I’m a strong advocate for journaling. It’s a great way to relive stress, flesh out thoughts, and memorialize events in our lives. I often use journaling to vent my frustrations and to really understand what I’m thinking. There are times when I can’t fully work through what I’m feeling until I write things down. Strangers on the internet often advise that writers should write every day no matter if it is a full story, part of a story, a scene, a list of imagery, setting descriptions… whatever.
There are many days when journaling is the only writing I get done. It may not have anything to do with my creative writing process, but translating thoughts and ideas onto paper, in any form, is what writing is about. Journaling keeps our writing muscles active, literally and figuratively, but there are times when even my journaling isn’t great. Some days I can only manage a sentence or two, but at least I wrote something.
I did a daily journaling challenge a couple years ago. Every day, for the entire year, I journaled… even if I felt like I didn’t have anything to say. The days when I felt the most wordless, were often the days I was holding a lot in, so journaling forced me to express those thoughts and feelings in writing. I’m always afraid to be one hundred percent honest in my journaling, however. I still feel like somebody is going to pick up my journal and read something I don’t want them to know, so I do censor myself to an extent when I reflect or vent. I’m trying to break out of that fear, though, because I know that being completely honest with myself, especially in journaling, is the best way to release stress and find solutions to anything I may be struggling with.
I love giving journals as gifts, especially when I know the person does not have a journaling routine yet. I truly believe that journaling is a healing practice. I have a journal now that I love. I got it from Target a couple of years ago. It’s big (over 300 pages), and has a stiff cloth cover. I’m almost to the end of it so I have been looking for a new one, but I can’t find anything comparable to the one I have. I wish I’d gotten two of them the first time. I’ve never used the same type of journal twice because I always ended up finding something better the next time I needed one. This time is the exception, though. This time has me thinking about designing my own.
Designing my own journal would be amazing, but it’s been a challenge finding the right manufacturer to produce the kind of journal I want with a reasonable price point. Some of the really nice places have a minimum order requirement that would fill my entire closet. Though I have thought about designing journals similar to the one I use currently to sell, I need to have one for myself first to make sure it’s worth selling.
If anybody out there knows where I can get a good, thick, cloth-covered journal for a decent price, or where I can get one made, let me know. And if I ever decide to design and sell NINE & TWO branded journals, I’ll let you know.
♥
Christine Gabriélle 