Wow, that's a lot of different types of notebooks. I just have one type that I fill out from cover to cover, then move on. I like reading them after at least a year has passed. More entertaining than any novel, however narcissistic that may be: https://salieriredemption.substack.com/p/the-glorious-narcissism-of-reading
Yes, literally everything (up until a few years ago).
Now, I am largely digitized - Google Calendar, Trello for tasks, Apple Notes for random personal notes, Outlook Calendar for work that syncs with my Google Calendar (private), etc.
But I still journal by hand to get my thoughts straight, and I tend to just stick whatever physical mementos in my notebook. Sometimes, I still copy a quote I like - but that is also digitized now in my Obsidian (where I also sometimes journal)...
From 1999 to 2009 I starred in no-budget gore genre short films here in Santa Clara Valley, California. But writing is my foremost passion and forte. I'd like to learn more about your writing endeavors.
Why not market diaries whose covers reflect a predominant theme? And journals whose covers are emblemed with icons that evoke specific emotions? My childhood diary would have had a skeleton key on the cover and my childhood journal would have had The Ouroboros.
Much like volumes that comprise a comprehensive collection, like Encyclopedias. Diaries and journals are snapshots of allegories and anecdotes captured in Time as we progress through chapters of Life. Well said and well stated.
I’m so glad to know I’m not the only one with sooo many different types of notebooks! I have multiples in use at once, and mine are definitely categorized in a way only I understand. One thing I’ve always struggled with...writing in a truly beautiful journal for the first time. I was once gifted a leather-bound journal that I loved but it sat empty for *years* because I didn’t want to “sully” it with unworthy scribbles. I try to stick to very utilitarian now because who needs that kind of pressure?!
During the Indie Producing courses, instructors told us: "Niche-down!" This has proven to be sage-advice, given the markets are flooded with contenders. Having a signature voice as a writer is essential, I find. Especially as an essayist and memoirist.
I can relate so much to this! Last month I moved from California to Texas and when I arrived with bags and bags of journals my boyfriend had a look of horror on his face!
What a timely read. I just started a project to cull my work and have described it as overwhelming, while knowing to reframe: better to be overwhelmed than underwhelmed in this case, I think. "Writings in so many places", I wrote. The note app on the phone, Google docs, iCloud docs, Notion, journals and journals and workbooks and more journals. Thousands of pages in dozens of places... So many places. Anyway, it felt uncanny to be starting what sounds like an equivalent to Anna’s Big Adventure, what I've been calling The Project, and to read your article just now. Thanks for putting this write here.
"Because in leaving something behind, you do so not just for the world to remember you by, but for you to remember yourself." That's it!!! This is why I kept almost all my journals!
I can relate too. I've been lugging journals and diaries and unfinished book drafts across the Atlantic and then across Europe. They are my most precious posession.
Thanks to my digital diary of the past 7 years, I could CTRL+F my way through a memoir draft, which I'm publishing here, serialized. We connect the dots looking in hindsight. But we have to have a place to look into, right?
I love this! I am a one-notebook-at-a-time kind of person, and I am mostly digital now (at least for planning, calendar, Trello, Notion, etc.), but I still 'morning page' journal by hand.
My journals have now become too numerous to cart around; they are also heavy because I also paste (still do) all kinds of physical snippets and mementos into them.
As someone who has a thousand different notebooks for various purposes, I could totally relate to your post. Also, have never heard of Pukka pads before!
You should get yourself a special archival box from somewhere like @keep.collect! I love this idea, and thanks for sharing. I'm reading A Bookshop of One's Own by Jane Cholmeley and it's amazing how much she's able to directly quote from diaries/journals she kept so long ago!
I think it’s nice to keep an archive like that. It’s fun to revisit those and see what you cared about, what you thought was fun and how you’ve changed and grown. Must’ve been a cool moment for you :)
I really loved reading this, and seeing the range of topics: the decline of a beloved pet…professional ambitions…to-dos…blank notebooks that were unsuited to the task of actually writing in them…
I keep quite a few notebooks as well, and what you said here really resonates with my own approach: "Archiving isn't just about preserving the past; it's about confronting it. We curate our experiences, memories, and reflections, shaping our understanding of who we are and why. Some pieces make the cut, others fade away. This process forces us to confront the fragility of memory, the weight of our past, the yearning for legacy, and the inevitable march of oblivion."
Absolutely loved this post. I have notebooks in most of these categories. 😀 'No. 13 The blanks' made me feel better, and a fraction less guilty, about all the empty notebooks that I own. So thank you!
Sadly I have no teen diaries - I do go back about 21-22 years though with my notebooks, starting with a series of small black moleskines.
