Journal Musings

I'm actually cheating a little here, this is old writing - my upcoming journal writing course reminded me of a post I made on another blog a few years ago, and it seemed appropriate to share. My feelings about journals are pretty much the same now as then. So here it is:

I need a new journal – possibly easy to remedy, pop to the shops, grab a notebook of some description. But it’s not that simple.

I go through phases of journalling. I might write pages every day for a few months and then nothing for ages. Most of the time it's angsty outpourings that I wouldn’t want anyone else to read. Sometimes what I say doesn’t matter, the words are just shapes on paper, it’s the physical act of scribbling to the page that’s necessary, so I need something in which I can enjoy the physical act of writing.

Which is probably why the journal itself is important to me: what it looks like how it feels, the colour/texture of the paper. Ideally it has to look gorgeous – I’ve written in suede-bound books that are just wonderfully tactile to handle, ones with beaded covers, and lookswise, you can’t beat some of the paperblanks journals.


But also the paper inside is important: ideally unlined, lines seem to constrict emotional outpourings, if it’s unlined I can scribble as huge and angry as I like. And the texture of the paper has to be supersmooth as I like writing in turquoise ink. (On a side note, Oxford A4 notebooks have fantastically smooth paper). (On another side note, paperblanks don’t score so highly here, as their paper is slightly textured).

If the paper is rough, I can swap to writing with fibre-tips, but it’s not the same. I just love the way the nib of my parker pen seems to float ink over the page.

And size is important too – yes it really is! ;) When I’m writing I prefer A4, but for journalling, A5 is more comfortable. An A4 pages is big and blank, it’s hard to tell a secret to, A5 is cosy and inviting. Even the briefest of thoughts fills a chunk of space.

So I’m keeping my eye out for the perfect journal, I just hope I find one before I fill up these last few pages.