Journals & Notebooks

Blue Dog asks: What do you write in? And many, many reply, with photos and thoughts on journaling and writing that are worth sharing outside the Blogging the Artist's Way list, I think. So I have many links below the cut, and will add more as I find them. This gives me an excuse for another cute dog photo, the doglets tempting me from my writing in the morning:

Here is this poet's notebook, from a post last year on just that: Poets' Notebooks.  Sitting on the cover is the stick I was trying to draw:

   

You can see the poem that came out of these jottings here. My notebooks are Circa notebooks, from Levenger. I love this system -- I have a punch so I can add computer-printed pages (or anything else) to the current notebook; and file folders specifically designed for Circa pages for all my old notebooks.  Levenger's paper is great -- wonderful to the pen, and heavy enough that even wide fountain pens don't show through on the other side. It comes in graph and lined paper, as well as the plain you see here. When funds are tight, regular paper works just fine.

I prefer them because they fold completely open to provide their own hard backing, like a spiral notebook, but can look very spiffy and professional with the leather covers or folios (which are optional, and spendy.) The covers have pen loops and pockets. There are tons of accessories to tailor it to your needs and design preferences.

These notebooks come in different sizes; I have a smaller one I can carry with me when [if] I go out, and the pages can then be moved to the larger, main notebook. Pages go in and out of this system with ease. I do suspect these are better suited to writers than to artists.

Though the materials are nice, my notebooks are not 'beautiful' -- they are not artist's notebooks. They are 'compost' -- seeds and nurturance for future work. The handwriting is variable, from neat to illegible. Thoughts range, without clear boundaries, from dreams to description to fiction to long internal monologues that are some mixture of it all. The one consistent thing that I do is  try to write my dreams in green ink, so that they are easily found.

The pen you see with the dogs is a Sensa fountain pen -- these are lovely for sore hands, especially the gel pens. Beautiful balance, not heavy -- they float across the page. Of course, I discovered all these treasures when I was working, and had an income -- but I'm well-supplied. Also, I do believe that the things one uses every day should bring pleasure. Abundance, remember?

I want to mention that one thing about doing the Artist's way for which I am grateful, is that it has brought me back to my notebook. Since I started blogging, two years ago, my time with paper and pen has diminished, and I am glad to have it back again. There is a kind of physicality that is very different with the pen than with the keyboard.

One more thing, before I move on to the words and photos of others. In case some of you are nearly house-bound, as I have been; or even just like to carry your writing and reading supplies from room to room -- this idea may be of use -- my basket:

   

Click the photos to go to Flickr and see larger ones. These photos have notes, too.

Now, on to links, links, links (and one more cute dog photo):

Blue Dog  says:

. . . New journals are like new socks--because they feel sooooo good . . . What makes this one special? oooh...just look at all that BLANKNESS...even the cover! It makes me look forward to filling it up and making it "me."

From Meg:

I'm funny about blank journals. I love them. I salivate over them. I buy them just because of how pretty and luscious they are. But I am frightened to write in them . . .

Kat, back in December, wrote:

. . . I found sketchbooks with a front pocket (I really love the pocket for keeping scraps of stuff (for collage, reminders, articles, whatever.) And I started to use the sketchbooks as part journal, part sketchbook, part to-do list. It suited me.

Donna posted a photo of her beautiful journal, with a design based on the Book of Kells.

Cate says:

Tomorrow, I start a new notebook of morning pages. There is something fun about finishing an old one and beginning another. It speaks of fresh starts, grand ideas, renewed commitment.

HoBess says:

Plain black spiral bound sketch book. There was one with a Monet painting on the cover and many spiral-bound notebooks. All previous versions had lined paper, but looking at the pages some of you have shared I thought I'd give myself some space to draw this time . . .

Julie uses large, blank 9x12 inch hard spiral bound sketch books:

I was tired of fitting my handwriting exactly into the lines on the page. I wanted to write with fat crayola markers in bold colors . . . They had to be hardbound, because I didn't want to search around for a hard book to put under the journal. They also had to be spiral bound so I could write on the whole page without having to break the binding.

