That perfect sketchbook search...

It's Day One of Carla Sonheim's 2014 Year of the Fairy Tale online class and the work begins... as did my process  (some might call it neurosis....) of what usually entails me spending an inordinate amount of time trying to decide which sketchbook/notebook/journal (all plural) to use!  So often in the past I have wasted days... weeks... dare I say months... of valuable time doing this, when I could have been actually (heaven forbid) been doing something... like the exercises... 

I have only recently understood that the reason I do this, is because the most important thing for me at the end of the day IS the complete story... It IS the sketchbook/notebook/journal that houses the work that I do that matters to me. I derive so much pleasure from these houses... containers of all that I have learned and experienced during this time. And as a writer, editor and past publisher of others work, the love of the published page still burns strong within me... for it is truly where I belong.

 

I figured out what I needed for this year-long project:
(1) some scrap paper (or rough sketchbook) to let rip within, and sketch/notetake to my heart's content...
(2) a small portable sketchbook to have by my side at all times, of the same calibre and for the same purpose...
(3) a journal/sketchbook that RECORDS my journey through all this year in which I can glue pages from (1) and (2) if I want, as I go...

(4) possibly a lined notebook if I decide to write stories by hand...  

I piled up a variety of sketchbooks that I had on hand... and suddenly it all came together! Carefully, checking to make sure, I lined them all up again. I grabbed some more from my bookcase. Great paper, lined paper, large, small and smaller, sketching paper, watercolour paper... it was all there. And the spirals ALL LINED UP!

All I had to do was grab whatever book I need at the time and use it... then every few weeks or so open up the spirals and place all the used pages in the order I wanted them to be in...into a continuous, flowing record of the work that I was doing. Slowly, as the year progresses, I will be telling my own story as I go... Perfect!

NOW I can get to work!
 

(anyone else notice the little guys at the bottom of this photo?

I'm thinking they could be sketchbooks fairies...)