Tuesday 2 June 2009

Poetic People (12): Wendy Cope

I stumbled across the Guardian feature on Wendy Cope's 'pieces of me'. I heard Cope read at Hay in 2008, so it was interesting to see the items she selected for the feature.

We have occasionally compared blog notes about our favourite pens, pencils and keyboards. I thought (having seen Cope's colourful notebook) that it would be interesting to know what 'poetic' notebooks you favour.

I like to have a small one that can be carried around easily. This notebook has a robust plastic cover, an elastic fastener and a biro attached to it via a piece of string. This doubles up as my diary when I am away from home.

I have a spiral-bound hardback commonplace book for quotations, cuttings, photos etc. I often wonder whether I should keep all my writing notes in identical notebooks. Perhaps that it the archivist in me. However, I love variety and particularly enjoy receiving colourful notebooks as gifts. I occasionally choose my own, too.

When I am out and about and not wanting to carry very much, I use a dictaphone or a few sheets of a notepad stapled together. Do tell me about your favourite 'writer's notebook'.

1 comment:

Mistlethrush said...

I have a small A6 hardback notebook in my handbag along with various pens and pencils I've accidentally picked up - quite often not mine!

I have a notebook on my bedside table and a couple of A4 ringed binder refill pads. I also resort to old parking tickets found in my car's ash tray...

My preference is lined paper. When writing prose I scribe on alternate lines. Poetry on every line with lots of white space around the edges.