Most people start their journal on 1st January, but not me this year. I started my 2017 journal on 29th January, but not because I missed the 1st January. As I’m currently using undated notebooks I chose to continue last year’s journal until it was complete because I didn’t like the idea of leaving blank pages.
You may notice there is something similar about this year’s journal, it looks a lot like my 2016 journal. At the end of 2015, I bought several notebooks, but didn’t like any of them due to the line thickness. Fortunately I remembered I’d been given a Castelli* notebook at a Nikon photography workshop which had nice narrow ruled lines. It was the first time I’d heard of Castelli so was surprised and delighted to be given another one later in the year at a work conference so I could use it for the second half of 2016.
As well as narrow lines, the Castelli notebook is great for a fountain pen as the paper is smooth and the ink doesn’t feather or bleed through the paper, so I’ve got a new one for 2017. As this will be the third Castelli notebook I’ve used in a row I think I maybe forming a habit. I’ve previously used a variety of journals but have liked the idea of using a consistent type since I watched Benton Fraser reading his father’s journals in Due South, all in the same type of black notebook; although I’d want to have more variety of colour.
What are you using for your 2017 journal? Do you use the same type each year? When did you start your 2017 journal?
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I love how this is another web/digital media type person who favours writing journals on paper with fountain pen. All my novels are written first hand in leather-wrap journals and ink.
I love fountain pens. I have two, one I use at work (currently with purple ink) and one I use for my diary which was turned from a fallen maple tree and currently has red ink. If I was to write a book I don’t know if I’d want to write it by hand, how do you do your edits? Do you need to type it all up first? I think I’d get bored.
Although I can touch type (that Pitman course has got to be the single-most cost-effective course I’ve done of all my degrees and postgraduate qualifications), I find that the hand and the pen works at the right speed with my brain when I’m writing.
Yes, the entire first draft is handwritten and then typed up afterwards. I try to do it a chapter at a time, but if the muse is with me and i carry on writing then I have a bit of a catchup. I then print it off and go through it making edits and work it back it into the typed up version usin track changes.
I agree touch typing is a great skill and I’m wondering when should my daughter start learning. I like doing edits on paper as well, although at times I wonder if it is more efficient to do it digitally.