SPACE

A Structure to Use in Your Notebook

One of the Substacks I read (I am trying to find which one so I can give her credit) started using a format for her posts that I have adopted in my notebook.

SPACE is the acronym and stands for Schedule, Plan, Absorb, Create, Engage.

S IS FOR SCHEDULE

I need to schedule a few things in the coming weeks and months. I am in a big picture planning mode right now more so than day to day. I do not need to schedule writing time or running.

P IS FOR PLAN

I am planning a Bradbury Trio course which includes annotation. I am thinking about a Character Development Writing class as well.

A IS FOR ABSORB

This is the place for reading and learning. The books I am reading are Deborah Levy’s The Cost of Living and Kara Goucher’s memoir. I am also reading Ada Zhang’s collection of short stories.

Bradbury’s 1000 Day MFA program is to read a poem, essay, and short story everyday. Not only does it bring great words into my brain but they often influence my writing for the day. I have brought this back into my routine and have been loving the results.

Today my poem is Exhaustion by Saadi Youssef from The Paris Review. I get the daily poem sent to my inbox every morning.

Today my essay is Everywhere in Salad Chains. There is an amazing description of salad at the beginning of this piece which is intriguing to me. There are lots of facts later in the piece. Sometimes my essays focus on writing. I read a lot from Lit Hub but not always.

Today my story is Time Travel. This story was recommended to me by Coffee and Paneer. There is a lovely use of objects in this story which appeals to me.

C IS FOR CREATE

Creating pieces is a daily affair. I am in the middle of a story challenge for the month and am writing a short fiction piece daily.

E IS FOR ENGAGE

This is the connection piece. There are certain writer friends that I check in with several times a week. If there is someone I need to touch base with then I write their names down in my notebook.

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How does this structure land for you? I would love to hear!