Elizabeth in the News!
Ashley Miller is a delightful young journalist who came to visit me at Riverwood recently with a very specific inquiry on her mind. She wanted to know about journaling, and someone told her to come talk to me. If she was taken aback by the piles and variety of journal books I showed her or the many different types of pens I use, she was too gracious to show it. She asked wonderful questions, and we had a lively and far-ranging conversation. Her article was published in both the Northern Virginia Daily and the Daily News Record. I hope you can read at least one of them without being blocked by a paywall.
Journaling as a connection tool
I was a journaler long before I considered myself a writer. In retrospect, journaling gave me important writing practice in a non-threatening environment and I recommend it highly as a powerful connection tool for strengthening any or all of the four essential connections:
- A spiritual or prayer journal explores your relationship with God.
- A diary, free-thought journal, or food journal helps you sort through thoughts, emotions, and habits to know yourself better.
- A reading, correspondence, or Bullet journal documents your relationship with others (real and fictional).
- A nature journal makes you more observant of the natural world around you.
I’ve used them all at one time or another throughout my life. I’ve written here before about some of my journaling experience:
- 10 Great Reasons to Keep a Reading Journal
- 13 Great Reasons to Keep a Nature Journal
- Journaling for Caregivers, a guest blog by Lynn Goodwin
The hardest thing about journaling is choosing between the wonderful selection of journal books available. Check out these beauties on Amazon Right now, one of my journals is a “five-year” or “one line a day” journal. Each page represents one day of the year and has just three or four lines for each year. It’s fun to look back and see what you were doing on the same day in previous years.
I’ve used everything from leatherbound journals to inexpensive spiral notebooks, and I’ve loved them all. Here’s a photo of one of the journals my grandfather gave me as a young girl — leatherbound and engraved with my name on the cover!
I’d love to hear about your own journaling adventures in the comments below.
PHOTO CREDIT: My dear husband, John A. Cottrell, Jr., M.D.
“5 Notebooks Better Than Moleskine (Especially for Fountain Pens)”
Enjoy this fun review of five journals that this reviewer, Brian Wallace, likes better than Moleskine, including my own favorite, the Leuchtturm1917. I’ve listed the five below with links to get more info or purchase.
NOTE: When you make a purchase from my Amazon affiliate links in this post, you pay no more but I receive a small affiliate fee that helps support my writing.
- Midori MD: More Info
- Clairefontaine 1951 Clothbound: More Info
- Rhodia Webnotebook: More Info
- Endless Recorder: More Info
- Leuchtturm1917: More Info
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Book Review: American Fashionable Letter Writer
Congrats on the interview, Elizabeth! I’ve never been one for journaling though I did have an easter egg blue little diary when I was growing up, complete with lock and key. And actually as I write this, I did keep a journal for 6 months in 1979 when I was traveling around the world at age 19. I tracked where I was, who I was with and how much I spent every day. Thanks for that memory!
Thank YOU for reading and commenting, Denise! Travel journaling is a fantastic way to keep a journal — or to start the practice of journaling. I think sometimes people hold themselves to too high a standard when it comes to the frequency of their journaling so then they don’t journal at all.
I well remember my own girlhood journal with lock and key!
I have the best intentions to journal consistantly. I know better than to expect me to do it every day, I even journal about that. I try to make my journal about me and how I feel about certain things, what happens during the day and not about other people. I don’t want someone who might find my journal and open it up and read something that I’ve written that was bad about them. I don’t want that. I just don’t do it on a regular basis and that bothers me. I am busy but I’m not too busy to write. Any ideas?
Mary, you are not alone. I’d bet that most veteran journalers will tell you about inconsistencies and dry spells in their practice, so give yourself some grace on how to define “consistently.” Except for my “Five Year Journal” which has a page for each day and five years on a page (so only room for 2-3 sentences for each day), none of my journals has a layout that forces me into writing at any particular pace. The gaps on days I didn’t write would drive me crazy.
I have three tips that I hope will help. 1) Splurge on a journal book and pen you really enjoy using; 2) Make it convenient by keeping your journal and pen in a place where you can use it easily and regularly. Out of sight is out of mind, at least for me. 3) Give some thought to WHY you want to journal. Are you processing thoughts and emotions, expressing yourself through writing, recording your life for posterity, documenting events and happenings, capturing memories (e.g. a trip or special event), capturing observations (e.g. a nature journal), praying (prayer journal). Some writers journal as a pure exercise in word flow. Knowing your WHY might give you some motivation. And your WHY might just call for intermittent journaling. That’s okay.
I totally understand your reservation about writing negative things about anyone in your journals. I pretty much follow that philosophy too, though I understand that historians and biographers would much prefer we be open and honest in our journaling. Journals and letters are how they flesh out the lives and personalities of people from the past.
Thanks for reading and being so thoughtful about this.