Notebooks and Journals Part One

Hi Friends!

Which ones of you have journals or notebooks?

There are many types of journals or notebooks and different people keep journals or notebooks in different ways. I have kept what I have conveniently called my journals for over fifty years. I remember starting with keeping quotes from authors whose books I admired when I was fifteen years old. It soon morphed into a journal or diary of venting at my brother when I was angry and then into rough drafts of letters I would later send. Now over the past forty or so years I have put everything in there

Notebook from Flickr’s Inha Leex Hale

from grocery lists to to-do lists to summarizing a week’s events. I have picture book ideas and drafts; I have email address; summaries of worries and feelings; and everything in-between.

This summer I was perusing an author’s blog when she invited teachers to write for the summer. I came across one of her blog posts on writer’s notebooks. Notebooks she always has with her. I, too, have another smaller notebook that fits in my purse that I pull out when I want to save an idea or take notes at a lecture. This is what I use for my writer’s notebook, where I put ideas soon forgotten if not written down.

From Kate Messengers blog  , I found this one called “crayons and pencils,” written by Ms. Michelle Haseltine, a sixth grade teacher for her students. I loved reading it. I think teachers are next to angels in the hierarchy of the world. Here is where you can find her blog.

And from there it went. I was lost in notebook heaven. Kate’s blog post had over 400 comments to read. All the comments were about one of my favorite subjects, notebooks and journals. So you can bet I read them.  

And it here it comes: My shameless self-promotion tip: I got submitted into an anthology called THE “I” WORD by Kate Gould with my 100 word memoir on how I started journaling and what it meant to me. It had to do with how my journal was key in writing my first picture book. Here is that link 

It’s $4.99 for your Kindle or free to prime members to borrow. Since I’m the fine owner of a Kindle Fire now, I can buy it and did so. *Yay!*

Once you see the entries from authors of where they get their inspiration for writing you will see that my entry is exactly what that. “One reaps what one sows.” And my writing led to more writing. As I jotted down ideas for this blog post I ran into that very real hazard and had to break this post up into two parts and therefore you will see more on this topic next week.

How many of you journal or have writers notebooks?  How long have you been writing in your notebooks? Do you have a way of keeping a table of contents or is it all a jumble?

©Clara Bowman-Jahn or aka Clarike Bowman-Jahn

Related articles

• Using a Story Journal to Encourage Writing (thehappyhomemommy.wordpress.com)
• Writer’s Notebooks (twowritingteachers.wordpress.com)
• The Creativity Notebook (popcorntheblog.com)
• Notebook Routines (twowritingteachers.wordpress.com)
• Journaling (bradyswanson.wordpress.com)
• Notebooks Buying Guide (walmart.com)
• Journal Entry – 18th of September 2013 (thebishopsjournal.wordpress.com)
• The Notebook (eileenmaksym.wordpress.com)
• Response to A Writer’s Notebook (kathrynsoren0.wordpress.com)
• Want To Maximize Your Writing? Consider A Return to Pen And Paper. (mychicagowriter.wordpress.com)