Kristine:

My journal is blue with pink pages. The cover is dye-cut with three flowers. It says, "Made in France" on the cover. It is not usually something I’d pick yet I was unusually drawn to it . . .

eliza says:

These leather journal covers are fairly ubiquitous in the many funky bookstores and, as a dear friend calls them, crystal-swingin' shops that dot the landscape in the area where I live . . . I am a huge fan of the Art Nouveau style and also of old murder ballads, which this image really conjures up for me . . . I really resonate with the idea of illuminated darkness, of light coming from within seemingly impenetrable murk and deep, dark depths. Plus, can you see the moon and star button that the cord closure wraps around? Yeah. Also, I am amused by the way her hair looks like a giant rat perched on her head.

GreenishLady, playing with a new digital camera, posts photos of lots of different journals:

. . . when I've seen the beautiful collaged covers some people put on their journals, these look very boring, but they are like comfortable cardigans, friends and companions to me. They don't need to look fancy on the outside. On the inside, they have taken my shape, and fit me.

Rebecca says:

This is my journal. I purchased it at Target for $2.99 and I think it was one of the best journals I've ever purchased. I usually spend way too much on a journal that I can't really write in or am too scared to sully with my handwriting . . . this journal so perfect for me. It is beautiful to me and yet so very useful.

Elizabeth posted photos of old art journals, and the dog that wants her to play.

Which gives me an excuse for another sweet Henry photo. Can't have too many of those:

Laura posts a photo of her journal, and observes:

. . . I bought this years ago and never used it as it was an inconvenient size - a full 8.5x11! So it was perfect for M[orning] P[age]s. (Undecorated plain notebooks leave me feeling like I don't value myself. I have no problem with "wasting" pretty books on MPs, I got pretty books to "waste" them on whatever I feel like and to enjoy looking at them while I do it!) I think after this one I may (gasp!) use one smaller than she recommends.

Kara shows us:

Below is a picture of my journal trunk. It contains almost all of the journals I've written since 1981. I've mostly written in spiral notebooks because I like the way they open. With some of them, I collaged the covers.

One advantage to having a spiral notebook journal is that in my college days it didn't look like a journal - so therefore it didn't attract attention from curious eyes. I have at times used smaller journals that I could carry in a large purse . . . I also started numbering my journals and I have a list of the journal number with the dates of the journal. It really helps me find stuff in them when I want to refer back to a certain period in my life.

artjunk posts:

I'm a fragmented journaler . . . I keep lots of them around . . . I keep photo journals for inspiration . . . [this] one I've been keeping for last year on ideas for my home/art space . . . There is really alot of power in getting these things down. It's like brain washing for me. If I write it down, I commit to it!

Maxly shares first journal that she used for the AW (she is now on the second.)

chest of drawers posts:

This is my journal, I don´t write in it though - I prefer to make collages. I asked my son to draw me an owl and I liked it so much, I stuck it on the cover . . . I have tried to start a written journal many times in the past but it doesn´t work for me. I consider this blog to be my written journal - I thrive on the feedback and love to sit down to make an entry. Collage is a different story...a collage can help clear my mind before I start a new project and a visual story with colour is more appealing to me.

gkgirl shows us:

journals kept from 1990 until about 2002...

. . . ideas, snippets, moments,
quotes, inspirations...
. . . my "strive-to-be-a-better"
you fill in the blank
kind of books...

books of lists...

. . . the book that i draw, doodle
and daydream in...cut and paste...
color and scribble...lost in myself.

Joy Eliz shares her Purple Journal:

I decided to use purple and call it the purple journal because the Babe (a.k.a. Wise Woman and Mom) once told me she thought my 'power color' was purple.

Tess gives us a Flickr set: joy of journals; and another with shots of her studio

This could be a whole other meme: Where do you write/paint/create?

ADDITION 05 March: Niki shares photos and an excerpt from the first entry in her first journal:

First entry, May 3, 1976

Boarded the 197 last night about 2:30 a.m. on car 318131.  It was really a bumpy car!  It got to swaying so bad at times that I had to hold my stomach because of the sideaches and for fear my kidneys were going to bounce out!  Woke up this morning somewhere outside Spokane with voices and faces peering into our car, “They’ve got a bike in there!”  We poked our heads out of our sleeping bags and tried to figure out what was going on.  The train had dropped off some cars – including the one we were on.  We barely had enough time to get on another train . . .

Comments

[Elizabeth]

oh oh OH this post is like the cornocopia of POSTS!!! It's like the Sunday brunch of posts.

I am going to be here all week going through and savoring-- thank you thank you for doing all this work to give us such a wonderful string of links.

And you have a Henry, too?! *smile* He's adorable.

