Have you read The Golden Notebook? The abiding memory I have of that is the protagonist using 4 different journals for something like world events, a fictional story, a memoir - I can't remember exactly what they were now, but tried different colour Leuchsturms for a while but as I always wrote too much in each, I could never keep them all going.
Do you know, I have it on the copy I've had since uni still on my bookshelf and haven't ever read it! Maybe now is the time to add it to the pile, though? Thanks, Nicola. And yes – love the colour-coding idea but totally get that writing (in 2025!) extensively across so many is completely unsustainable! I'm keeping mine up as yet,but time will tell. At least for the free writing one I don't feel a pressure to record long entries every day and can come to it as I need. The line a day and the to-do / things I want to remember feel sustainable.
Keep me posted on that! My pal has tried to get me into using Goodreads but I'm not sure I have it in me... Maybe I'll just add the books I actually finish to my diary?!
I also have four journals on the go this year - a 5 year one line a day diary, free writing journal, tarot journal and my new addition for 2025, a notebook to write down one lovely or beautiful thing that happens each day (inspired by one of Clover Stroud’s recent posts, and importantly NOT a gratitude journal). Also countless thoughts and ideas jotted down in my Notes app!
YES! I feel seen, Ellen. I used to have a 5-year line-a-day one and loved that I could see what was happening year on year on the same day. I rely on Instagram's archive for this now and actually have come to joyfully anticipate what it might throw up! All for not doing a gratitude thing but definitely a glimmers thing.
I had a similar experience over the Christmas break… wrote so much in my journal and walked and had space and it was delicious! Now I’m sieving through all the sparks of inspiration and brought two new journals yesterday to go with the fifty thousand half completed ones I have dotted around my home. I need a system! lol! Loved reading this and it’s inspired me to get a one day at a time diary again because I’ve been missing that and love the idea of noting things down I want to remember. Xx
Let me know how you get on, Lauren! Love that you've managed to get so much down in your journals over the holidays. Now, as you say, to make time to go through it all and make sense of it...
Oh I love notebook chat. I have an A5 filofax that lives on my desk, an A3 pad that I use landscape style when sketching out ideas and themes, then an A5 notebook for free writing and I'm trialling using A4 ring bound for drafting. I feel like I had a writing break over Christmas & NY and have felt pretty energised writing wise so far this year, but it still ebbs and flows. Pretty sure I wrote an amazing Substack post walking in the snow around the frozen Tarn yesterday but obviously when I got home the words had vamooshed 😂
This happens to me so often! I have a great spark of an idea when I'm out walking and if I don't take my phone out there and then to pop a note in about it then it's gone!
Similar feelings here about Christmas/NY - it's whooshed by and I don't think I really switched off but I also got ZERO writing done 🫣 and not in a restful 'it's good to have a break and come back to it refreshed' way. I feel a sort of bottle neck of creativity and deadlines now - it's all in there and needs to come out, but I can't figure out what to pull out first and how and where?! Thankfully, I've picked up my free writing journal again and started letting some of it trickle out - it's helping.
That's exactly how I'm feeling, Julianne! I've got so much planned and know what I want to write but really need to get to the (digital) page in a productive and focused way and just get them down. I'm sure it'll come in time... Let's be gentle with ourselves this week at least! X
I have 30 years of continuous journals. (More before that but they were sadly lost). Everything in one journal and I colour code the different sorts of writing so I can go back and find things. Many of them are objects of beauty including some hand-made by my youngest daughter with embroidered songs on the covers.
That sounds gorgeous, Jan, though sorry that the earlier ones were lost. You're prompting me to wonder where my childhood and early teen diaries are and whether I chucked them out... Must take a look around when I'm next at my mum's. The colour coding sounds really helpful and maybe enables you to keep everything in the one book at the one time! Maybe I'll need a new approach like this for 2026 haha!
Oh that 25year notebook seems pretty cool. How awesome will it be when you keep it up for 25 years and then look back at the whole thing!
