Writers and Their Notebooks

Certainly it is a distinct profession to rescue from oblivion and to fix the sentiments and thoughts which visit all men more or less generally, that the contemplation of the unfinished picture may suggest its harmonious completion. Associate reverently and as much as you can with your loftiest thoughts. Each thought that is welcomed and recorded i

journaling—just a few pages where they write down their thoughts, fears, hopes. In these cases, the point is not so much the activity itself as it is the ritualized reflection. The idea is to take some time to look inward and examine.

She collected such ideas, in her telling, differently to James. He harvested raw material from dinner-table conversation, while Didion’s modus operandi was to observe a scene unobtrusively from a corner of the room. There’s also a private, introspective, purpose to her note-taking: ‘Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point,’ she writ