How Do You Journal?

[Sailor Kenshin]

My journal is a "Whatever Book." I would like to write daily, but life seems to get in the way of that, so it's maybe 3-4 times a week. Each time I do an entry I like to use a different color ink, so I can easily see where entries break. It's also visually pleasing to me. I date each entry, and sometimes I include the time and place.

 

When I write, I try to completely go with wherever my mind wants to go; seems that eventually I get through all the clutter of my day and end up figuring out what the important things are. Style changes based on mood. Sometimes it's long paragraphs, sometimes it's bulleted lists, sometimes it's boxes of words or ideas... whatever feels right.

 

I used to use recycled composition books (so versatile, age nicely, sturdy enough to hold up to constant travel, and a wide variety of covers!), but they don't take fountain pen ink well - lots of bleedthrough, especially with wetter inks, so using the back of each page is problematic. I like the look of a fully filled book, so writing on one page isn't a pleasing option for me! Lately I've been using Clairfontaine's bound books.

 

I'm currently enamoured with the idea of a Commonplace Book (google it... I can't find the blog I originally saw it from....). It's an age-old practice. For me, I'm working on it being a distillation of things I wrote that are worth saving as well as things other people wrote (quotes, poems, etc). I've seen many of them filled with illustrations, or clippings... whatever is interesting, thoughtful. Often, Commonplace Books are indexed by broad subject....

 

I just did!

 

Now THAT looks cool. Thanks for the heads-up!

[Bookman]

My journal is a "Whatever Book." I would like to write daily, but life seems to get in the way of that, so it's maybe 3-4 times a week. Each time I do an entry I like to use a different color ink, so I can easily see where entries break. It's also visually pleasing to me. I date each entry, and sometimes I include the time and place.

 

When I write, I try to completely go with wherever my mind wants to go; seems that eventually I get through all the clutter of my day and end up figuring out what the important things are. Style changes based on mood. Sometimes it's long paragraphs, sometimes it's bulleted lists, sometimes it's boxes of words or ideas... whatever feels right.

 

I used to use recycled composition books (so versatile, age nicely, sturdy enough to hold up to constant travel, and a wide variety of covers!), but they don't take fountain pen ink well - lots of bleedthrough, especially with wetter inks, so using the back of each page is problematic. I like the look of a fully filled book, so writing on one page isn't a pleasing option for me! Lately I've been using Clairfontaine's bound books.

 

I'm currently enamoured with the idea of a Commonplace Book (google it... I can't find the blog I originally saw it from....). It's an age-old practice. For me, I'm working on it being a distillation of things I wrote that are worth saving as well as things other people wrote (quotes, poems, etc). I've seen many of them filled with illustrations, or clippings... whatever is interesting, thoughtful. Often, Commonplace Books are indexed by broad subject....

 

I have two Common-place books, one for classics through Shakespeare, the other for newer works. The first one is organized by branches of knowledge. The second one is in as much of an alphabetical order by title as I can manage. I re-read Moby-Dick right after opening it so I could establish the middle. But these are apart from my journal.

 

 

Edit: Change chronological to alphabetical

Edited October 12, 2015 by Bookman

[CheriP]

 

I have two Common-place books, one for classics through Shakespeare, the other for newer works. The first one is organized by branches of knowledge. The second one is in as much of a chronological order by title as I can manage. I re-read Moby-Dick right after opening it so I could establish the middle. But these are apart from my journal.

I would love to see/hear how you've organized yours. I've looked at a few examples online and am working on a system, but it is a little daunting since it seems like I won't know what I want until I've been doing it awhile.

 

[Studio97]

I keep one journal for me and a separate pocket notebook for work only. A third notebook is used for home budgeting and expenses.

[ac12]

Mine is a mind dump.

I can be totally wierd thoughts, or a todo list, summary of a club meeting, shopping list, or complaining, or the weather....

IOW anything and everything.

Although there are a bunch of stuff that I do NOT write down, for various reasons.

