A place for every thought
Hi pal!
Last year I took an online writing course, they taught us to just “write what you already know.” Research easily becomes procrastination. Instead you should pull from your notes and memories.
One of the things I know is how to keep a fun sketchbook. So I’m writing a long-ass guide about that.
I’m thinking about wether I should release it as a long blog post, or each section separately. It would be kinda nice to bundle them together as a book/pdf? At least I know I want to put them all (or most of them) out there for free in some form. We will see once I have a better grasp of the size.
Here’s a section I wrote yesterday.
A place for every thought
I was really into Jack Kerouac’s writing as a teen. One of his quotes from On The Road ignited me and gave me the fuzzy feels,
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'
I had to do something to preserve my excitement. I wrote it down in big letters on a page in my beautiful moleskin sketchbook. But I was worried, what would my classmates think about this? When I had written down the whole quote I grabbed a thick black marker and covered up the quote. I drew a brush next to it, implying that the brush had painted over those letters. I wrote in small letters next to it,
“I wrote some really deep shit here but I got embarrassed so I covered it up.”
I don’t mind telling people about this now, I don’t feel like the teen who would get so lit up by a quote like this anymore. It’s past me, someone else. But I knew in that moment that I would find this ridiculous someday, I was embarrassed about still liking that quote so much.
I think the problem was that I only had one type of sketchbook. A visual one, a semi-public one that I would show to family members and classmates. I needed something more intimate. I got myself a tiny notebook the size of my palm, it fit in my chest pocket. I always kept it with me and made myself the rule to never show anyone what I wrote or drew inside it.
There’s no limit to how many sketchbooks and notebooks you can keep at once.
Mini Notes
💌 Newsletter - Free Love
If you have spent any time painting or drawing in Photoshop the last ten years, then you have probably touched one of Kyle T Websters brushes.
He started giving them away for free.
“Free brushes = free love = free promotion all over the internet. […] You could even argue that giving away free brushes meant that I was saving money on marketing costs to the tune of thousands of dollars.”
🔴 Youtube video - Fixing the entire Super Mario 64 Source Code
Most things, once released remain largely the same forever. They will always be imperfect and flawed. I find it kinda beautiful that this one guy has decided to fix all the bugs, improve the performance and add new levels.
Reminds me a bit of Sherlock Holmes adaptions and how classic stories stay with us but keep being adapted and improved.
📝 Blog post - Time Machines Are Cheap
I wrote this as an assignment during the writing course I took last year. “A place for every thought” feels like a younger sibling to this. I didn’t think I would write so much about sketchbooks and notebooks. But it fits the name of this newsletter.
Do you have any struggles when it comes to sketchbooks?
Thank you for reading! Have a creative week.
P.s - I'm trying to find a better name for the section where I share links. It used to be called “recent finds”, I feel like mini-notes are a bit more fitting. I might try something else next week.