why do we write stuff into our notebooks?

Jamming on Joan Didion's essay "On Keeping a Notebook"

⦿ points out a profound or at least solid and judicious observation;

= signifies that the sentence or passage in a line with it contains majesty of conception or style;

|| signifies sublimity;

✖︎ brilliance or ingenuity;

Q signifies characteristic quaintness;

F , that it contains an error in fact or philosophy.

ReNoted: Marginalia, or 5 Ways to Write in Your Books

Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember? How much of it actually happened? Did any of it? Why do I keep a notebook at all? It is easy to deceive oneself on all those scores.

Joan Didion • On Keeping A Notebook

It all comes back. Perhaps it is difficult to see the value in having one’s self back in that kind of mood, but I do see it; I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m... See more

Joan Didion • On Keeping A Notebook

I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon

Joan Didion - On Keeping a Notebook

And sometimes even the maker has difficulty with the meaning

Joan Didion • On Keeping A Notebook

But sometimes the point is harder to discern. What exactly did I have in mind when I noted down that it cost the father of someone I know $650 a month to light the place on the Hudson in which he lived before the Crash? What use was I planning to make of this line by Jimmy Hoffa: 6 “I may have my faults, but being wrong ain’t one of them”? And al... See more

Joan Didion • On Keeping A Notebook

when the point is harder to discern (but she still shows us the way there)

See enough and write it down, I tell myself, and then some morning when the world seems drained of wonder, some day when I am only going through the motions of doing what I am supposed to do, which is write — on that bankrupt morning I will simply open my notebook and there it will all be, a forgotten account with accumulated interest, paid passage... See more

Joan Didion • On Keeping A Notebook

I also put checkmarks next to sentences or concepts that pique my interest, but a question hasn’t yet formed. Two checkmarks mean my interest is really piqued, three checkmarks mean my interest is off the charts. A star indicates this is key to the interview even if the question isn’t yet there. Two or three stars mean YES! YES! YES!