If you are the type who use journal(diary) events or your life experiences, would you consider using online diaries/journal or the pen and paper way?

Electronic journal is much cheaper and in a way environmental friendly(comments from others). Using notebook journal in the long run will soon fill up space and it is prone to unauthorised viewing.

Online(macs, pc's, desktops included) or Notebook?

I have an online journal, but it's emphatically not the same thing as a paper journal. When I'm writing in my online journal, I'm writing to an audience, so it's more like correspondence than a journal proper. There are people out there reading it for entertainment, running across it randomly, or searching for things tht show up in it, so it's a more public face than my paper soul is.

Barny,

Another great thread starter.

I recently launched a blog and find it fascinating in that it is interactive. Comments come in and inspire or inform me. I'm a MAC user by the way.

However, I maintain hand written journals on various subjects that are fountain pen and paper based. These serve a related but different purpose. As for unauthorized viewing, this doesn't worry me. There's nothing in them that couldn't be on the front page of the local newspaper and be embarrassing.

One of the things about online journals is the possibility of them disappearing in cyberspace. Sure, my hard copy books could be ruined, destroyed or lost, but at least the loss might be more under my own control. Similarly, online materials may suffer compatibility problems in the future. I'll leave my hard copies behind for anyone (friend, relative, stranger) who may be interested. All they will need is an understanding of the English language and the patience to suffer through my handwriting.

Keep those question/thread starters coming. I enjoy reading about other individuals methods and madness.

44

My journalling is done long hand with fountain pen and ink. No online journalling for me.
As far as privacy concerns are concerned, my private journals live in a locked metal filing cabinet.
But, to each his/her own, I guess.

Thanks Writer44.

Same as you, what worries me is the sudden disappearing in cyberspace. Worse, if I don't keep a backup file saved elswhere. Before, I was more worried about the unauthorised viewing of my written journal. Now, after reading your post, I realised that the reader should have the patience and the skill to decipher my handwriting.

I've used both, and continue to use both, and the uses change over time. Generally if it's truly private, I will not put it online. Doesn't seem like much point to put something on a website password-protected so that only I can see. An online journal is great for a variety of daily notes where I want feedback from others.

When I'm journalling only for myself, whether it's personal or even business, it goes on paper.

I'd challenge the premise that an online or electronic journal is actually more environmentally friendly than paper. I don't have any numbers or statistics about this, but a new journal every couple of months over your lifetime still isn't one whole tree's worth of paper. A new computer every couple of years is a whole lot of toxic junk that needs to be disposed of, plus all that electricity has to come from somewhere. There's chemicals that go into bleaching paper and I haven't studied it all enough to know all the variables, but I really doubt that writing in a journal has a greater environmental impact than owning a computer.

I consider anything I put on a computer to be "throw-away" stuff. Sooner rather than later, the computer will crash and dump everything into the bit bucket, or the media the text is written on will change and dead end everything.

Things I write for serious go on good paper with permanent ink. It is all meant to be read by others. "Behold my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Paddler

All my diaries are handwritten. I keep forgetting to fill in electronic ones.

Written text survived over the centuries so what we write today may be read by others. If that's the case, we should fill pens with eternal inks.

I have a "creative and open source" blog at my address below. I also have a Livejournal. However, I find that my Livejournal is too much like being on stage. People are going to read it, and sometimes that causes drama. I use paper and ink for the personal stuff, and LJ for things I want to share with friends.

Barny,

I see your latitude at 13.00. I'm headed to 12.35, only a few miles south of you. But I'll be at 73 west. Too bad I can't see over the horizon.

By the way, enjoy these threads. It is interesting to hear how people express, record, and apply their creativity.

Thanks,

44

I keep both a paper journal and an electronic journal. The electronic journal resides on my laptop and is carefully backed up in various locations including my .mac account. The paper journal is the one place I go when I simply want to slow down and enjoy writing at a slower pace. Since I'm a writer and graphic designer, I tend to include sketches and visual notes in combination with my writing in my paper journal. Besides, I love to draw and write with my various pens.

