Highlighting

This is probably the main aspect I went all out on. I used multiple different colours of highlighters to highlight different aspects of the book. 

An orange highlighter was used to highlight characteristics of characters and/or character development. This could relate to appearances, age, explanations on nicknames, etc. For example, on the first page, I highlighted in orange "The boy in the yellow slicker was George Denbrough. He was six. His brother William, known to most of the kids at Derry Elementary School... as Stuttering Bill." This basically helps with the idea of character visualization; Bill was 10 the day Georgie died, Georgie wore a yellow jacket, Pennywise looked like a mix of Bozo and Clarabell.

I used a pink highlighter to highlight my favourite quotes in the novel. This can be a range of quotes I found funny, sad, memorable etc. Any quotes that really stood out to me, I highlighted in pink. For example, I highlighted, "'They float... they float, Georgie, and when you're down here with me, you'll float too---" a classic IT quote.

I also used a blue highlighter for my favourite moments in the book or as some readers say it, "moments that gave me feels." I used the blue highlighter often as well as there were a lot of moments that made me feel a certain way, whether it was a scene that made me laugh or a scene that made me cry profusely. For example, I highlighted "He (Georgie) went out. Bill never saw him again."

A yellow highlighter was used to portray settings. This helps me consume where the book is taking place and at what time. Of course there are a lot of different settings in this novel as it's more than 1000 pages but any setting would be highlighted with yellow. For example, I highlighted "Their house was high on Witcham Street, near the crest of the hill"

Purple was used to highlight important event/plot events. This means anything that is important to the plot -- foreshadowing, a plot twist, etc. I think I used purple the most as the plot events were usually highlighted in large sentences or paragraphs. For example, I highlighted some important key factors of Georgie and Pennywise's introduction.

Aside from highlighting, I also used my pen to underline sentences in the book for "WTF moments." Meaning any moments I thought were strange or just made me say "wtf" while reading it. A moment where I underlined sentences was when Georgie and Bill were jokingly arguing over who has the biggest butthole. Yup.

And lastly, I used green to highlight observations I had throughout the book. Sentences that were highlighted in green were typically followed by some form of writing in the margins explaining my thoughts on the observations. For example, I highlighted "Georgie leaned forward. Suddenly he could smell peanuts. Hot roasted peanuts. And vinegar!" followed by my written observation of Pennywise controlling the scents -- which is one of his capabilities, in the margin. 

Writing

I didn't do as much writing in my book as highlighting but I used the writing opportunity to write in the margins what I was thinking -- exactly what I was thinking. 

So if I thought I found a particular scene a little weird, I would write that. If I realized this scene was foreshadowing, I would write a comment on that. Basically the writing aspect of defacing my copy was to reply to whatever quote, scene, description etc. that is portrayed in the novel, as if I am talking to the book. So I would read a section in the book and if I felt the need to reply, I would write my comments down in the margin.

To me, this is a fun way to look back at all the things I've wrote and read what each line made me feel or just generally read what I wrote. 

I wasn't very formal with my comments either so it was almost like I was talking to the novel, if that makes sense. 

With this aspect, I used a normal ballpoint pen as it didn't seep through the pages.

Drawing

This is the medium I did very little on.

I'm not very good at drawing people so as much as I'd love to attempt that, I didn't want to ruin my book but I wanted my art to me beautifully displayed in my copy.

Therefore, I didn't try to draw Pennywise or any person of that matter because I'm not very good at that.. Although, I did draw a boat in the book which I think is equally as amazing.

This wasn't something I intended to do because I'm not that great at drawing, but I saw it as a fun opportunity and went for it. Just to be a little more creative.

Of course, not everyone should use my annotating tactics. Maybe you'd prefer to only use one highlighter or perhaps you don't want to write in the margins.

Everyone is different and has different preferences.

Although, I do hope that my annotating experience encourages you do to the same!

If you do, definitely send or tag me in your annotating examples as I would love to see your creative side!