As well as various scribblings in notebooks I've kept a detailed digital journal for the past ten years. Of course, I wish I had started earlier with that. But it's like planting a tree. The best time to start a journal was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. 🌳 📚 😀
(I use simple txt files - one for each month. And, currently I put them all together in Obsidian. Which allows me to do the amazing Ctrl + F trick.) It all works really well now and hopefully future-proofed to some extent.)
I’m so glad that I found your newsletter just yesterday. I enjoy your style of writing- kinda how I want to write when I grow up. Most importantly, with this article you made me feel so much better about myself. I thought I was the only one with notebooks, journals, legal pads - some half full, others with bold statements like THIS IS THE NOTEBOOK THAT WILL HELP ME FIGURE OUT MY LIFE THIS YEAR 🤪 - and then abandoned.
I've definitely been guilty of thinking a new notebook would change my life. It's funny, though, because some of my notebooks HAVE changed my life. But in subtle, quiet ways. It's never been the notebooks in which I've demanded anything of them 🫣
That's a LOT of journals and notepads, I am in awe!!! I thought I had a lot until I read this, I feel better now!! Ha!! On a practical note though, how do you keep track of everything? I'm reduced to using my phone and laptop now because carrying notebooks just gets too cumbersome and I'm bound to forget them.
Hahah happy to make you feel better. How do I keep track of everything.... I don't! This used to stress me out but now I'm more chill about it. Any important appointment or deadline goes in my calendar but if I lose track of a note then I kind of think that maybe I wasn't supposed to do anything with that idea after all 🤷♀️
I switched to a remarkable (digital notebook) a couple of years ago and it’s been brilliant for consistency and organisation. It does lack the tactile delight of a new notebook, fresh with possibility, though.
Wow, that's a lot of different types of notebooks. I just have one type that I fill out from cover to cover, then move on. I like reading them after at least a year has passed. More entertaining than any novel, however narcissistic that may be: https://salieriredemption.substack.com/p/the-glorious-narcissism-of-reading
I also have one notebook for everything until it’s filled and then I move on to another....
So are you both writing EVERYTHING in that notebook? Thoughts, grocery lists, diary entries, meeting notes etc??
Yes, literally everything (up until a few years ago).
Now, I am largely digitized - Google Calendar, Trello for tasks, Apple Notes for random personal notes, Outlook Calendar for work that syncs with my Google Calendar (private), etc.
But I still journal by hand to get my thoughts straight, and I tend to just stick whatever physical mementos in my notebook. Sometimes, I still copy a quote I like - but that is also digitized now in my Obsidian (where I also sometimes journal)...
So yes and no now - but definitely, everything used to go into ONE notebook that always used to travel with me. Once I'd finish it, I'd label it with dates and move on to another notebook. Hence my article :) https://timeunbound.substack.com/p/letting-go-of-old-journals-and-mementos
Do I really need to keep it all.. but I can't let go...
From 1999 to 2009 I starred in no-budget gore genre short films here in Santa Clara Valley, California. But writing is my foremost passion and forte. I'd like to learn more about your writing endeavors.
Matthew Frazier
Xiphoid Pictures
kitchenfrazier@hotmail.com
Why not market diaries whose covers reflect a predominant theme? And journals whose covers are emblemed with icons that evoke specific emotions? My childhood diary would have had a skeleton key on the cover and my childhood journal would have had The Ouroboros.
Much like volumes that comprise a comprehensive collection, like Encyclopedias. Diaries and journals are snapshots of allegories and anecdotes captured in Time as we progress through chapters of Life. Well said and well stated.
History tells us, "The Pen is mightier than The Sword". When playing Castle, it is often essential to engage both.
I’m so glad to know I’m not the only one with sooo many different types of notebooks! I have multiples in use at once, and mine are definitely categorized in a way only I understand. One thing I’ve always struggled with...writing in a truly beautiful journal for the first time. I was once gifted a leather-bound journal that I loved but it sat empty for *years* because I didn’t want to “sully” it with unworthy scribbles. I try to stick to very utilitarian now because who needs that kind of pressure?!
I think my all-time fav notebooks are Muji ones – utilitarian but still a bit fancy.
Ooh, yes...I like Muji too. And I'm really a sucker for their .38 pens!
During the Indie Producing courses, instructors told us: "Niche-down!" This has proven to be sage-advice, given the markets are flooded with contenders. Having a signature voice as a writer is essential, I find. Especially as an essayist and memoirist.
I can relate so much to this! Last month I moved from California to Texas and when I arrived with bags and bags of journals my boyfriend had a look of horror on his face!
Ha! A sack of notes, memories and thoughts. Excellent.
What a timely read. I just started a project to cull my work and have described it as overwhelming, while knowing to reframe: better to be overwhelmed than underwhelmed in this case, I think. "Writings in so many places", I wrote. The note app on the phone, Google docs, iCloud docs, Notion, journals and journals and workbooks and more journals. Thousands of pages in dozens of places... So many places. Anyway, it felt uncanny to be starting what sounds like an equivalent to Anna’s Big Adventure, what I've been calling The Project, and to read your article just now. Thanks for putting this write here.
