Write It Out

Despite the fact that I haven’t written any fiction stories in quite a long time, I came to the realization the other day that I write quite a bit!

Today I wanted to share all my different journals, and how the writing for each differs.

This is my personal journal. I use it as my therapy. All my anxieties, worries, fears – everything gets dumped in here. While I don’t consider myself an overly anxious person, I do tend to be a worrywart, and writing it all out really helps keep my brain from becoming overwhelmed. I do write other things in here too – capturing big events, or even just days I really enjoyed and would like to look back on. For awhile I used it as a daily journal, just jotting down a paragraph or two at the end of each night, but it started to feel forced. I much prefer journaling as a form of stress relief!

I must mention just how much I love this journal. The pages are SO SOFT. It’s like writing on fabric. Plus the hand stamped leather cover is just gorgeous. I was actually kind of sad to start writing in it as it’s so lovely!

This journal is the one I keep about my daughter. That sounds a lot weirder than I meant it haha! About a month ago, I had the realization that my child is growing up phenomenally fast before my eyes. I am so lucky to be able to stay at home with her each day, and experience every new thing she does. However, I also know that in ten years I will probably not remember too many details, and that was a heartbreaking thought.

I decided I would pick up a journal to record specific things she does that just blow me away, make me laugh, make me cry – really anything! Some entries are long, some are just a sentence or two about how she used a new phrase, or learned to write a new letter. I don’t write in it daily, just whenever I feel the need to record something. Lately, her imagination has been expanding so vastly, and I’ve been recording the stories she makes up. I have every idea I will look back on this in twenty years and sob like a loon, and I am so okay with it!

This cute little fox adorned one is my dream journal. I very often have extremely vivid dreams. The kind of dreams that seem coherent while I’m dreaming, but upon awakening I realize just how strange things were. I remember my dreams almost every time, and I’d wanted to start writing them for awhile. So I finally did last month! I don’t have any intention of analyzing them, but I am surprised at just how many repeating themes there are. The biggest: being chased/hunted by someone, being back in high school (even if I’m my current age in the dream), and experiencing life or death situations. These three things are in a huge portion of my dreams, and I never really noticed that until I started writing them down!

I’ve also started sketching out some places/areas from my dreams. Sometimes the places I see are so clear that I want to try and sketch it out as fast as I can before I lose it! Often, the ‘sketch’ is just super basic, almost like a blueprint, but it helps keep it in my mind while I write out the dream. Sometimes I’m in such a rush to get it down before it starts to fade that I write in really quick broken sentences. I’d like to start working on writing it out more like a story if I can.

I adore this journal, yet at the moment it’s blank! I was going to use it for blog ideas, but I’d already started one when I snagged this and didn’t want to have two going for the same subject. If I ever build up the self confidence to start writing fiction again, I think this will be my journal for notes, things I need to research, etc.

This is a notebook I couldn’t function without. It’s my lists notebook. I write my daily to do list in it, along with lists for various other things – art projects, Christmas presents, you name it. If it’s a list, it’s in here!

These two go hand in hand – my blog idea notebook and planner! I am constantly scribbling stuff down in this notebook – post ideas, layout options, people to contact; it’s endless. I always browse through it when planning out my monthly posts. Finally getting a planner to use for scheduling my blog posts has been the best blog decision I’ve ever made. It takes so much stress off knowing what I have coming up to write about! Plus, it keeps me organized which is always a bonus.

And then of course, I write here on the blog. I often forget to count that as ‘writing’ because it has such a different feel for me. When I write here, I tend to feel like I’m talking to people as opposed to writing out a story. But it’s something I’d like to work on. I want to focus a little more on my writing here as opposed to just writing out whatever comes off the top of my head.

Do you keep journals? If so, do you feel your voice differs in your journals vs. your blog?