I've started at lot--but then they go by the wayside. Except for my first blog that lasted for something like 7 years before I loss access to write in it. Maybe it's because a blog doesn't mess up the paper or depend on my handwriting.
Maybe it's because I look at examples of other people's journals. Even the currently popular "bullet journal" where you keep track of day-to-day stuff seems a bit fancy.
Examples:
A reading list (some journals have "blank books" so you can write titles as you read them)
Resolutions
The day the dog stole their shoes
Have to admit that I really like the last one. And you can find sites that tell you how to draw banners and borders and how to mix fonts and sample pages such as coloring in your daily moods. Sometimes it seems that journaling is about journaling. And all I want to do is sort our my life, keep track of things (from details on an art project to remembering to make an appointment at the vet). Just some scrawls.
So the books remain blank.
But I've been reading a lot of Neil Gaiman lately. Often, at the beginning of his books, he tells you a bit about the craft of writing, what inspired him, where he wrote it. What really comes through is that writers write. That may seem obvious--but it doesn't mean that they sit down and write a novel (or a poem, or a short story). It means that they write *all the time*. Whether inspired or not. Words have to go down on paper, and eventually, if you're lucky, they turn into something. And a lot of writers actually write--pen on paper (the Harry Potter books were written by hand in a coffee shop). Gaiman often writes by hand (he likes using a fountain pen). One of his books--Coraline--had a sample of his notes and rough draft. And I stared at it for awhile:
Because that's not great handwriting. No banners. No flowers (OK--there's a sketch). It eventually became a book which became a movie.
I don't know what I'm going to do with this epiphany. But maybe I'll mess up some of those notebooks.
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