Have you read The Golden Notebook? The abiding memory I have of that is the protagonist using 4 different journals for something like world events, a fictional story, a memoir - I can't remember exactly what they were now, but tried different colour Leuchsturms for a while but as I always wrote too much in each, I could never keep them all going.
Do you know, I have it on the copy I've had since uni still on my bookshelf and haven't ever read it! Maybe now is the time to add it to the pile, though? Thanks, Nicola. And yes – love the colour-coding idea but totally get that writing (in 2025!) extensively across so many is completely unsustainable! I'm keeping mine up as yet,but time will tell. At least for the free writing one I don't feel a pressure to record long entries every day and can come to it as I need. The line a day and the to-do / things I want to remember feel sustainable.
Yes, it's finding what works for you! I've now decided to have a separate one for the books I read ...I'll never learn!
Keep me posted on that! My pal has tried to get me into using Goodreads but I'm not sure I have it in me... Maybe I'll just add the books I actually finish to my diary?!
I also have four journals on the go this year - a 5 year one line a day diary, free writing journal, tarot journal and my new addition for 2025, a notebook to write down one lovely or beautiful thing that happens each day (inspired by one of Clover Stroud’s recent posts, and importantly NOT a gratitude journal). Also countless thoughts and ideas jotted down in my Notes app!
YES! I feel seen, Ellen. I used to have a 5-year line-a-day one and loved that I could see what was happening year on year on the same day. I rely on Instagram's archive for this now and actually have come to joyfully anticipate what it might throw up! All for not doing a gratitude thing but definitely a glimmers thing.
I had a similar experience over the Christmas break… wrote so much in my journal and walked and had space and it was delicious! Now I’m sieving through all the sparks of inspiration and brought two new journals yesterday to go with the fifty thousand half completed ones I have dotted around my home. I need a system! lol! Loved reading this and it’s inspired me to get a one day at a time diary again because I’ve been missing that and love the idea of noting things down I want to remember. Xx
Let me know how you get on, Lauren! Love that you've managed to get so much down in your journals over the holidays. Now, as you say, to make time to go through it all and make sense of it...
Oh I love notebook chat. I have an A5 filofax that lives on my desk, an A3 pad that I use landscape style when sketching out ideas and themes, then an A5 notebook for free writing and I'm trialling using A4 ring bound for drafting. I feel like I had a writing break over Christmas & NY and have felt pretty energised writing wise so far this year, but it still ebbs and flows. Pretty sure I wrote an amazing Substack post walking in the snow around the frozen Tarn yesterday but obviously when I got home the words had vamooshed 😂
This happens to me so often! I have a great spark of an idea when I'm out walking and if I don't take my phone out there and then to pop a note in about it then it's gone!
I love Sarah Manguso too, Lindsay. So good... Here's to gentleness and wishing you a year full of writing adventures. ✨💜
Same to you, Sophie! Here we go again... x
Similar feelings here about Christmas/NY - it's whooshed by and I don't think I really switched off but I also got ZERO writing done 🫣 and not in a restful 'it's good to have a break and come back to it refreshed' way. I feel a sort of bottle neck of creativity and deadlines now - it's all in there and needs to come out, but I can't figure out what to pull out first and how and where?! Thankfully, I've picked up my free writing journal again and started letting some of it trickle out - it's helping.
Massively relating to this!
Solidarity, friend! Xx
That's exactly how I'm feeling, Julianne! I've got so much planned and know what I want to write but really need to get to the (digital) page in a productive and focused way and just get them down. I'm sure it'll come in time... Let's be gentle with ourselves this week at least! X
I have 30 years of continuous journals. (More before that but they were sadly lost). Everything in one journal and I colour code the different sorts of writing so I can go back and find things. Many of them are objects of beauty including some hand-made by my youngest daughter with embroidered songs on the covers.
That sounds gorgeous, Jan, though sorry that the earlier ones were lost. You're prompting me to wonder where my childhood and early teen diaries are and whether I chucked them out... Must take a look around when I'm next at my mum's. The colour coding sounds really helpful and maybe enables you to keep everything in the one book at the one time! Maybe I'll need a new approach like this for 2026 haha!