When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.Yesterday, I went to Walgreens and bought a new binder and dividers, yes with the color tabs. I walked out feeling happier than I’ve felt in months. The reason: for me, every new project starts with a binder. Once I commit to a binder, it’s pretty fucking serious. I’ve been thinking about this project for 2-3 years, like an alligator lurking below the swamp line. Blink. Blink. Blink. If all this shit isn’t nerdy enough, I type out the title and tape it to the front of the binder. Have all my binder projects come to fruition? No, of course not. But I don’t recycle binders. They have their place on my floor where a wall of projects, mine and my clients take up residence in a tidy line, some secured with paperweights. (If you ever want to gift me, I love paperweights.) But for now I feel like a second grader sans pigtails, my heart full, my courage restored. Maybe I’m not a piece of shit after all. LOL.
What implements do you need to start a project?
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Betsy Lerner 
Hm.
Notepads, a certain kind of ink pen, and does an idea count? The notepads and ink pens won’t get used to write out the story longhand – I’m too impatient for that. They are to jot down names of characters, towns, dates – at least until the story is situated somewhat in my head.
Once I start, it’s nothing but me, MS Word, and the mouse.
I’m excited for your project!
A new notebook and my favorite off-black gel pens
“What implements do you need to start a project?”
Depends on the project. This morning, for instance, to start the short and easy project of cleaning the dining room floor, dining table, and chairs, I needed a broom, a dustpan, a mop, a rag, a bucket, an adequate amount of wood oil soap, an adequate amount of hot water, and likewise adequate amounts of will and desire.
Will and desire — whatever the project, those are always the two indispensable implements.
Manila file folders for research and a nice two-drawer file cabinet to hold them. A big glass platter to sit on top of the cabinet and a bushy green plant to go on top of it. I remind myself that plants give off oxygen. Maybe they help me think more clearly? Better get two plants to put near my writing desk!
I’ve gone paperless. Now when I start a new project — I mean truly start rather than just muse about and begin collecting thoughts — I create a new folder in Word and then a couple of new files within the folder: Notes, Characters, maybe one or two others. I let the critical mass accumulate.
I will make handwritten notes (with a mechanical pencil) on small legal pads I have around for when ideas strike me, but those all later get transcribed to the Word files. Same with any thoughts I collect in my handwritten (mechanical pencil) journals. It seems to be a plan that works for me.
I also prefer gel pens for pen-on-paper writing, but the ink must be blue. In fact, when I’m made king, all legal documents will be required to be signed in blue ink.
I have discovered InkJoy pens and I never want to use anything else ever again.