 

My journal developed when I was trying to improve my handwriting. So I wrote, a LOT, to get my hand and arm muscles used to writing the way I wanted to. So for me, it started simply as VOLUME...LOTs of writing practice, at least 1 hour a day. I got so used to writing (became a habit) that I simply kept writing.

[Bookman]

I would love to see/hear how you've organized yours. I've looked at a few examples online and am working on a system, but it is a little daunting since it seems like I won't know what I want until I've been doing it awhile.

 

 

Both Common-Place I and Common-Place II contain quotations, my own commentary, and synthesis. But Common-Place II is just alpha-ish by title. As to Common-Place I, I'm so enamored with these division titles that they're penciled into the table of contents. I wanted to avoid a "miscellaneous" section and I failed, with a tip of the hat to the old Art Fleming "Jeopardy!" Gaps in coverage reflect my anticipated predilections in readings. The Aristotelian sound of certain titles is entirely intentional.

1. Moral Philosophy
2. Politics, Economics, and the Law
3. The Human Mind: Natural Philosophy, Metaphysics, Learning, and Psychology
4. Poetics, Rhetoric, and Art
5. Hodgepodge and Leftovers

​

 

Edit: Change chrono-ish to alpha-ish

Edited October 12, 2015 by Bookman

[Sailor Kenshin]

Both Common-Place I and Common-Place II contain quotations, my own commentary, and synthesis. But Common-Place II is just chrono-ish by title. As to Common-Place I, I'm so enamored with these division titles that they're penciled into the table of contents. I wanted to avoid a "miscellaneous" section and I failed, with a tip of the hat to the old Art Fleming "Jeopardy!" Gaps in coverage reflect my anticipated predilections in readings. The Aristotelian sound of certain titles is entirely intentional.

 

• Moral Philosophy
• Politics, Economics, and the Law
• The Human Mind: Natural Philosophy, Metaphysics, Learning, and Psychology
• Poetics, Rhetoric, and Art
• Hodgepodge and Leftovers

 

You know the Miquel Rius spiral notebooks with the color-coded pages? I soooo wish they had these in hardcover.

[Bookman]

You know the Miquel Rius spiral notebooks with the color-coded pages? I soooo wish they had these in hardcover.

 

Have you been creepy-crawling my office? My common-place books are Miquelrius 600-page Flexible Journals.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Have you been creepy-crawling my office? My common-place books are Miquelrius 600-page Flexible Journals.

 

Teleportation is more efficient, but I didn't see the colored margins.

[Bookman]

Teleportation is more efficient, but I didn't see the colored margins.

 

No colored margins on the Flexible Journals. But the flash of the brand name Miquelrius blew my mind and it went reeling.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Bookman

[Bookman]

By the way, I think these 600-page Miquelrius Flexible Journals are excellent for common-place books, unless you need a pocket for errant papers. I only write in mine at my office desk, and so I don't need a hard cover for a writing surface. I like a hard cover for my everyday take-anywhere write-anywhere journal-notebook. For that, I'm currently using a hardcover 8¼x11 Watson-Guptill Sketchbook. It didn't lay flat enough when I was at the beginning, so I elected to write only on the recto. When I get to the last leaf I'll flip it over and go back the other way.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Bookman

[CheriP]

By the way, I think these 600-page Miquelrius Flexible Journals are excellent for common-place books, unless you need a pocket for errant papers.

That book looks divine. I'm assuming it likes fountain pen ink?

 

I started with a big sketch book, but I'd rather have something like that journal; I once had one similar, ages ago, and loved it.

 

Big is good for a common-place book... I'd like to have it last my lifetime....

[Bookman]

That book looks divine. I'm assuming it likes fountain pen ink?

 

I started with a big sketch book, but I'd rather have something like that journal; I once had one similar, ages ago, and loved it.

 

Big is good for a common-place book... I'd like to have it last my lifetime....

 

Every Miquelrius product I've tried has had smooth FP-friendly paper. On the FP-friendliness scale I would place the paper a whisker behind Clairefontaine and Rhodia.

