Journals and notebooks have been my daily writing companions since I was a teen. In addition to PBW, I keep a personal journal, at least three novel notebooks, one or two series bibles, a photo album, an art project book and a quilting diary. Now and then I'll also break out my current venting journal (for anger management), my belief & prayer journal (ditto) or my idea binder to contain the overflow. They're generally messy, overstuffed volumes of things that matter only to me; catch-alls for my creative work and anything else lingering on my mind. The only exceptions are the journals I write for other people now and then; I try to keep those a little neater for the recipient. I think regular journaling or notebooking is a good habit for a writer to develop. I constantly refer to my novel notebooks and series Bibles as they're invaluable repositories of story history, especially when I'm working on a lengthy series. As series writers know it's not always possible to remember every single detail from each book; keeping a running record of your ideas, outlines, research, character and plot development etc. from each volume can provide valuable reference info for future installments.
I don't often look back through my personal journals, but when I do it's generally to remind myself of how I've managed some challenge from the past. By revisiting my personal history I often find new motivations -- and sometimes good ideas -- on how to approach, handle, or resolve a situation in the present. When there aren't any answers to be had, rereading those old journals help me get a better handle on accepting the things none of us can change. I always want to fix things, and I get frustrated when I can't, so occasionally I need a reminder that not all problems can be solved.This quest has given me a whole new appreciation of the ready-made blank journals and notebooks available to purchase -- and so have your comments. I would never have discovered all the amazing journals published by Chronicle Books without Diana Gillette's recommendation, and look what I would have missed out on:
My quest will continue, too, as there are always new products to be discovered, like these Fantasy Art, Doodling and Life Log journals found during my last visit to BAM:
It takes time to create a written record of anything; preserving it for future generations -- even if it's only for the benefit of your own descendants -- takes more effort. If you keep at it you get into the habit, though, and after thirty years of creating my personal chronicles it's become so much a part of my daily routine that I don't even really think about it anymore. In time you will have to think about storage issues -- this stack here represents about six months worth of just the personal side of my journaling -- but that's where technology might actually prove useful, as you can elect to scan your paper journals and notebooks and instead save electronic copies of them.To help some of you get started I'm having a not-so-blank journal and notebook giveaway today. In comments to this post tell us how you'd use a new journal or notebook by midnight EST on Friday, September 28, 2012. I'll draw three names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners one of the journals or notebooks I've found since beginning my quest (you won't know which until it arrives, so it will be a surprise.) This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
My daughter and son in law are on the waiting list to adopt a baby, so I would use a new journal to record "grandma thoughts" while waiting and of course after baby comes!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking I'll use the journal to vent out my frustrations by jotting down those thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI would use a new journal in the ongoing quest to figure out what the heck I'm doing here in the world. Something's got to make sense eventually, right? :)
ReplyDeleteLove those journals! I would use mine as a travel journal for next year's epic trip :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you like the Chronicle journals. They are fantastic and looking at them always gives me the itch to fill their gorgeous pages. Since I just started a new graduate program in Elementary Education, I think I would like to start a journal just exclusively for chronicling my experiences in the graduate program and ideas I get for when I have my own classroom. The program is two years, so I think it would be great to have everything in one place so that I can look back on it and remember things I learned, goals I set, and ideas I had when it is time for me to take on my own classroom. That way, everything is in the same place and I don't have to sift through my every day journal.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing such a great giveaway!
Diane
I love journaling. It's amazing to look back and see how I thought about things at different points of time in my life and how far I've come. I think it's important for writers to journal too, because most often raw emotion comes out on those pages, and if you can tap into your emotion like that, it'll make it that much easier to tap into your characters' too.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I have one journal which I'm trying to write absolutely everything in: book ideas, prayer requests, thoughts on life, the universe and everything. I really think I should probably separate some of these out, as I'm trying to flick back through pages of random things to find the good idea I had for my novels and then get distracted reading what God was showing me a few weeks earlier.
ReplyDeleteI'd use a new journal as a book diary -- a place to record random ideas, ask myself questions, go off on tangents, and cluster ideas. Right now, the book stuff bleeds into my personal journal too much. And I've kept one digitally, but writing by hand is better for free flowing ideas.
ReplyDeleteI have been using a journal since I was young. When my mother died I was devastated and writing my daily thoughts in a journal helped me greatly. Your giveaway is lovely.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to sound nuts but I think I'd use it as a ballet journal. Twice a week I go to a ballet class and I'm noticing I keep writing down barre combinations and petit allegros from class on Post-It notes. These of course end up all over the house :) It's getting to the point where I need to have ballet notes all in one place.
ReplyDeleteI started journaling in college; it was a way to record my fears, discoverys and successes. When I get the opportunity to look back at these writings (and pasteings) I laugh at how far I have come...or not! This will be another step in the journey. My favorite journal was titled "How do I know what I know if I don't see what I say?" I used to put my mouth in gear before I put my mind to the test. I still do sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI've a confession to make...I've never journaled before. Well...I've tried but I always thought it was something you HAD to write in everyday. Now I know it isn't something that has to be WRITTEN in daily. You can write, draw, doodle, paste pictures or do whatever you want as long as you do it when you feel like it. I'm going to give it a try. Thank you Lynn! You've inspired me to try my hand at sewing and quilting. (I'm getting better with each piece.) Hopefully journaling will get easier to do too!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day!