[tinker]

I experience a difference between typing and handwriting, too. Great idea, writing dreams in a different color ink to find them more easily in your journal. Thank you for that (& all the links...)

[tess/chameleon chronicles]

Hello, SB!

You left a little welcoming comment a while back on my blog, and I checked out your lovely site but forgot to say thanks and lost track of you.

I love your doglet pictures and your Levenger notebooks. (I have always drooled over their catalogs.) The basket idea is great!

This is really a wonderful thing you've put together here with the journals. Thank you! Here's my offering. I got carried away with my digital camera and learning to do a flickr site. There is a flickr badge on my site that points to a couple of picture sets of my journals and studio. Take care!

[Cathy]

Thanks Sharon, I'll be spend the rest of week looking at these links :-)

[kat]

wee! this is awesome!

[niki Robinson]

Thanks for putting all these links together - I will check them out.

[Mary Scriver]

Because I had the idea that I could sell books that I made myself on my computer, I also invested in a wire binding machine while I still had a little money ahead. The upshot is that I can bind any set of papers that seem worth it, so I can make myself a "book" of things like the Blackfeet time-line that some of us work with here on the rez. I even printed a cover on heavy stock. It's not Levenger, but it's handy. (And if I ever strike it rich, I will go straight to the Levenger catalogs I keep just in case!

My "journal" which is mostly just daily notes of when I wrote to people or when I applied for something or when I got word back or even what DVD I watched, so it doesn't deserve anything fancy. I've found that a "chubby" little notebook -- only a few inches on a side but fat -- is very useful because it's so easy to keep on a side table without displacing other things.

The other thing I did in this house was much like your basket except that instead of having one and carrying it around, I put a basket (the diameter of a salad plate and about 6 inches deep) by the computer, by each of my reading chairs, on my kitchen table, on my big work table, and by my bed. Each one has scissors (I'm constantly cutting out things in the paper), pens, high-lighters, chapstick, the control for the video machine (I don't have any TV from outside), stickies, a ruler, a staple puller, and (in spring) a fine-toothed comb for the cats. This has been a great convenience!

Also, each of the tables has a tape dispenser and a stapler. I color coded them so that when I carry them off, I know where they came from.

One of the great advantages of his house is that it has one long wall with no windows in it. (Because all the violent weather comes from that side.) I added primitive but not temporary bookshelves (plain nailed together boards) which I don't mind fastening things to and spaced swing-arm pin-up lamps every six feet along. Now I can rearrange the furniture, knowing that my reading chair will always have light. It also helps to find the books on the shelves. And I drove a nail for hanging my backscratcher, which I can never find otherwise.

I have not found a good solution for dust on books, but I saved an article about a Swedish trick. It's a strip of muslin, dipped in shellac or something to make it stiff, tacked to the top front of the shelf. I assume it works because dust is directed on down past the tops of the books but it's pretty easy to see and remove the books. The edge can be scalloped like newspapers covering shelves in old-fashioned frontier kitchens.

This is growing into an article! But why shouldn't a writer have a "studio" with conveniences?

Prairie Mary

[SB]

You, my friend, need a second blog -- for posts like this one, and photographs. A Prairie Mary at Home blog, that ranges across your wide mind and the broad settings of your life.

Yes.

Please.

[Joy]

Oh...I would never journal if I had two cuddlies like you do. They are so sweet!
I have two 80 pound labs and they are not allowed to sit on 'mama':>
This is a wonderful post and thank you so much for including me!

[Mary Scriver]

Oh, but I DO have a second blog and a THIRD blog! The second one is scriverart.blogspot.com where I post things about Bob Scriver's sculpture. I also invented the "readalong," so that if you have a copy of the Western art mag I'm talking about, you can look at the pages along with me. I keep track of things like paintings of entrances or cafes.

The third one is the one you're suggesting, except that maybe it's time to get a digital camera. It's merryscribbler.blogspot.com. Merry Scribbler was the name of a column I had long ago in the Glacier Reporter. There used to be a street drunk who would hail me from blocks away, "HEY! Merry Scribbler!!!" Accept fame where you find it! I try to put useful things on this blog, stuff a high school English teacher could use.

Prairie Mary

[Diana Davidson]

I was discussing my journal love with my husband last night! I see here that I am not the only one who loves journaling or is as specific in their journal requirements. I saw one even has a journal trunk! Me, too!