I was always a paper journal keeper until about 4 months ago. I started a blog about changing my diet and the impact it's had on my life (significant!):

http://lowcarbevangelist.blogspot.com/

Now it's kind of blossomed into my main diary/journal/writing project. Actually, I'm very glad I made the switch because I'm one of those people who would write for years and years and years and never go back and read through my stuff or type it up. With my blog, I copy my entries to a word document every day so I've got a back up. I feel like blogging is a very free type of form and in fact, I did a post on Why Blog just the other day, in case anyone's interested:

http://lowcarbevangelist.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-blog.html

I really love blogging! (In case you can't tell...)

Janine

I keep a paper journal for thinking. I don't record the day's events I use the time and space to think on paper. I don't plan on letting anyone see these.

I have four on line journals running at the moment - three of them are fictional and public the other is private. I wouldn't use a journal site that did not have a privacy option.

Fictional journals are fun. You can be whatever and whoever you like.

i have both an online journal for thoughts that i'm willing to share to the public and a paper journal for thoughts i'd rather keep to myself.

For my work I keep a 'journal' in outlook as a daily list of tasks competed & other imprtant things.

It has been very useful to be able to search and find something. As well I can have copies several places so if I loose anything it may be a day or few of writing. I can imagine doing something similar with private but the loss is for pictures or sketching that the computer does not handle well.

I'll never use an online journal. My typing ability is even worse than my penmanship.

I guess I'm a traditionalist. My only journaling is on paper. I started when my father passed away as a way to let out the pain that I couldn't express verbally. Being a computer nut first then later a fountain pen nut it would make sense to journal on the computer but I stick with paper as a way to get me to write, to improve my handwriting, and to use a variety of fountain pens that I wouldn't normally have reason to ink and use.

Well, I kept an online journal for a while, but I would never put anything truly private on the internet. Passwords only work so well.

I've just started keeping a paper journal, sort of to help myself work through my thoughts and whatnot (since I'm not that good at it being the worlds greatest introvert) and it seems to help me a lot. A very therapeutic effect that I don't get from typing stuff out. There's just something about putting nib to paper and working out all your worries that I can never get out of a computer.

I have two journals plus my notebook at work. My first journal is more for personal notes, ideas, things I want to do, songs/groups I like and need to buy said music and the other is for home/buisness related things (i.e. notes about my car......). Overall, I like writing my notes as it helps me remember things better and gives me a reason to use my pens.

I will never ever ever use an online journal. There are some things that should be done the time honored way.

Excellent thread. I have been journaling since junior high, so for about 15 years. I write in a paper journal. I can take my journal everywhere I go. I don't need to plug it in and I don't need Wi-Fi to use it. I do however transcribe the journal into a Word document that I save on my computer. I find that this is most helpful when looking for a particular event in my life.

I have an online diary but I don't update it often. I like the concept and because I like to dabble a bit in html it allows me a place to play with templates and such.

If given a choice, I'd choose pen and ink.

I keep a blog on line and a personal, written journal for myself. I like being able to look at my writing at the various different points in my life - not to mention that paper is nicer than a computer screen!

i use a blog more for the purposes of "efficient correspondence". to update pals halfway across the world on what's going on with me, and my friends return the favour. i write letters too, of course, but one can only write so many. which is where the love of the interweb kicks in. then there's the personal journal .. for personal things.

I can only keep one. More than that and it gets pointless. Paper works better for me. I worry about the green thing... but whoever said that it doesn't matter is probably correct. The one tree that died for my lifetime of journals and the energy into make those is probably less than the half hour of keeping my computer on every day... maybe? I'm going to have a computer either way, so maybe it is more earth friendly... hmmm

Either way, it just works better for me in a physical journal.

No reason you can't do both!

I begin gathering my broodings and wordy pontifications with fountain pen and journal, then transfer them to my online journal later (after any potential editing).

Michael
http://thedayonfire.blogspot.com

I'd say quite the opposite is more likely to be the case. Online documents are mirrored and archived by many different servers. You are much more likely to never be rid of an online entry, even if you meticulously delete the original document. Your works are likely to be saved for posterity somewhere on the internet, long after your journal has yellowed, been inadvertently thrown away or destroyed by someone unhappy with its content.

Your descendants need only run the right search thread to pull it up and run a password cracker long enough, to gain access to whatever their ancestor wrote.

It depends on content really.

