I always felt I was being too extra for having a notebook for everything. But the other day I noticed my mom’s work bag and all the notebooks she had in there. I asked her and she said, “yeah I have a notebook for everything”. And I no longer feel weird about it. Not only because it’s a habit I share with my mother but also it’s the way our brains work. When it needs something to be written down we both find the nearest empty page and jot it down.
My bookcase overflows with flowered notebooks, stripped ones, all sorts! Recently, I’ve purchased an agenda type of notebook to chronicle each day but I slip and forget days here and there. I don’t beat myself up about it but keep going to record the simple moments of my days.
I was hiding out in my room with a cold while my family hosted a watch party. Happy for the space, I opened my old journal and found inspiration to be more creative, to sprinkle a little me from the past into my today. I think it’s a great practice to revisit old journals.
I keep two notebooks: a pocket-sized one to jot down ideas I get while walking the dog, and an A5 (usually) sized one that's more permanent. I've filled 54 larger ones in less than ten years. I put a table of contents at the end. I cross-reference and color highlight. There are 2.5 novel drafts, dozens of poem drafts, notes from seminars and doctor visits, everything. I revisit them often.
I seldom buy the same brand/color/style. Instead of travel souvenirs I buy notebooks. "I think that story is in the one from Barcelona."
I have never had a break from writing, so can't address that question.
Love the idea of buying a notebook as you travel! When I studied abroad my art history teacher gave us the money set aside for textbooks so that we could buy a notebook and postcards at all the museums we visited. It's a wonderful keepsake of that time.
I have far too many notebooks, I realized recently while cleaning my office that it may be an obsession haha. I tend to start different notebooks for different topics (writing, morning pages/free journaling, course specific ones, etc.) but they typically end up merging together over time. I do have a separate journal where I keep other people’s writing that have spoken to me - it’s a 5-yr journal set so every day I try (tho often fail) to note one short thing that spoke to me and I like looking back to see what was resonating with me at the time.
Every month-ish I go through anything I’ve written and type it into Scrivner where I keep separate files for poetry, and specific fiction or non-fiction projects, song lyrics, and other random words that don’t yet have a home in mind. I put a little check mark on a page once it’s been digitally captured, and I am starting to use those notebook pages as collage materials for my visual artwork (I’m a painter), either painted over or just as words out of context.
Oh I love the idea of re-using the pages! I often have piles of poem drafts and use that paper for Gelli printing. Usually the words are just a bit of visual texture, but sometimes the words and color really seem to speak to each other!
I have journals with favorite quotes, poems, travel notes, memories, garden plants and medical notes. I copy down favorite lines or poems and then use them to inspire writing. Sometimes I write after a bike ride where I've been inspired. Love these questions and the Didion quote: “all writing is an attempt to find out what matters, to find the pattern in disorder, to find the grammar in the shimmer.” I love the idea of trying to find the shimmer in my journals.
I keep three main notebooks: a planner, a journal, a reading log with book notes. When I’m done, they each get (lightly) indexed, dated, and labeled respectively (⊞, ≈, ◫). Here’s a post introducing this approach: https://armchairnotes.substack.com/p/my-life-in-three-to-five-notebooks
This is a wonderful post - thank you! I write almost every morning and paste or copy a poem in the front of every notebook. A tone, a time, a wish. I do revisit if only to know what persists, what resolves, what returns. And sometimes, to continue.
I do not want to count how many journals I have in my cedar chest... LOL.
I often will be interrupted and when I get back to what I was writing... I can not pick up my train of thought and that is exactly what I write..."Lost that train" and start a new thought. I'm fine with it. Sometimes it will come back as I write which is fine. But the majority of the time it does not.
I have a basket of notebooks for different subjects. All alive whether they are paused or active. I have everything from nature notes to travel, to everyday journals, to gratitude diaries, weather log and poems. I often buy a book and wait until it tells me what subject it wants to become. I'm also doing a social history diary and my work journal.
I've got a basket next to my desk...not of journals but of books I want to read. I love the idea of letting the journal let you know what it wants to be! I've always got a few shaky days when I start a new journal of trying to figure things out.
Oh the Explore Further notebook! I bet there are riches in there!
One recent shift in my (mostly) Just One Notebook--I do journaling/Morning Pages from the back and write poems from the front. Then we meet in the middle a few months on. That keeps the poem dfrafts mostly corralled.