This year, specifically these past 7 months have been an extremely difficult and unusual time that I have had to endure. A breast cancer diagnosis has changed my outlook and life. A journal contains all my thoughts, fears and hopes and this is extremely meaningful.
ReplyDeleteI'd use a new journal for mixing more art and writing together. Story ideas, character colors, weird doodles.
ReplyDeleteI have been keeping a blog for a few years now but that is a pretty public space. More and more often I am encountering the need for private journaling. I know there are online spaces that would work but there is something about the tactile nature of holding pen and impressing paper that make it a different experience. Next month (using my birthday as a start date) I am seriously plunging into daily fiction writing. I think I would use a not-so-blank book to chronicle the story I am growing or to use as a private place of expression.
ReplyDeleteI would use a new journal to record ideas and sketch thoughts for new art projects. Or I'd take it with me when I go hiking and draw little pictures of everything I see. Or next time I play with a recipe I'd use the journal to actually write down what I did.
ReplyDelete'
I LOVE journals, yet have zero discipline and am too lazy to sit down and actually write. I have lots of them as well as beautiful fountain pens (I ADORE them and use them even to jot down short notes and grocery lists). I think you are leaving a beautiful legacy to your children, Lynn. That's an added plus to your keeping journals to jot down your thoughts, keeping track of series, WIPs, etc.
ReplyDeleteMireya
Jewelry idea journal. I like taking pictures and ideas and putting them into a notebook for later, but I don't really like the lines on regular paper because they're never in the right place for the little notes and arrows pointed to particular parts of the drawing.
ReplyDeleteI would use a new journal to work through a book called "The Artist's Way" that I've had for several years. I've been wanting to make a big change in my career path, and a friend suggested that book (which I own but have done nothing with).
ReplyDeleteI just brought my hubs home from the hospital. It was serious but he's doing as well as possible now. I think keeping a journal of our experiences would have been a good idea, and helpful, for the next round of problems in the future.
ReplyDeleteI could use a new journal for my NaNoWriMo project. Right now I'm using a legal pad because that's what I found first.
ReplyDeleteI was just talking with my middle son the other day about journaling - how when I was his age, I filled notebooks and notebooks, using it as a way to work through the things going on in my life. Then, not long before I graduated high school, my boyfriend (now ex-husband) got into one of my private journals and read some things that I hadn't intended for public consumption - and then confronted me about them.
ReplyDeleteNow, he wasn't on target with his anger in the first place - because I used the journaling as a way to work through confusion and what I was thinking, but almost never noted down the end results of my thoughts - I had no need to, for I knew what I'd decided, and I was the only one, I thought, who needed to know.
So he only got a small part of the story... and I felt very betrayed and violated - to the point where it became extremely difficult to commit anything to paper if there was anything personal whatsoever involved. I stopped journaling, I stopped writing fiction, I even stopped writing letters. Thankfully it was the end of my senior year, so it didn't derail graduation for me.
While I didn't write as much as you do, I wrote a lot. And it was suddenly gone. And I tried everything I could think of to jump start it. Pretty notebooks, colored pens, fun pens.
Fast forward years.
I eventually healed enough I could write emails, make comments on blogs, send an occasionally letter... but heaven forbid I write a blog post or something somebody's gonna read.
The reviews of homeschooling stuff is what finally got me able to do blog posts. I wanted to get to try out fun homeschooling products for my family badly enough that I could force myself past the anxiety and stress and write. I've come a long way and made a lot of progress. I've done over 100(!!!) reviews. That's totally a win.
But for the girl who lives somewhere inside me who thought she'd have written a bunch of books by now? She's waiting for her turn. And she's grumbling about the dozens of sheets of paper that I own, that have 2 or 3 or 5 lines of writing on them - and then they just end. I don't know how many say, "I'm going to start journaling again"... but I'd bet there's at least 20.
My son is in that same, can't-let-anybody-look-at-it frame of mind right now... and I told him, if he writes, I will.
Seeing all your journals... that inspires me. I wonder how many I'd have if I'd never stopped... and I want to start and never stop again.
To write funny things I hear people say, on tv or film.
ReplyDeleteLynn,
ReplyDeleteWell, as with some of the other people here, I have been lazy about journaling. I try and try and do really good for a few weeks and then lose my journal bug. However, recently I have begun scrapbooking. I sit down 2-3 times a week for the past few months and do 1-2 pages. I think that would also be the perfect time for me to journal. I take my time scrapping and often spend an hour or more, but sometimes it is just staring at the page and pictures deciding how to place them (I am compulsive about straight photos!). Instead of staring I could be going over thoughts in my head and putting them down on paper. So, it would almost be a scrapbook journal of things I want to do, photos to choose from, events I am thinking about going to, etc. Hmm, hard to explain, but I think that is what I could use new journals for!
Tami
Jacksonville
I would like a journal to write my ideas for stories or poems I may come up with. I would also keep one for nice baking and candle recipes. There are so many possibilities.
ReplyDelete