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How Do You Finish Off Your Journal?


PAKMAN

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By that I mean, if you keep a journal running for the year and the year is over do you keep writing and start a new journal when it is full or do you stop, close it out, and start a fresh journal for the new year?

 

For myself I close out the journal no matter how much paper is left and start a new year in a new journal. I do write a synopsis of the old year and my thoughts on what kind of a year it was. Many times I start my new journal with thoughts or desires for the new year.

PAKMAN

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I just keep writing until it is full then start on the next one. I don't really do a synopsis or anything on the previous year. For me new years is a pretty artificial construct, it does not mean much to me, so I don't really see any reason to start a ne journal over the calendar change.

Jim Couch

Portland, OR

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I put the dates on the front page and I usually save the back pages for my budget and financial goals for that period.

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Write till I'm out of pages, then start the next one. I write 3 pages a day, so it's nice if the numbers work out, but that doesn't always happen. So occasionally I'm finishing up the last entry on the flyleaf, or writing "This page intentionally left blank".

Started a new one on the 1st of the year, just as it happened to work out, because I missed a day while traveling (I slept in one day last week, and had a choice -- write or eat breakfast before the hotel shut it down for the day). I had brought a new journal with me, but instead decided on trying the Miquelrius journal I picked up while in Boston.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Beginning in December of 2010 I started writing something I call, "Notes to Sophie" in a Gallery Leather journal. Sophie was born in April of 2011. To date, I have filled about 6 journals by writing her about 4 notes per week. She will be 4 years old in April and I plan to keep writing notes to her for many years. I try to use different fountain pens and different colors of ink every once in a while. Sometimes I tell her which pen I am using in hopes that someday she will have an interest in fountain pens and will even want some from my collection.

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I write until it is full or until I hit a logical stopping point even if I leave a page or two empty. Start a new one. I do write dates on spine. I use a Rhodia A5 webbie dot grid or Baron Fig as a bullet journal, use about 3 per year.

Grace and peace to you

:)

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I wish my life was interesting enough to fill up multiple journals in a year! I write 1/3 to 1/2 page a day and write on both sides so my 100 page journal refill lasts all year with maybe 1/3 of the pages empty. Maybe my resolution will be to find more to write about each day and finally fill one up! My big problem is when I miss a few days and have to catch up, I'm too brain dead to remember much that happened on the days I miss.

PAKMAN

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I only started writing in a notebook a little over a week ago. I have written in it during night, right before bed. I never wrote before because all of my attempts ended badly with me thinking too hard. Now, I think I almost do a sort of stream of conscious writing without trying to grasp at every minuscule thing I think. I just write the date at the beginning of the entry.

I like the ideas of writing the beginning and end dates on the cover and thinking back on the year.

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I wish my life was interesting enough to fill up multiple journals in a year! I write 1/3 to 1/2 page a day and write on both sides so my 100 page journal refill lasts all year with maybe 1/3 of the pages empty. Maybe my resolution will be to find more to write about each day and finally fill one up! My big problem is when I miss a few days and have to catch up, I'm too brain dead to remember much that happened on the days I miss.

I keep a morning pages journal. It's three pages of stream of conscious writing, first thing in the morning. Every morning (or nearly so). Even when writing on both sides of the page, I go through several per year. I've been looking for reasonably priced larger capacity journals as a result. The previous volume was 252 pages, IIRC, so it lasted a little over a quarter of a year. My new one is, I think 400 pages, made by Miquelrius, and a happenstance find at Bob Slade Stationers in Harvard Square when I was in Boston at the beginning of the week. The paper seems to be relatively FP friendly, depending on the ink (a fair amount of show through with Noodler's Qin Shi Huang, but Noodler's Henry Hudson Blue was pretty well behaved, as was Skrip Purple). If I like it well enough I may spring for one of the 600 page ones -- or possibly multiple ones to try and be slightly more cost-effective (wonder if I can get a case discount B)) -- but that would *still* be roughly three journals per year.

It's not that my life is interesting (because it often isn't). It isn't about that, (and it's not for public consumption -- it's extremely personal). It's about the act of writing, of putting pen to paper; and about the creative process of focussing one's thoughts and working stuff out in one's head and gaining insights. It's what comes out of my brain and through my fingers onto the page: it's often rambling and boring: snatches of half-remembered dreams and to do lists and ranting about stuff that happened and people who annoyed me and sometimes freaking out about stuff, and whether I have too many pens in rotation (and if I'm not really awake, probably fairly incoherent as well http://www.4smileys.com/smileys/thinking-smileys/think_smiley_24.gif). And on the few mornings that I can't do it for some reason (usually due to extreme time constraints) the day feels really weird and incomplete.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I just keep a running one; A5 Leuchtturm lined books. Then I've assorted pocket-sized Moleskine, Leuchtturm and Clairefontaine notebooks for all sorts of comments; spleen-venting and downright abuse. Such fun. Recently I've set up a Fenner Midori-style pocket leather cover with three Moleskine Cahieres in but as yet not many words.

Think I'll get a pen one day...

The Good Captain

"Meddler's 'Salamander' - almost as good as the real thing!"

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I start a new year with a new journal. Last year I filled one and a half Leuctturm. But it does not feel quite right to leave half a journal unwritten. All those lovely empty pages...

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I usually finish the journal, however, if the year is about to finish and I have few pages left, I will try to fill them summing up the year. Or the opposite, if few pages are left, I write using small letters and carefully, so I don't have to start a new journal until next year.

You are welcome to visit my blog: http://gatzbcn.blogspot.com/ and that is my shop: https://www.gatzbcn.com/shop

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When I wrote in bound books, I always just kept on writing - on both sides of the paper, using every square inch of space - until I'd reached the last page. Now, I write on looseleaf paper, and I archive the diary/sketch/scrapbook pages with each year's planner pages. I still write on both sides of the page and use every square inch of paper. :)

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I end each journal entry with: Written on a beautiful day with a "such and such" pen in my home town by Edw.A.Roth

Edited by FountainPages

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I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

 

Mark Twain

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I actually "finish" somewhere in the middle of the book and then just start another. I journal notes and sketches from front toward the back and use the back to the middle for recreational things like ink swatches, lettering, notes on favorite Doctor Who episodes, etc :)

Best regards,
Steve Surfaro
Fountain Pen Fun
Cities of the world (please visit my Facebook page for more albums)
Paris | Venezia

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I wish my life was interesting enough to fill up multiple journals in a year! I write 1/3 to 1/2 page a day and write on both sides so my 100 page journal refill lasts all year with maybe 1/3 of the pages empty. Maybe my resolution will be to find more to write about each day and finally fill one up! My big problem is when I miss a few days and have to catch up, I'm too brain dead to remember much that happened on the days I miss.

 

Bet your life is more interesting than you realize. Sometimes you have to look at old things with new eyes. Ask new questions - of yourself and of Life.

Not sure what you include in your writing and you can put anything you want in there. Keep in mind that it's your journal and you are free to write anything - even if it's not true!!

 

Practice being fictional for a while.

“Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, because if you do it today and like it, you can do again tomorrow!”

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As for my journals, I write until the book/notebook is full, sometimes leaving one or two pages at the end for an index or comments of some sort. I usually change ink (and pen) color every day and may or may not mention that as part of my entry.

 

Been keeping a journal for about 20+ years and have between 25,000 and 35,000 pages - mostly in different size books. My latest is a Clairefontaine A4 blank lined, 96 page book. Bought it for $3.30 - USD and use any ink and any pen, including dip pens for my entries.

“Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, because if you do it today and like it, you can do again tomorrow!”

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