Why I Scribble (& Why It’s Good for You, Too)

When I was an actor in NYC, I had to scribble my lines on real paper to memorize them. I’d loop words, underline beats, and draw little arrows for emotion—my scripts looked like a garden of doodles. Meanwhile, some of my friends could glance at their phones and lock lines in instantly. Why was I different? That’s when it clicked: memorizing is not one-size-fits-all.

Curious (and a little jealous!), I started researching how to memorize faster—and I began testing methods on myself. I paid close attention to what actually worked for my brain and what didn’t. Spoiler: pen + paper won, again and again.

What counts as “scribbling”?

Simple, low-pressure marks: loops, boxes, flowers, grids, arrows, shading. It isn’t “art for display.” It’s rhythm for your mind and a warm-up for ideas.

My little “research project”: what worked—and what didn’t

What worked for me

Handwriting & scribbles: Rewriting lines by hand with loops/underlines made them stick. Writing by hand is physically different from typing: the shapes, pressure, and movement patterns create richer signals for your brain to store.
Production pass: Saying lines out loud while copying them (write → speak → recall) doubled the stickiness.
Transform your information: you remember more when you create or transform material (e.g., rewriting, rephrasing, mapping).
Chunking scenes: Breaking a scene into mini-beats, then linking them with arrows and margin notes.
Two-color cues: First pass for structure, second pass for emotion (different ink colors or highlighters).
Spaced run-throughs: Short, repeated reviews over a day or two instead of one marathon session.

What didn’t help (for me)

Phone-only reading: Too passive, and the screen tempted me to multitask.
Endless highlighting: Pretty, but shallow—no transformation of the material.
Late-night cramming: I’d “know” it at midnight and lose half of it by morning.

Try this 5-minute drill

Copy one paragraph by hand, circling verbs and underlining emotional beats.
Cover it and say it out loud from memory.
Peek, fix gaps, and add a tiny doodle cue for the trickiest line. Repeat once later.

Tools that make it easy (and joyful)

Dotted notebooks for clean layouts, trackers, and patterns.
Lined journals when your scribbles grow into full thoughts.
Blank pages for freeform rehearsal sketches and blocking notes.

Browse Notebooks & Journals and pick a cover that makes you smile—because the more you like your journal, the more you’ll use it. (Handmade with care, shipped from Maryland.)

FAQs

Is scribbling just fidgeting?
It’s purposeful fidgeting. For many people, light doodling keeps attention engaged without hijacking bandwidth.

Do I have to be “artistic” to get the benefits?
Nope. Stress-relief effects appear across experience levels.

Why not memorize from my phone?
You can—but consider two tweaks: copy key lines by hand (deeper encoding), and keep your phone out of sight during the hard-focus phase.