Blank Page Syndrome / New Notebook Rituals?

[GatzBcn]

I usually leave the first page in blank. When I finish the notebook, in calligraphy I write the date I started and the date I finished the journal, like "May 2014-October 2014".

Other than that, first thing I write is the date and then I don't remember anymore that the journal is new and I keep writing as if I was in the middle .

[ethernautrix]

I start with the Pens & Inks list.

[Kataphract]

I just put in my name, telephone number, and email, so if I lose the dang thing people can contact me.

 

Only then do I proceed to the quotes.

[Newjelan]

I write the date in my nicest writing in the middle of the front page as part of the "From To" time period with space to write the ending date when I'm finished. The next couple of pages are set up as "Table of Contents", then I number the first page. The notebook is now ready and eager to be used and I find it difficult to not get started.

[Joe in Seattle]

I have no angst with a blank page. The first page of the new journal is simply the continuation of the old journal.

[Sasha Royale]

 

Is everyone as afraid of new notebooks as I am?

 

~Miz Black Crow

 

My grandfather was attacked and killed in the Ardenne Forest by a new notebook, in

in 1926, during a rabbit hunt. I still have nightmares.

[Miz Black Crow]

Sasha,

 

SO sorry to hear about your grandfather! I lost my great-uncle a similar way, in a tragic paperie accident. He fell into a notebook and liked it so much he died there. I have vowed to soil ALL the pages in my inksome revenge....

[WaskiSquirrel]

I have no ritual and no qualms. I just write. I do like to date the pages and the notebook. For novel writing, that helps me keep track of things.

[fountainpenlady]

Routinely, I leave the first page blank, hate that quasi-awkward crease which happens. I prefer blank unlined journals which are bound; this deters me from being tempted to tearing out pages to revise. Yet, a box cutter could also remedy when in a pinch. Looked back over a couple of journals, I am a lover of affirmations.

Usually, the second page contains an affirmation or powerful quote. After I have gotten through the second page syndrome, the rhythm of moving forward to writing from then on seems to be no problem. Besides, love writing anyway, the leap into nothingness is not one for the faint of heart.

[Miz Black Crow]

I just started the second volume of my personal journal (MAN that went by quick!), and I chose to open with:

 

--A year and volume number (2015 Volume II), along with the date I opened it;

--Hoping that those who read what they shouldn't get what they deserve;

--Asking for blessings from the gods and the elements;

--A drawing of the symbol of my faith.

 

Quite fortuitous that fountainpenlady posted on this; I had meant to go back and find this thread and update with my revised opening passage, and she bumped it to the top of My Content.

[fountainpenlady]

I just started the second volume of my personal journal (MAN that went by quick!), and I chose to open with:

 

Miz Black Crow, began my journal last year, the day after Christmas, first day of Kwanzaa. In a couple of days, I will be finished it.

I am opening my second volume/act, during my birthday month with your quote on its first page. Thanks You, believe I have found a new inspirational quote..

[JKelly]

I start every day by noting the time, weather, and exterior temperature. Then I move on to whatever is on my mind.

[ac12]

Just started journal #20 today.

I do it like the start page for any day.

- I put the date on the top with an italic pen.

- Then just start writing below that.

 

It probably helps that I use very inexpensive Staples write bound notebooks (17 cents in their back to school sale), so I don't have the cost of an expensive journal hanging over me.

 

On the cover of the notebook I write the journal book number (this was #20), the start date, then leave a blank space for the end date. This is done with a Sharpie.

[JimCouch]

I look at a new journal as just an extension of the old. Other than putting my name, phone number and the start date on the 'title' page I write in it just as if I had turned the page for a new day. i write the date and sometimes the day of the week and begin my entry. I have no problem starting a new journal.

 

It may just be my nature. I usually work on my birthday unless it happens to coincide with my days off, my wife and I celebrate birthdays, anniversary, holidays, ect close to the day, but don't get stressed out trying to hit the exact day if that is difficult. It is just another day in the life, the same with my journals, I am only starting a new one because the old one filled up.

[thatotherguy1]

I usually put my name, phone number and some other contact information in the front of the book and I've recently gotten into the habit of testing various pens and inks on the very last page with the heading "Fountain Pen Test" then the name of the pen, name of ink, saturation coloring, figure 8s, crosshatching, maybe a bit of doodling, repeat.

 

I had even fewer qualms about writing in my current journal- it was a gift and the giver wrote a little note to the recipient (me) before I got it, so it was technically already started before I had it in my hands.

[drifting]

I suffered from Blank Page Syndrome for many a year, but then started writing this quote on that scary first page:

 

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

- Aristotle

 

Over the years, these two quotes have come to join it:

 

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
- Seneca

A year from now you may wish you had started today.

- Karen Lamb

I really like the Gaiman quote above.

The funny thing is, no sooner had I overcome the curse that is BPS than my NAD (Notebook Aquisition Disorder) flared up. Not to worry, it went into remission a while back, but I've still got more blank-save-three-first-page-quotes notebooks lying around than I could fill in a good five years.

Ryan.

[sakayume]

I usually have to tear out 2-3 pages before I'm happy with my handwriting. And then I leave the first page blank (though unlike everyone I don't go back later and fill it in). I find it very hard to spoil a pristine new notebook.

[Bookman]

I've been journaling by hand for twenty years and I haven't yet faced the first unused page of a journal and been at a loss for words. If it happened now, though, I would probably give myself permission to whine, and I would then whine about what had no doubt been pressing on my mind the previous few days, and lurking in the back of my mind since the last time I opened a journal: namely, how difficult it is to find the right journal, how I've never really been satisfied with what I've bought, at least—since I started using FPs exclusively— not for long, and I wonder how long it will take me to get tired of this one.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Bookman

[Studio97]

First page has my name and phone number and beginning date of the journal. I may start my first entry with time and current weather outside my window and then notes about anything that crosses my mind like a news event that was striking or something about someone I met or just anything. Hmmm that guy had wood screws in his earlobes. OK that was different and wouldn't be my choice. I really hadn't seen that before until yesterday .

[lancecreeks]

Here below are a few great opening lines. I always take pains not to write about writing.

 

Those are brilliant, thanks for sharing. My favourite is from Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood:

 

"From my window, the deep solemn massive street. Cellar-shops where the lamps burn all day, under the shadow of top-heavy balconied facades, dirty plaster frontages embossed with scrollwork and heraldic devices. The whole district is like this: street leading into street of houses like shabby monumental safes crammed with the tarnished valuables and second-hand furniture of a bankrupt middle class.

 

I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed."

 

Whoops, guess I got carried away. Simply love Isherwood's prose. With regards to the OP, I like giving a title to my journals before actually starting to write. Usually I would have thought of an apt one before reaching the end of the prior journal. These titles range from words or phrases that mean something to me or a particular lyric that I like, and set the tone of the journal.