1. E
T HREE
lVriting Sma[
mffiid is a fifth grader. After
returning from vaca_
tion, he wrote this entry in
his writer,s notebook:
1Cape Cod is
the BEST. I had tons of fun
there
a-nd I CAN'T WAIT TO
GO BACK!I!!"
David and I talked about
what he,d written.
"If you liked the Cape
thar much, you,ll p-U
ably end up writing more
entries about it,,, I said.
X gave him a challenge:
I suggested ,h";;;;;J;
rime he wTote about Cape
Cod, h. try ro il..*
exactly what it was that
made it so terrific.
David did wri
cod Notice *.:,#"'l'J r:##T:,Ti;
entry and the firsl one he
wrote.
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2. AWRITER'S NOTEBOOK ^/RITING SMALL
we ote dinner right on the beach.
A4ost nrghts irr my notebook. My aunt Mary lived a long life,
WeA stoy up late and tH fott asleep still weoring rrnd she was always good to me. But the sight of
my bathing suit ln the morning the firstthing tfett. those unfinished drawings started me thinking.
when I woke up was my cot lickingthe salt offthe She never got married, and she spent many of her
soles of my feet. lclult years living with and caring for her elderly
rnother. I wondered if maybe some of Aunt Mary's
That last salty detail really snaps Cape Cod dreams had been unfinished, too.
into focus. The world is jam-packed with millions of details
to notice; in your notebook you'll only have room
Muyb. the single most important lesson you for a tiny fraction. Try to select the ones that cap-
can learn as a writer is to unite small. Use your ture what's really important.
writer's notebook to jot down the important little
details you notice or hear abciut. These details Actober I
make writing come alive. I have learned the hard Boy, does Corol miss Colorado! She watches eyery
way that I almost certainly forget them if I don,t Denver Bronco football game onTV (even though
take a few minutes to write them down. they're not very good this yeor). She's been living
A single detail can sometimes give a window here in New Hompshire for two years but she sti/l
into a person's whole life. After my aunt Mary keeps her cor clock set on Rocky Mountain time.
died, my relatives gathered to help clean out her Iwice she's let me borrow her car but I always
house. Among Aunt Mary's belongings, my mother have to remind myself to subtact two hours to
found several half-finished sketches of birds and figure out whot time it really is.
plants. This surprised us; I don't think any of us
knew my aunt had tried her hand at d.rawing. That one detail-Carol keeping the clock in
This is exactly the kind of small de tail I record her car set on Rocky Mountain time even though
24 2t

3. AWRITER'S NOTEBOOK WRITING SMALL
she lives in the Eastern time zone_tells me
exactly how homesick she is. The following August 29
entry
from my notebook is also about homesickness: Tocloy hosjust been "one of those doys." Cutting
tlrc lown,l almost ron over o tiny tood. Luckily I
Oaober 2
xw o little grey head sticking out from the gross.
Bonnie told me o story:,,l tought. for twelve years I wos plenty hot, hungry, ond in a bod rnood, but I
in the islond of Guam, in the South pacific. And stopped the lawn mower ond picked up the tood
every yeor around the
first of November a box even though it didn't much like it.l corried it into
would arrive in the mail. lt
alwoys felt. tight os o the woods. The uitter repoid the fovor by peeing
feather when I picked it up, but I knew whot it on my fingers!
wos;leoyes. Colored outumn /eoyes.
My sister,who
lived in Pit*burgh,used to send me
a box of lovely Writing.just "one of those days" wouldn't tell
fall leaves every yeor.l'd open the box, dump them nro very much about this day when I reread these
out"and spread those /eaye s oll over the living words a few months from now. I took a moment to
room.They looked so beoutiful. And
then Id stort r ccord some of the small details that gave this day
to cry."
rts special feeling.
You can train yourself to notice the details
I wanted to capture the picture of those rrnrund you. Use all your senses-the smell of
color_
ful autumn leaves being strewn all over the vour grandmother's kitchen, the funny faces your
living
room floor in Guam, a fopical island lrig sister makes while putting on her makeup, the
where the
leaves never change colors. That image
tells me w:ry your cat's shadow looks different in the early
better than anything how much she,s nrorning than it does at noon, the difference
missing
home. In the next entry, I write about
something lx:tween how your dad's cheeks feel from morn-
that happened to me, a small event from
a rypicai irrg to night.
summer day:
I often find myself using too many general
26 2f

4. AWRITER'S NOTEBOOK
WRITING SMALL
words in my writer's notebook: good,
nice. These
words don't give much of a picture rrr lus rrolr:llook about how lonely he used to feel
as to exactly
what was going on. Atren this happens, ,r, .r Lirl. I asked him to think about what details
I stop and lr,' r orrld use to help a reader picture this lonely
try to "crack open', these words by
using specific
examples. lrl lir rg.
Not-"My Grandpa is really nice,, but "l'm in my playroom and the light is off,"
*My
Grandpa pulled out his chest of . lrony wrote. "I pick a toy out of the toy box. At
rrt
war stuff and let
me try on his old uniform.,, Irrst ['m not sure what I'm holding but when it
Not-"FIis mother is super neat,, but pirts closer I can see exactly what it is-the hollow
,,She
irons everything, even her ten and lrlrrstic telephone I use to call all my imaginary
twenty dollar
bills!" Ir it:nds."
Not-"My Uncle paul does lots of silly stuff, Write small. It makes a difference.
but "Uncle paul drinks his coffee out -]oe, my car mechanic, came to the U.S. from
of.a glass l'irkistan. This fellow is a wizard under the hood.
measuring cup. On the way to the
beach he stops
at the fruit stancl so he can buy corn l{ccent$ I tried to describe him in my writer's
and eat it
raw." rrotebook. I could have written: 'Joe really knows
You can do this yourself. Reread ta,rs."Bwta sentence like that is much too general
your writer,s
notebook and look for places where rrnd obvious to be any good. Instead, I decided to
you are using
vague, general words: lircus on his hands:
fun, coor. circle those words.
Ask yourself: Alhat are the details
underneath
these words? {lhar little things Joe has the most omazing hands.When I go to
will bring to lif.e
what I'm writing about? Write these shoke his hond aft.er he's fnished a job he smiles
dehils inro
your notebook. you don't even have and backs owoy, apologizing thot his hands are
to use com_
plete sent list will do. too dirty. And he's right; they ore filthy, totally cov-
In one.junior high class, Anthony was ered with grime with darker dirt under his finger-
writins ltt ,,ke his palms ond thick fingers have
norls.
2A
29

5. AWRITER'S NOTEBOOK
been soaking for yeors in dirt, motor
oil, ond who
knows whtot else. lt. would toke
a whole bar of
heovy-duty soop, maybe two, and
still t doubt
those honds would ever come clean.
But I love
those hands; I'm glod they,re
filthy tike that. Come
to think of it, I'd get owfuily nervous talking
to o
mechanic I could oduolly shoke honds
with.
Details like these will breathe life
inro your
writer's notebook. Keep your eyes open
and pay
attention. to little things that reveal
important
truths: hands, gestures, objects, anecdotes.
Have
fun with it. The small details or momenm
thar end
up in your writer,s notebook don,t have
to be
deadly serious ones, either.
January 22
Watched Adam ptoy bosketbatt
this morning and
something funny happened.There
was a scramble
for a loose bott. Adam came up with it" and storted
dribbling like crazy, but he wos heading
toward
the wrong basket! Lucky for him a kid
from the
other teom ran in front of him and
started guord_
ing Adam so Adam couldn,t
score on his own
bosket! I was laughrng so hard
my stomach hurt