I find I use my online journal for superficial things. Or not to really say superficial but more like plans on self-improvement, things that go on television and really spend most of my time not on my own journal but perusing or commenting on my friends journal.

My personal book journal is written in much the way Ludwig Wittgenstein captured his thoughts. It can go from one line--dated to several pages dated. So it's a very reflective journal that spends more time delving into my mind either superficially or extremely indepth.

From time to time I do transpose my writing, but very rarely.

I keep both (though the blog has been languishing for a long time now, must get back on that). The journal is for whatever I want to record personally; the blog is more for things I want to publish to anyone who cares - but I hand-write both, and just scan in the blog posts.

Huh. This might be the only trace I leave...

Maybe I should start telling my REALLY GOOD stories on-line...!

I consider my stupid blog as where I go when I need to get on my soapbox. I sure do say some dumb things, sometimes, but I still feel many of them needed to be said, no matter how unpleasant or unpopular (I think my most recent entry was about why so many students bomb out of online classes, an earlier one about my never-ending quest to find jeans that actually *fit*....it's pretty random). I used to hand draft my bloggination, but I don't any more.

I keep a 'problem book' (which I guess most people would call a journal, where I think out solutions to life's little difficulties--most recently, how to handle a student who is *already* a discipline problem) that's private and messy.

And recently I've started keeping a 'teaching journal' where I write down what I did that day with my students, how well it went, refinements to make next time, how *I* felt, etc. The entries are short and probably also hebephrenic sounding, but I've found since I started that I have a much better sense of control over the classroom.

I do wonder about the public/private--I mean, I'd sure be a little embarrassed if someone rummaged through my problem book, but it's not exactly scandalous reading. What kinda saucy stuff you guys up to that makes your journals DefCon Three security?

HK

"The environment" never enters my decision-making. Plus there are always hidden costs for free things.

I have a LiveJournal but I consider everything I write in that (or anywhere else on line) as a post card, that is, for public viewing.

My real day-to-day journal has been and always will be on paper. Plus what better reason to have a great supply of pens, inks and journals on hand at all times?

I don't really like to keep a journal on things - on account of that I'm not really an expressive person, nor am I well-versed in writing. My blog, however, is more of a social portal with which to interact with other people using my entries as a starting point for conversations. I cannot count the number of friends, albeit online, I've made through it.

I have a blog on my Myspace page. Although, I used to have a journal I used to write in back in the day when I was in junior high school, before the internet. If I wasn't so lazy busy, I would write in a journal again.

I've spent most of my life dealing with images, and I never put much effort into writing. I would often sketch or doodle but never write anything down. I recently started a blog that's mainly focused on my graphic noodlings. The funny thing is that creating a blog about images got me thinking about writing. It always bugs me when visual artists simply post an image and don't offer any text explaining their thought process, working methods or anything like that.

My blog is still pretty young and I haven't gotten that deep into it yet. I want to get more into writing about the process and techniques of creating images. You can check it out here: Not Like the Camera

I like your drawing style, rcannonp. If I could, I would keep a journal that is filled with sketches or drawings in that style and like Paul Madonna's (are you familiar with him?) with handwritten narrative (I also print e-mails and paste those into the books).

Alas.

Thanks.

It was only recently that I discovered the Moleskine pocket sketchbooks(I didn't know that it was a cult). I've found that I'm 97% more likely to use something if it fits in my pockets. A couple of months ago I went to Ireland and Vietnam. That was where I first really tried writing things down. I would try and write whatever was in my head at the time and include doodles to go along with it. Here is an example of that. The images that I posted in the Noodler's Red-Black thread are experiments for future excursions.

I don't know Paul Madonna. I'll have to go look him up.

Paul Madonna has a comic called All Over Coffee.

Yeah, I picked up a Moleskine journal years ago in a Brooklyn bookstore, didn't write in it for another couple of years, and all of a sudden, it seemed, it was all the rage. I like some of the Moleskine art websites. I like how there's all this attention paid to what people put into their Moleskines.

Yeah, like the examples you linked. Those are cool! That is a great talent!

I remember him now. I stumbled across his “All Over Coffee” book in Borders. I liked the drawings, but didn't quite get it at the time. I'll have to go give it another look.

Without the work it's just a $12 notebook.