[inkstainedruth]

I liked the 400 page Miquelrius journal I bought last winter so much that I went on their USA website and ordered six of the 600 page ones. I just wish that I could get unlined pages, but so much of what they had seemed to be out of stock, and I wanted a variety of colors. The 200 page one lasted until late May (writing 3 pp. per day, and nearly every day -- there's a few days I've missed this year, but probably only three or four). The current volume, on of the 300 bag ones, should last me till the end of the year.... I do get showthrough on occasion, depending on the ink, but generally not.

Hadn't thought about using one as a commonplace book. I've been using a composition book (IIRC, it's one of the Sustainable Earth ones that Staples used do carry in their stores; they still seem to be available online, but there is no good way to index them.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bookman]

You know the Miquel Rius spiral notebooks with the color-coded pages? I soooo wish they had these in hardcover.

 

Have you ever gotten notebooks made at FedEx Kinko's? The reason I ask is I had several of these made over a couple of years, and when I first did this I shared it here somewhere and added photos. I used to cut the stiff cardboard back from a yellow pad (Costco's is the thickest) and add that to the stack of paper that the functionary at Kinko's would then drill, cover front and back, and then spiralbind into a notebook. The functionary would drill the cardboard along with the paper, include it in the whole thing, and voila! hardback notebook. The Miquelrius notebooks have their spiralbinding holes in about the same place as the Kinko's notebooks and there are about the same number of holes. And so for my active 8½x11s I've reused a couple of the hole-drilled cardboard backs from archived Kinko's notebooks. These hole-drilled cardboard backs really help on the 8½x11 notebooks.

 

 

Edit: Add photo

Edited October 12, 2015 by Bookman

[Gloucesterman]

I've found the Miquelrius books seem to have a lot of show-through for me although I really like them because of the size 300/600. I still have a lined one and a quad ruled one from Barnes & Noble that cost $9.95 when I purchased them - long time ago.

[Bookman]

I've found the Miquelrius books seem to have a lot of show-through for me although I really like them because of the size 300/600. I still have a lined one and a quad ruled one from Barnes & Noble that cost $9.95 when I purchased them - long time ago.

 

I've found the show-through to be mostly light with occasional wild swings of inconsistency in either direction. I use a 600-pager for my Pen-Ink Diary, and I have many pages where BSB doesn't even show through and almost as many where the dotted i in Singularity or Pilot tried to bleed the BSB through. But for me the typical show-through with Miquelrius is quite acceptable. I mostly stick to F and EF nibs, though, and maybe that has something to do with it.

[Gloucesterman]

 

I've found the show-through to be mostly light with occasional wild swings of inconsistency in either direction. I use a 600-pager for my Pen-Ink Diary, and I have many pages where BSB doesn't even show through and almost as many where the dotted i in Singularity or Pilot tried to bleed the BSB through. But for me the typical show-through with Miquelrius is quite acceptable. I mostly stick to F and EF nibs, though, and maybe that has something to do with it.

 

Ditto with the fine and extra fine, however I do have Pendleton TWSBI stub and several Nemosines (.6mm and .8mm) which I have not used in the 300/600. Somehow I really don't want to use BSB in a transparent TWSBI LOL.

 

One of my recent acquisitions is a used Platinum 3776 UEF with a very small amount of line variation which is wonderful for "skinny" Copperplate type writing (sans flourishes - for now).

 

Interestingly enough I have, on several occasions, started a "commonplace" book, although I did not know it by that name. In fact, I have several started and somewhat filled books that might fit that description.

 

Continued success with any/all forms of journaling.

[mphstteach]

Usually I go over what happened during the day and that takes about a page, then I just mind dump and get out any feelings or frustrations or observations. Three times a week or so I copy down a favorite story, poem or something along those lines about being a better man and write my reaction to it.

[vjones]

I journal episodically. Sometimes I have a lot to say and I'll fill a few A5 pages. Other times I don't seem to think about it. I've been using a 10 year journal recently to get into doing short daily entries, but I still keep another journal because often I just like to ramble.