Skinny book
Monday, November 9th, 2009
I mentioned in a previous post something about a skinny book. What is it? I got the idea from Sally Jean; she calls it a “book-book.” I took a workshop with her and bought her book where she mentions it. Quite frankly, the term “book-book” seems a bit juvenile for me; but I liked the idea of it. So its the same concept, and I take no credit for “inventing” it. I just call mine a skinny-book.
First, what is it? Go to your local Kinkos and purchase 50 pages of plain white paper and have them cut in half length-wise. Have them cut a nice bright colored piece of thick card stock in half as well for the cover, and then ask them to bind the entire thing for you. Personally, I prefer the black spiral binder as it allows the book’s pages to fold easily back onto themselves and you can lie the book down flat on the table. Now you have a hundred-page 4.25 by ll-inch spiral bound book, ready for you to write your ideas and thoughts.
Now, keep the book with you and write your notes, ideas and epiphanies in, whenever and wherever they come. Like Sally Jean suggests, date the cover of your book from when you start writing in it to when you stop. Its also nice to leave a couple of pages blank in the front so when you’re done, you can write a “table of contents” of all the content inside once the book is filled. Keep the books around as you’ll be amazed as to how often you refer back to them. The cost of the book is between $8-$10, depending on how many pages they put in (sometimes I put more) and the quality of paper used. I don’t like it to be too thin or cheap as I like to write with the permanent thin markers and they tend to bleed through.
It’s also a good idea to change the color of the covers, if possible, whenever you create a new one. I am a very visual person and will remember writing something in the yellow skinny-book as to opposed to the one three months ago.
Why do I like the size of the skinny book? I mean why not just buy a notebook and write in it?
- The thinness of the book fits very neatly in my purse.
- On pages that are too wide (like a regular piece of paper) my writing tends to slant and get very messy
- There is something nice about writing on such a narrow piece of paper. I don’t get lost in my thoughts and I can more easily FIND the stuff I’ve written before. I mean think about it. Magazines and newspapers are written in thin columns. It is much easier on the eyes not to have to move so far from left to right when you read (and write!)
- I have a tendency towards ADD (or at least getting very distracted with “shiny things”); somehow the narrower width of the page helps overcome this.