"Because in leaving something behind, you do so not just for the world to remember you by, but for you to remember yourself." That's it!!! This is why I kept almost all my journals!
So glad it resonated 😊
I can relate too. I've been lugging journals and diaries and unfinished book drafts across the Atlantic and then across Europe. They are my most precious posession.
Thanks to my digital diary of the past 7 years, I could CTRL+F my way through a memoir draft, which I'm publishing here, serialized. We connect the dots looking in hindsight. But we have to have a place to look into, right?
Oh I love that! Drop a link here so we can read the memoir :)
Thanks, Anna. Here you go: https://monicanastase.substack.com/s/memoir
I love this! I am a one-notebook-at-a-time kind of person, and I am mostly digital now (at least for planning, calendar, Trello, Notion, etc.), but I still 'morning page' journal by hand.
My journals have now become too numerous to cart around; they are also heavy because I also paste (still do) all kinds of physical snippets and mementos into them.
I wonder if I need them all and if letting them go would free me somehow. I wrote about it recently https://timeunbound.substack.com/p/letting-go-of-old-journals-and-mementos
As someone who has a thousand different notebooks for various purposes, I could totally relate to your post. Also, have never heard of Pukka pads before!
A British notepad institution!
You should get yourself a special archival box from somewhere like @keep.collect! I love this idea, and thanks for sharing. I'm reading A Bookshop of One's Own by Jane Cholmeley and it's amazing how much she's able to directly quote from diaries/journals she kept so long ago!
I love how Rachel Aviv includes diary entries in her reporting/nonfiction writing. I'll check out the Cholmeley book, that sounds super interesting.
Super happy to send you my copy!
I think it’s nice to keep an archive like that. It’s fun to revisit those and see what you cared about, what you thought was fun and how you’ve changed and grown. Must’ve been a cool moment for you :)
💯
I really loved reading this, and seeing the range of topics: the decline of a beloved pet…professional ambitions…to-dos…blank notebooks that were unsuited to the task of actually writing in them…
I keep quite a few notebooks as well, and what you said here really resonates with my own approach: "Archiving isn't just about preserving the past; it's about confronting it. We curate our experiences, memories, and reflections, shaping our understanding of who we are and why. Some pieces make the cut, others fade away. This process forces us to confront the fragility of memory, the weight of our past, the yearning for legacy, and the inevitable march of oblivion."
Thanks so much, Celine 😊
Love this post. I’m a compulsive notebook buyer so your “blanks” made me smile xx
Thank you!
Absolutely loved this post. I have notebooks in most of these categories. 😀 'No. 13 The blanks' made me feel better, and a fraction less guilty, about all the empty notebooks that I own. So thank you!
Sadly I have no teen diaries - I do go back about 21-22 years though with my notebooks, starting with a series of small black moleskines.
As well as various scribblings in notebooks I've kept a detailed digital journal for the past ten years. Of course, I wish I had started earlier with that. But it's like planting a tree. The best time to start a journal was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. 🌳 📚 😀
(I use simple txt files - one for each month. And, currently I put them all together in Obsidian. Which allows me to do the amazing Ctrl + F trick.) It all works really well now and hopefully future-proofed to some extent.)
I love this! So true about tree planting. .txt file is a neat idea! Less cluttered than a Word doc
I’m so glad that I found your newsletter just yesterday. I enjoy your style of writing- kinda how I want to write when I grow up. Most importantly, with this article you made me feel so much better about myself. I thought I was the only one with notebooks, journals, legal pads - some half full, others with bold statements like THIS IS THE NOTEBOOK THAT WILL HELP ME FIGURE OUT MY LIFE THIS YEAR 🤪 - and then abandoned.
Can’t wait to read more of your stuff.
🙃
I've definitely been guilty of thinking a new notebook would change my life. It's funny, though, because some of my notebooks HAVE changed my life. But in subtle, quiet ways. It's never been the notebooks in which I've demanded anything of them 🫣
That's a LOT of journals and notepads, I am in awe!!! I thought I had a lot until I read this, I feel better now!! Ha!! On a practical note though, how do you keep track of everything? I'm reduced to using my phone and laptop now because carrying notebooks just gets too cumbersome and I'm bound to forget them.
Hahah happy to make you feel better. How do I keep track of everything.... I don't! This used to stress me out but now I'm more chill about it. Any important appointment or deadline goes in my calendar but if I lose track of a note then I kind of think that maybe I wasn't supposed to do anything with that idea after all 🤷♀️
I love this SO MUCH. Thank you for the insight!
I switched to a remarkable (digital notebook) a couple of years ago and it’s been brilliant for consistency and organisation. It does lack the tactile delight of a new notebook, fresh with possibility, though.