Is A Writer's Notebook Essential?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer must carry a notebook around with them at all times, preferably a Moleskine notebook as used by Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin.  

Um, no.  At least, not this writer. I have tried carrying around a notebook, and it's jolly useful for jotting down a shopping list.  I've also added brilliant ideas for books and articles, and amazing titles.  I've dutifully written down hilarious snatches of overheard conversation.  And then either I lose the notebook or I forget about it.  

If I do find it, I discover that the snatches of conversation make no sense out of context, or simply aren't funny.  The brilliant titles aren't that brilliant, and nor are the articles and book ideas.  

For me, carting a notebook around is adding yet another bit of stuff to my handbag.  That's not to say you shouldn't do it, because if it works for you then yippee and hooray.  But it doesn't work for me.  

All writing advice should be taken with a hefty dollop of salt.  Try everything, but don't feel you have to stick with it if it doesn't work for you.  Some of us need detailed plots before starting, others write into the blue.  Some of us need silence, others want noise when they write.  Some of us write thousands of words a day, others struggle to complete a few hundred.  

Who cares how you got there and what tools you used?  There isn't a 'right' way to write, there is only your way. All that matters is you get there in the end, notebook or not.

Relationships and Writing Styles

After my dog being ill over the summer, now it's the cat's turn. She's gone from being large and bolshy to being small and pathetically friendly. She purrs and is not in obvious distress, but something about her body language says she is not well. My son has left home and is working in London (did I mention he got a first? Not that I'm proud or anything), my daughter is off to uni in a couple of weeks, so if the cat goes I will be without dependents for the first time in years. It will be weird.

But it also got me thinking about the sort of thing I write: it's all about intertwining relationships. All my characters have relationships with friends, family and lovers, and the playing out of those relationships make up the story. Often the main character learns to be more independent, not to automatically accept the status quo.

Compare with the classic detective story. Miss Marple, Philip Marlowe, Hercule Poirot, Morse - they're not relationship heavy characters. They are loners, coming in to solve the crime and then moving on. It's unusual for the main character to come with too many dependents - Inspector Wexford's daughters are grown up and living their own lives for example. But often over the course of a story, relationships develop. If romantic there's often a 'will they, won't they?' theme being played out, but most modern detectives seem to make connections with others by the end, however tentative.

So, is romantic fiction about becoming less dependent on others? And crime about becoming more? And does our preference as readers reflect our own position? Will I, about to lose my dependents in real life, suddenly turn to crime? Or will I become even more romantic? I haven't a clue but already in my writer's heart I feel a restlessness, a yearning for change...