It's really very unorganized. I have my first - that I started when I was 17 and in high school -commonplace book (I didn't know that term until recently, so I just called it a quote book). It has some quotes in it but is not filled up. Then I purchased a 2nd book for the same purpose because I liked the design on the cover. That 2nd quote book/commonplace book has some of the same quotes from the 1st one, as well as lots of others. For sentimentality's sake, I can't seem to part with the 1st one. Then there are the notebooks I started writing in when I finally gave myself permission to go to the coffee shop and write (about 6 years ago). Those are legal size, and are mostly stream-of-consciousness, similar to "morning pages" type stuff. Then I started some others, and those have some journal type stuff (my feelings, struggles, prayers), books I've read, along with quotes from those books that I still tell myself I ought to transfer to the other quote/commonplace books. Then there are those scraps of paper, that I've finally at least gathered into an envelope, that contain quotes from things I've read that I haven't transferred to my quote book yet. There's also another book that I have some poetry I've written in it. And there's more, but now you know why my mind is so tangled up in knots. I also keep a list of books I've read (for each year) just attached to a clipboard. It would be lovely - I tell myself - to have all these things organized, but I'm clearly not there yet! Looking forward to reading what others have to say on this.
That sounds intriguing! Thanks for sharing about that. I suppose the key to any project like that is to just start (I guess like I did with my quotes, even though I didn't mean to turn it into a project) and then you'll figure out as you go what the end result will be? I do really love to have all of the quotes that I've saved up. They are things that for whatever reason have resonated with me, and sometimes I am encouraged by reading over them again. I'm prone to discouragement, so I need all the help I can get!
Will you be sharing any pictures of your project when it's done?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on journaling. I always have a few journals on the go. One is a reflection/personal development journal to help me reflect and process my life experiences. The one I am using at the moment was given to me by a friend and has Mary Oliver quotes interspersed throughout it. She is one of my favourite writers. I also have a book review notebook, a research/ideas notebook, and a travel notebook.
My most active journal practice is a commonplace book. I have several volumes now and flip through them for ideas and material. I also have my therapy notebooks, which I am going back through as part of writing my memoir. Those are tough notebooks for go through but essential for the current project. I wish my poem and essay items would lie down neatly in a notebook. Instead they are scribbled on scraps of paper and stuffed into a large folder which sometimes feels akin to the Island of Misfit Toys.
Oh I love the image of the Island of Misfit Toys! And I love that even though it looks different than a tidy notebook, you have found ways to save and access the bits and pieces of your life.
I am currently collecting quotes on index cards because I haven't found a commonplace journal practice that sticks.
So proud to hear of the good, hard work on your memoir.
I'm so glad the index card idea was useful for you! Your chapbook poetry is inspiring me, as well. Also, your Lenten practice sounds lovely. I have to tell you, I checked the mailbox in anticipation of receiving _Elemental_ today... I ordered it last week and it has shipped. Soon!!! I love your work.
I have a bunch of notebooks going at once, but they're all hodgepodge, notes for doctor appointments and phone calls jostling with diary type entries and fragments of poems and commonplace booking.
Recently, I've started doing a lot of notebooking directly onto my computer. My hands are having a harder time writing for longer periods, especially when I'm having eczema flares. So I've been playing with using Obsidian for journaling. I don't exactly love it, but I also don't hate it. But I've done a lot of productive writing there and I'm more likely to go back and re-read what I've written there than I am to go back to physical notebooks.
I do occasionally flip though old notebooks and find treasures there. Not in any kind of systematic way, though. I wish I were more organized, but I'm kind of resigned to being the way I am.
Yeah, I feel like finding a way to do the sifting more reliably would be a good thing. Maybe just a little more reliably? Maybe my standards are too high?
After working through The Artists Way, I made the switch to using 2 journals at once. One for the hodgepoge/ morning pages. And then one for poems or daily writing. They do get a little jumbled when I don't have the right book near to hand, but much less so!
I always felt I was being too extra for having a notebook for everything. But the other day I noticed my mom’s work bag and all the notebooks she had in there. I asked her and she said, “yeah I have a notebook for everything”. And I no longer feel weird about it. Not only because it’s a habit I share with my mother but also it’s the way our brains work. When it needs something to be written down we both find the nearest empty page and jot it down.
I love love love the connection to your mom and I think Joan DIdion would too!
My bookcase overflows with flowered notebooks, stripped ones, all sorts! Recently, I’ve purchased an agenda type of notebook to chronicle each day but I slip and forget days here and there. I don’t beat myself up about it but keep going to record the simple moments of my days.
I aspire to be a chronicle keeper! Every day that I add an entry is a win even though there are more missed days than not.
I was hiding out in my room with a cold while my family hosted a watch party. Happy for the space, I opened my old journal and found inspiration to be more creative, to sprinkle a little me from the past into my today. I think it’s a great practice to revisit old journals.
