. Do you keep them and refer back to them years later?
We all work in different ways, so don't beat yourself up about what you're not doing. I do still find writing by hand helps my brain to think of words and sketches can be creative and inspiring too. I work for magazines as a journalist and you are expected to keep your contemporaneous notes for six years (I think) on the off chance there is a challenge about something you've written. This is fair enough if you are a political journalist but travel writers don't get challenged often! I type up my notes and scan diagrams as an electronic copy and keep my note books until after publication as a work around to this. If I kept everything they would take over my small house! I refer to them constantly for a month or so while I am writing about a place and then put them away, unless we are returning somewhere or I am writing another article or blog post about the place.
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.
How interesting that you were taught to take pencil notes and ink them in later. I find this absolutely fascinating Ruth. I'm reminded of the artist who sketches a landscape and then goes back to the studio to make a painting - there is dedication in this type of practice. Although, as a geologist, I guess there was little creativity involved and accuracy would be expected.
Really interesting thank you. I make FN’s all the time, and my iPhone notes are a mess of observations which I don’t always use. I will think more about how to incorporate them (and other sources), in my writing.
Thanks for your comment Mary. Some people write poetic field notes but mine are all over the place and I have to work quite hard on them if I'm to include these observations in my writing, and then they're not field notes any more... so it's interesting to see how they evolve.
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 think you have hit on a salient point, Holly, and this is that field notes are written in various forms. Whether they're written in a log, journal, diary, notebook, on scraps of paper, or as digital text-notes or voice notes... they're all valuable in the moment and have potential for informing our creative writing at a later time. Thank you for your contribution to the conversation.
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.
Thank you for your comment and kind words. I admire your dedication to your craft, Bee, and totally understand the intimacy you feel for your notebooks and diaries. Your daily routine sounds to me like the best way to celebrate life.
Thank you. You know, I’m only just getting around, really, to reading your Substack properly. It takes time doesn’t it to find a routine to read all the amazing writing on here (let alone write ourselves.) Anyway, I’m so enjoying your Substack.
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.
I agree. It's essential to take notes in order to produce a piece of more considered writing later on and I also find photographs a good way of capturing the important things I want to remember. I wonder how many journals/diaries you have kept over the years.
Funnily enough Yasmin, diary keeping started as a work thing, which then doubled as a travel record when I went off to live in Nigeria. That was in 1984, and I kept that up until 2011 using standard, page-a-day diaries in A5 size. They were great for gluing in tickets and other paper bits and pieces accumulated en route. From 2012, I have been using a similar size book, but with blank pages, and just write whenever something interesting happens or when I feel I might have something of interest to say.
This sounds marvellous, Ben. You'll have a library of memories to look back on one day.
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!
The British Library is one of my favourite places for research. I've not seen Coleridge's field notes. I'll be interested to follow this up some time as I've really enjoyed reading Dorothy Wordsworth's diaries. How marvellous to be able to write poetry and prose in situ.
In 2002 I was writing about Coleridge's 9-day walk around the Lake District of 1802 - they let me see and handle his notebook with the sketch map based on hearsay that he used to find his way around with. There's a massive paperback with all STC's notebooks covering his whole life, but for extracts and letters covering the hillwalking years in Somerset and the Lake District 'Coleridge in the Lakes and Mountains' from the Folio Society is on Abebooks usually. Dorothy's account of her walk up Scafell Pike is in William Wordsworth's 'Guide to the Lakes' and transcribed on my own website.
Fabulous. What a privilege it is do this type of research.
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. ✨
Oh yes, James. I think it's so important to spend time in the places we write about. You have had some wonderful opportunities to absorb local culture and research for your books. Did you keep a diary or a note-book when you visited these places I wonder?
I scribble observations and thoughts in a tiny notebook (feels less conspicuous like that!) and then write them up in the evenings.