On how to make a grimoire
Some people have asked about my post on why I have a grimoire, wanting to know a little more about what goes into it.
First, you do not have to have a totally awesome dragon-embossed tome. You can use almost anything with a cover (or you could use a computer file but how boring is that).
You could use something cute or pretty, like one of these, and no one would ever guess that it’s your grimoire! They would think you kept grocery lists in it. That’s kind of awesome.
But I am not a subtle person and so I like the dragon-embossed tome that is my grimoire.
You totally know what this is just by looking at it. It is the seat of my power! Bwahahaha! Steal it and I am rendered ineffectual.
Anyway. So you can pick whatever you want, and you can put it in it whatever you want, anything that will get the job done. My one rule is that my grimoire has nothing negative in it, not a single charm for causing that editor who just rejected my story to break out in to hives or like that. It isn’t about woe-is-me and those-damned-Yankees or whatever. There are already way too many negative vibes, man. Don’t add to them.
(The first person who can tell me where the quote “Always with the negative waves, Moriarty” comes from will actually win one of the above-pictured grimoires.)
You can make little sketches in your grimoire, although I will warn you that that becomes its own addiction and then you’ll be spending half your life on the Wet Paint Art website finding just the right brush pens to add that little pop of color to your drawings and you probably already have enough to do.
What I try to focus on is the nuance. You can get all the slogans you can stand on Facebook, but they don’t really help when you have an actual problem. And while it can be useful to hear about someone else’s process, your own process is your best guide. Start with some simple things, like a little story about the best time of day for you to write, or your favorite writing tools, or a memory of when you decided to become a writer. Something that is you. Put it in your grimoire, and the next time you doubt, or worry, or wonder WTF? you’ll have a place to go to find a few answers.
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