Love that you are creating your own inspiration and mining those past journals! What a gift!
Great food for thought!
I keep two notebooks: a pocket-sized one to jot down ideas I get while walking the dog, and an A5 (usually) sized one that's more permanent. I've filled 54 larger ones in less than ten years. I put a table of contents at the end. I cross-reference and color highlight. There are 2.5 novel drafts, dozens of poem drafts, notes from seminars and doctor visits, everything. I revisit them often.
I seldom buy the same brand/color/style. Instead of travel souvenirs I buy notebooks. "I think that story is in the one from Barcelona."
I have never had a break from writing, so can't address that question.
Love the idea of buying a notebook as you travel! When I studied abroad my art history teacher gave us the money set aside for textbooks so that we could buy a notebook and postcards at all the museums we visited. It's a wonderful keepsake of that time.
I have far too many notebooks, I realized recently while cleaning my office that it may be an obsession haha. I tend to start different notebooks for different topics (writing, morning pages/free journaling, course specific ones, etc.) but they typically end up merging together over time. I do have a separate journal where I keep other people’s writing that have spoken to me - it’s a 5-yr journal set so every day I try (tho often fail) to note one short thing that spoke to me and I like looking back to see what was resonating with me at the time.
Every month-ish I go through anything I’ve written and type it into Scrivner where I keep separate files for poetry, and specific fiction or non-fiction projects, song lyrics, and other random words that don’t yet have a home in mind. I put a little check mark on a page once it’s been digitally captured, and I am starting to use those notebook pages as collage materials for my visual artwork (I’m a painter), either painted over or just as words out of context.
Oh I love the idea of re-using the pages! I often have piles of poem drafts and use that paper for Gelli printing. Usually the words are just a bit of visual texture, but sometimes the words and color really seem to speak to each other!
Oh yes I love that for Gelli printing too! I need to make some I haven’t used mine in a while
I have journals with favorite quotes, poems, travel notes, memories, garden plants and medical notes. I copy down favorite lines or poems and then use them to inspire writing. Sometimes I write after a bike ride where I've been inspired. Love these questions and the Didion quote: “all writing is an attempt to find out what matters, to find the pattern in disorder, to find the grammar in the shimmer.” I love the idea of trying to find the shimmer in my journals.
Yes! Finding the shimmer feels like a wonderful revision prompt.
I keep three main notebooks: a planner, a journal, a reading log with book notes. When I’m done, they each get (lightly) indexed, dated, and labeled respectively (⊞, ≈, ◫). Here’s a post introducing this approach: https://armchairnotes.substack.com/p/my-life-in-three-to-five-notebooks
Love the three to five range, Sam! Thanks for the link.
This is a wonderful post - thank you! I write almost every morning and paste or copy a poem in the front of every notebook. A tone, a time, a wish. I do revisit if only to know what persists, what resolves, what returns. And sometimes, to continue.
I love this idea of pasting a favorite poem into notebooks as a motivator or touchstone.
A tone, a time, a wish—feels like there’s a poem here! Peace keep you, Sarah Faye 💙
I do not want to count how many journals I have in my cedar chest... LOL.
I often will be interrupted and when I get back to what I was writing... I can not pick up my train of thought and that is exactly what I write..."Lost that train" and start a new thought. I'm fine with it. Sometimes it will come back as I write which is fine. But the majority of the time it does not.
I enjoyed your post! 🙂
I love the lost train idea and can totally relate!
I have a basket of notebooks for different subjects. All alive whether they are paused or active. I have everything from nature notes to travel, to everyday journals, to gratitude diaries, weather log and poems. I often buy a book and wait until it tells me what subject it wants to become. I'm also doing a social history diary and my work journal.
I've got a basket next to my desk...not of journals but of books I want to read. I love the idea of letting the journal let you know what it wants to be! I've always got a few shaky days when I start a new journal of trying to figure things out.
Me too. It's so intimidating to make that first entry.
Maybe that's where we can use the opening quote or poem idea--that can be the first entry! Then there's less pressure on us!
OOhh, love this. Going to try it.
Oh! Me too! I have a nature notebook, a reading notes notebook, an “explore further” notebook, a muse-is-yelling-gotta-write-it-now notebook…
I’ve tried to keep Just One Notebook and it doesn’t work. Maybe now I don’t feel so weird!
Oh the Explore Further notebook! I bet there are riches in there!
One recent shift in my (mostly) Just One Notebook--I do journaling/Morning Pages from the back and write poems from the front. Then we meet in the middle a few months on. That keeps the poem dfrafts mostly corralled.
