Keeping Track

So, you already know about the MFA Notebook. But it’s not the only book in town. I’ve got a journal where my daily writing lives before drafts are pulled out and copied onto loose sheets, the cahier sized book that is for copywork, an orange book that’s just for ideas, and a monthly calendar from the dollar store.

The last one is just for tracking my daily writing. I mark out each day that I write with an X–Jerry Seinfeld style. What I didn’t expect was the handsome diagonal quadrants a la Lynda Barry that the X would create.

I use these spaces to note exactly what sort of writing happened: blogging, commonplacing, journaling, poems.

A good day has room for all four.

The idea is that when you do your work, you take note of it. Even if the day at the page doesn’t seem like much or enough. Maybe this practice is especially important on those days. Even when the fire wasn’t roaring, I was standing close, fanning the flame.

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.