"Sometimes I'll hear a phrase or a word and write it down in my little black notebook (a writer's best mate), then come back to it and work a plot around it"
About this Quote
The intent is almost pedagogical: permission to start small. A “phrase or a word” is the smallest unit of narrative electricity, and Kane is saying that’s enough. The subtext is a rebuke to the fantasy that plots arrive fully formed. Instead, he offers a workmanlike workflow: collect, return, build. That middle verb - “come back” - matters. It signals that writing is less about constant output than about revisiting, worrying at an idea until it reveals its story-shaped edges. A notebook becomes a kind of external hard drive for the unconscious.
Contextually, this sits inside a contemporary writerly culture that fetishizes productivity while also drowning in distractions. The notebook is analog resistance: a space where the algorithm can’t interrupt, where half-formed thoughts can be messy and private. Kane’s method also acknowledges how language drives fiction. A single word can contain tone, setting, character - a whole moral weather system. The plot doesn’t descend; it’s engineered around a seed. That’s craft dressed up as a casual habit, which is exactly why it’s persuasive.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Kane, Paul. (2026, January 16). Sometimes I'll hear a phrase or a word and write it down in my little black notebook (a writer's best mate), then come back to it and work a plot around it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-ill-hear-a-phrase-or-a-word-and-write-86831/
Chicago Style
Kane, Paul. "Sometimes I'll hear a phrase or a word and write it down in my little black notebook (a writer's best mate), then come back to it and work a plot around it." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-ill-hear-a-phrase-or-a-word-and-write-86831/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Sometimes I'll hear a phrase or a word and write it down in my little black notebook (a writer's best mate), then come back to it and work a plot around it." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sometimes-ill-hear-a-phrase-or-a-word-and-write-86831/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
