Themes/discussions: Starting off

[snowsurrounded]

A while ago it was suggested that we could try having themes or discussion topics in this community, and since I'm trying to generate a bit of content for three_weeks_for_dw, now seemed a good time to start:

So, first theme: how did you start journalling? Have you been writing paper diaries since you were a kid, or is it something you began fairly recently? Was it difficult to get started, or did it come completely naturally? What are your first memories of expressing yourself on paper, in a journal of your own? And does anyone have any photos they're willing to share of their early journals?

Comments

[snowsurrounded]

I'll answer first. :)

I've been writing paper diaries on and off since I was a kid. I think I got my first diary when I was seven or eight; it was a five-year diary with a lock and only a tiny space to write in for each day. I remember writing quick sentences about swimming lessons and eight-year-old friendship dramas in there. Sadly, I don't think I have that diary any more; I suspect it got lost when I moved house.

After that, I forgot about it for a few years, until I was thirteen, when I decided to start writing a diary again. I scribbled all my adolescent angst down in cheap exercise books, and I kept it up for a good few years, until I was seventeen or eighteen, whereupon I discovered the internet and moved to OpenDiary.com.

It wasn't until a few years ago, when I was about 26 or so, that I started to write in paper journals again. I decided to give the Embodiment project a try, and found that there was something very different about writing things privately in a paper journal than about putting my thoughts and experiences online for the world to read. I've kept it up on and off (sometimes I'll forget about my journal for a few months) ever since, and it's something I really enjoy. I started doing art-type journalling a year or so back, though I'm not sure what I do entirely counts as art journalling - it's just splashing paint around and making things look a bit more colourful than plain text, most of the time, with the occasional bit of collage or bad drawing.

One thing I've noticed is that I'm much pickier now about choosing my journals, what they need to look like and feel like. I really like pretty notebooks with good-quality paper, and I vastly prefer unlined paper over lined. if a journal doesn't feel "right", I'll have more trouble actually keeping up with it and making entries in it. Back when I was younger, though, I never cared about things like that in the least; it was entirely about what I was writing, and how it looked was completely irrelevant.

[orbitaldiamonds]

whereupon I discovered the internet and moved to OpenDiary.com.

My first online jouranl was OpenDiary too! :D

One thing I've noticed is that I'm much pickier now about choosing my journals, what they need to look like and feel like.

Me too, though since I'm so used to just text journaling (even now), I prefer lined journals--specifically, wide-ruled because with my handwriting college-ruled or narrower lining feels restrictive.

P.S. If you tag this with "three weeks for dreamwidth" it'll show up on the tag feed. :)

[snowsurrounded]

Good idea. :)

[orbitaldiamonds]

^_^

[valley]

I'm pickier with my journals now too, and have found some awesome brands I'm sticking to (Peter Pauper and PaperBlanks for starters). I usually stick to lined pages, though!

[orbitaldiamonds]

I've been keeping a journal off and on since fourth grade. It's strange how it started: I got a spiffy notebook (nothing fancy, just a spiral notebook with a cover I really liked) and decided to make it a diary. I've had a couple dozen journals since them, with various degrees of filled-up.

Nearly all of my journals have been text-only, but after over a year of membership at places like (LJ)embodiment and (LJ)jr__nal, I decided to take a crack at scrapbook/mixed media journaling. While I was doing that, I realized that I was having more fun preparing the pages for writing than I was doing the actual writing. I'm not sure if it's because I was having so much fun making the pages or because I have so little to write about these days, but whatever. I asked my friends if they'd like me to make a journal for them to pass around and then send back to me when it was filled, and they liked the idea, so I made Stationery Book 1.

While I was making it, and posting pictures, people suggested I sell them, so I asked the friends I'd talked to if they minded me trying to sell that book and they said it was okay with them, so I put it at my Etsy shop. (It's still there, unsold and marked down. :P) While I haven't sold anything there yet, I have gotten good comments on my stationery books and have shelled out more than I care to admit on supplies.

Even if I don't sell any of these, at least I'm having lots of fun. And if the Etsy listings expire without any sales, I'll try eBay and see if that makes a difference.

And if that doesn't work, I'll use them for journal exchanges or give them as gifts. :)

[valley]

I've made a couple of my own journals (using this as my guide) but ended up getting rid of them because I'm so picky about what I write in...Never thought about selling any, though journals are always awesome gifts!

[orbitaldiamonds]

Oh noooo I see my next hobby! D:

Definitely bookmarking that link for later but for now I think I'll stick to decorating Moleskines, if for no other reason that the ones I haven't started yet don't go to waste.

Well, if the ones you make turn out well, you could sell them. :)

I'd at least like to subsidize my crafting habit, and ideally I'd like to be able to say "I work from home" without feeling dishonest.

[adelheid]

I could echo most of orbitaldiamonds' first paragraph. Since around about eighth grade I kept a journal on and off, in a One Year Diary given to me by my grandmother. (Prior to that I know I kept "diaries" of specific holidays, which would have been more like scrapbooks, with drawings, brouchures pasted in, etc.) None of these did I ever fill completely, and in fact I keep wanting to throw out that eighth grade horror, full of idiocy as it is.

About five years ago, well after I'd gotten used to writing regularly on LJ, I started to write far more regularly in my paperjournal. (This coincided with a rather deep bout of depression.) Since then I've filled three journals at least.

I'm just beginning to get into artjournalling this past year. I plan to post some photos of those efforts to the comm sometime soon.

[snowsurrounded]

Looking forward to seeing your pictures. :)

[orbitaldiamonds]

I've done that too in my depression, though sometimes writing by hand feels too slow and I use nuttypoo those times. For me, at least, it was like putting a memory into Dumbledore's Pensieve--it let me sleep.

I hope you're doing lots better now and and I too and looking forward to seeing pictures. :)

[valley]

I wrote a couple of times in journals (here and there) until about seventh grade, when I almost filled this beautiful floral-y spiral notebook, that I absolutely LOVED. I've still got it around someplace. A couple of months in, I realized that I had begun to keep it because I felt obligated to; it wasn't fun anymore, so I stopped.

Freshman year of high school I began to become more and more inspired by all the pretty, blank journals I'd see at Barnes & Noble or art shops, so I started up again, and recently passed my anniversary of that... Since then I've only filled a handful of journals (but one of them was a PaperChase, which are awesome and huge). I'm getting to the point again where I feel almost as if writing is work, but I know I can't stop because when I DO get around to writing it's a big stress-reliever. Also, I can paste in dozens of pictures of hot guys, and have them all to my self.

I keep a journal now to 1) help me remember things, because my memory is atrocious--and as much as I hate my situation now, I know I can't look back and pretend that it's a dream, I have to know it's all real; and 2) to relieve stress. I have several weeks I have to catch up on, and now instead of just stopping because I don't want to face my every-day life, I can be more honest with myself. I usually use Peter Pauper and PaperBlanks, though I also like PaperChase; Moleskines have too thin of pages and their lines are too narrow...I'm very picky, I guess. :)

[orbitaldiamonds]

I have a crappy memory too, especially long-term memory. In previous journals I've written to myself as if I were explaining things to me-with-amnesia. (If me-with-amnesia tried to make sense of the past few years, she'd be lost because I've mostly written bits and pieces lately.)

I like Moleskines for writing as far as the paper itself, but I can't stand narrow-ruled pages, especially for journaling. For about ten years (mid-90's until '07-ish) I wrote in decorated composition books because the lines were just right. Though one of these days, if I really get back to hand-written journaling, I'll get a nice wide-ruled big journal to write in (and a smaller one to keep in my handbag). :)