Note-making as match-striking

Abstract

The essay “Note-making as match-striking” examines the role of note-taking in the formative process of writers. It addresses key aspects such as the motivation behind this practice, its functions, and its operative dynamics. Furthermore, it considers the relationship between writing and its material supports, particularly through the practices of figures such as Ana Cristina Cesar, Emily Dickinson, Leonilson, and Walt Whitman. Rather than serving as a means of objectively documenting events, notes are understood as fragmentary records that form part of the creative process, functioning as expressions of identity, modes of self-revelation, and mechanisms for preserving traces and assembling an artistic repository in response to impermanence and forgetting. Written in a reflective and essayistic style, the text also includes Creative Writing exercises that emphasize the practice of maintaining a writer’s notebook.