It's really very unorganized. I have my first - that I started when I was 17 and in high school -commonplace book (I didn't know that term until recently, so I just called it a quote book). It has some quotes in it but is not filled up. Then I purchased a 2nd book for the same purpose because I liked the design on the cover. That 2nd quote book/commonplace book has some of the same quotes from the 1st one, as well as lots of others. For sentimentality's sake, I can't seem to part with the 1st one. Then there are the notebooks I started writing in when I finally gave myself permission to go to the coffee shop and write (about 6 years ago). Those are legal size, and are mostly stream-of-consciousness, similar to "morning pages" type stuff. Then I started some others, and those have some journal type stuff (my feelings, struggles, prayers), books I've read, along with quotes from those books that I still tell myself I ought to transfer to the other quote/commonplace books. Then there are those scraps of paper, that I've finally at least gathered into an envelope, that contain quotes from things I've read that I haven't transferred to my quote book yet. There's also another book that I have some poetry I've written in it. And there's more, but now you know why my mind is so tangled up in knots. I also keep a list of books I've read (for each year) just attached to a clipboard. It would be lovely - I tell myself - to have all these things organized, but I'm clearly not there yet! Looking forward to reading what others have to say on this.
I love the thought of all those quotes banging around together since you were 17! I just started a new project to collect quotes: https://kortneygarrison.substack.com/p/at-the-edge-of-spring
That sounds intriguing! Thanks for sharing about that. I suppose the key to any project like that is to just start (I guess like I did with my quotes, even though I didn't mean to turn it into a project) and then you'll figure out as you go what the end result will be? I do really love to have all of the quotes that I've saved up. They are things that for whatever reason have resonated with me, and sometimes I am encouraged by reading over them again. I'm prone to discouragement, so I need all the help I can get!
Will you be sharing any pictures of your project when it's done?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on journaling. I always have a few journals on the go. One is a reflection/personal development journal to help me reflect and process my life experiences. The one I am using at the moment was given to me by a friend and has Mary Oliver quotes interspersed throughout it. She is one of my favourite writers. I also have a book review notebook, a research/ideas notebook, and a travel notebook.
Oh I love the idea of a journal already sprinkled with quotes + poems! What a treat when you open to a random Tuesday and fine Mary's already there!
Yes she is a great companion 😌
My most active journal practice is a commonplace book. I have several volumes now and flip through them for ideas and material. I also have my therapy notebooks, which I am going back through as part of writing my memoir. Those are tough notebooks for go through but essential for the current project. I wish my poem and essay items would lie down neatly in a notebook. Instead they are scribbled on scraps of paper and stuffed into a large folder which sometimes feels akin to the Island of Misfit Toys.
Oh I love the image of the Island of Misfit Toys! And I love that even though it looks different than a tidy notebook, you have found ways to save and access the bits and pieces of your life.
I am currently collecting quotes on index cards because I haven't found a commonplace journal practice that sticks.
So proud to hear of the good, hard work on your memoir.
What a wonderful phrase: “to find the grammar in the shimmer”!
I know! I had only read the introduction and I felt like I had found what I needed.
I'm so glad the index card idea was useful for you! Your chapbook poetry is inspiring me, as well. Also, your Lenten practice sounds lovely. I have to tell you, I checked the mailbox in anticipation of receiving _Elemental_ today... I ordered it last week and it has shipped. Soon!!! I love your work.
Oh this makes my heart thrill! You sent a lot of new readers my way. Thank you for such careful, heart-filled reading.
My pleasure!👊🔥
I have a bunch of notebooks going at once, but they're all hodgepodge, notes for doctor appointments and phone calls jostling with diary type entries and fragments of poems and commonplace booking.
Recently, I've started doing a lot of notebooking directly onto my computer. My hands are having a harder time writing for longer periods, especially when I'm having eczema flares. So I've been playing with using Obsidian for journaling. I don't exactly love it, but I also don't hate it. But I've done a lot of productive writing there and I'm more likely to go back and re-read what I've written there than I am to go back to physical notebooks.
I do occasionally flip though old notebooks and find treasures there. Not in any kind of systematic way, though. I wish I were more organized, but I'm kind of resigned to being the way I am.
Yeah, I feel like finding a way to do the sifting more reliably would be a good thing. Maybe just a little more reliably? Maybe my standards are too high?
After working through The Artists Way, I made the switch to using 2 journals at once. One for the hodgepoge/ morning pages. And then one for poems or daily writing. They do get a little jumbled when I don't have the right book near to hand, but much less so!