One of the things that I have always loved is the way people say things. If you’re paying attention, you’ll find the people around you saying things that are funny or profound or just wonderfully phrased all the time. As a writer, I’ve been saving these quotes for a long time, since they’re wonderful windows into character creation.

As a documenter, aka a scrapbooker, saving these quotes are a great way to capture the personality and interactions of your family. (And friends too, but we’ll talk about them at a later point.)The things people say show you how they look at the world, how they think, and how they interact with others.

However, you can’t always immediately stop what you’re doing to go create a scrapbook page when one of your family members says something memorable. What am I saying? You almost never can do that! So what do you do?

You take notes.

There are a bunch of ways you can take notes, depending on your circumstances. A scrap of paper and pencil will work in a pinch. Having a notebook in your purse or stashed around the house for just such moments is handy. Your smart phone is helpful too, since you can jot notes or even dictate them there. I’ve found Facebook and Twitter helpful for capturing moments too, and screen shots of text messages and chats are great as well.

If  you’re not careful, though, those notes will just sit there. If you’re like me at all, you may even forget to date them, so you don’t even remember how old someone was when they made that memorable quote. Try to remember to date them when you jot them down. Don’t be like me!

Do try to turn those quotes into pages though.

You’ll be glad you did.

I have a confession to make. I am a geek.

Bet that doesn’t surprise you at all, does it?

I am a fan of storytelling, of huge epic stories that create worlds worth exploring. Whether it’s books, or TV, or movies, or comics, or even world creating tools and games like Dungeons and Dragons or Minecraft, there’s something about immersing myself in a fully realized, but not completely explained world that just makes me happy.

You know what’s even better? Combining these passions with another — scrapbooking.

There are lots of ways to add bits and pieces of your passion onto your scrap pages. When playing D&D, mapping is an important part of the game, and it seemed appropriate to add a map to the grid paper on this page.

Of course, if you can save and re-use packaging materials from your favorite geeky passion, there’s every reason to put it on a page. (This is my youngest’s favorite game. He spends hours playing it and watching videos about it. He’s a certified Minecraft geek.)

And then there are the things you do to surround yourself with the people and objects that make immersing yourself in geek culture so rewarding. TV watching parties. Midnight showings. Posters plastered all over the wall. (Am I the only person out there brainstorming Doctor Who patterns for a digital kit?)

My friend Laurie is loving Supernatural right now, so of course she made a page about it:

Don’t you just love how she took detailed shots of all the bits and pieces she and her friends do to increase their enjoyment? (And the grungy red, white, and blue color scheme suits the tone of the show so well!)

Are you a geek? What have you done to celebrate your geekiness? Don’t forget to document it too!

If you’ll excuse me, I’m in the middle of season 6 of Supernatural on Netflix. I’ve got a date with the couch, and my crochet hook.