How Much Do You Write?

[senzen]

I write almost every day, even if it's just a few paragraphs; at work I will either jot down ideas which I then transfer to a presentation or spreadsheet, or centralize specific topics to a notebook; at home I write on a notebook. I just took a webinar, it was an interesting experience: read a book, watch some videos, take some notes and do the homework with my pens, capture the findings on the Word templates provided. So pen and paper helped me "process" the topics with less interruptions than on a computer or phone. Right now I've been trying to map the differences between the course's method and my own, again process on paper, capture and share digitally.

[sidthecat]

I will write in my journal daily if I’m not too tired...it helps me to keep my stinky ol’ opinions to myself in the workplace.

[Karmachanic]

Daily journal plus three A5 pages a day, as I slowly transcribe a Buddhist text.

[Inky-Republic]

I make a point of writing every day, - if for no other reason than to ensure I don't lose the skills altogether!

 

I still take written notes at meetings, since emphasising key points in handwriting is more fruitful than listening to bland recordings afterwards. Actually, I find written notes save time post-meeting, since you tend to cut straight to the chase with what you have written.

 

I continue to employ mental arithmetic in everyday life and often do calculations with pen and paper. I can't believe how stumped some folks are without a calculator or spreadsheet to hand. Advanced engineering calculations OK - I'll use a spreadsheet with the best of them, but adding up a shopping list - really?

 

I review a lot of design drawings in my profession and find it much better to add ideas and notes directly to the printed drawing in handwriting. This can be augmented with a little p&i drawing in the corner - and our design engineers will always prefer this kind of input to folks dicking around with their code!

 

I'm the first to embrace electronic word processing, since I can arrange my thoughts with ease, review and edit mental rhythm within the narratives and (Hoorah!) spell check the document before publishing. All that being said, eliminating handwriting altogether would be a dreadful mistake, not only in terms of nostalgia, but also in a very practical sense. The elephant in the room of course is that one mass coronal ejection could put us all back in the stone-age for years, so best not to give up all the traditional hand and mind skills just yet eh!

[Writer44]

It's been a long time, some years, since I posted here at FPN. It's also been about 7 years since I wrote my last novel. I did write a bunch of screenplays (TV pilots) in those years.

 

At any rate, I finally wrote another book.

 

From the week after Thanksgiving to late January, I was writing every day, more than 2k words average. My handwriting is absolutely terrible, worse than ever. But I can decipher it. Usually.

 

Hope to continue writing now again for a few years.

[LeftyJim]

More like anti-social media

Fantastic!

 

I will write in my journal daily if I’m not too tired...it helps me to keep my stinky ol’ opinions to myself in the workplace.

Also fantastic!

 

All journal writers please consider the following: What happens to our journals when we kick the bucket? Just a little something I have been pondering lately.

 

Within my journal I am 100% honest and up front about every little thing. If I die tomorrow my family will likely find them and probably read them; it is only human isn't it? The thought of my journal becoming public is both terrifying and hilarious to me. Ultimately I would be dead so no biggie I suppose. Just wondered how everyone feels about theirs?

[Shaggy]

Fantastic!

 

Also fantastic!

 

All journal writers please consider the following: What happens to our journals when we kick the bucket? Just a little something I have been pondering lately.

 

Within my journal I am 100% honest and up front about every little thing. If I die tomorrow my family will likely find them and probably read them; it is only human isn't it? The thought of my journal becoming public is both terrifying and hilarious to me. Ultimately I would be dead so no biggie I suppose. Just wondered how everyone feels about theirs?

I used to keep mine. Then I reread a few and thought I sounded petty and whiney.

 

Now I throw them out. If something was a secret during life, it should remain a secret after my death.

Edited May 21, 2019 by Shaggy

[miwishi63]

I used to keep mine. Then I reread a few and thought I sounded petty and whiney.

 

Now I throw them out. If something was a secret during life, it should remain a secret after my death.

 

I'm in agreement. I used to journal on the computer using an encrypted file. Now I write by hand, but don't foresee passing them on since, like you, they sound petty and whiney, although there's no denying the therapeutic value...

[Shaggy]

 

I'm in agreement. I used to journal on the computer using an encrypted file. Now I write by hand, but don't foresee passing them on since, like you, they sound petty and whiney, although there's no denying the therapeutic value...

Absolutely! I find value in the writing, not necessarily in the re-reading.

[LeftyJim]

Absolutely! I find value in the writing, not necessarily in the re-reading.

I am afraid of re-reading my own. But it is on my to-do list. I am hoping it will highlight personal growth and changes in opinion. And it will give me something else to journal about. Re-read a journal and then write about it in a later journal.

[inkstainedruth]

Fantastic!

 

Also fantastic!

 

All journal writers please consider the following: What happens to our journals when we kick the bucket? Just a little something I have been pondering lately.

 

Within my journal I am 100% honest and up front about every little thing. If I die tomorrow my family will likely find them and probably read them; it is only human isn't it? The thought of my journal becoming public is both terrifying and hilarious to me. Ultimately I would be dead so no biggie I suppose. Just wondered how everyone feels about theirs?

 

My attitude about people reading my journals after I'm gone? If they don't like what I've said about them, that's on them. My journal entries are whatever comes into my brain on any given morning goes out onto those daily three pages. And yes, I do rant about people sometimes, if that's what's on my mind. And someone reads something that's less than complimentary? Tough. It's the truth about how I felt at the time I was writing. I don't sugar coat things.

I know that some people keep a journal just for the rants and venting, and then burn it when it's filled up, but that's not me. I have enough different notebooks and journals going as it is -- I'm supposed to buy a separate one just for that? I mean, I'm on my second volume of poetry I've written. I've got one composition book from when I was taking the creative writing class this spring, plus another one from when I was reading one of those books that give you "prompts" to give you ideas for stories. I've got the one that my husband commissioned from a friend as a surprise gift to me after we had commissioned a couple of smaller ones from her -- that one sat for a year before I figured out what to do with it (I ended up using it for when I retried doing The Artists' Way creativity course a couple of winters ago. And I will use it to try doing the course again at some point maybe this summer and maybe I'll actually get through it completely this time. I have a couple of small Eco Systems journals (one with lined pages as a more portable poetry journal, and one with blank pages that I've done sketches in). I now have one of the Nanami B6 Cafe notebooks that I think is going to become a better quality commonplace book than the original one, which was a cheap composition book; and I have probably 8 or 10 OTHER composition books in various stages of writing or not (they work well for poetry -- but for fiction? I'm going back to printer paper and a clipboard....

Oh and I have picked up a few other sketch books along the way as well. Plus several notebooks and sketchbooks for keeping track of what ink works in what pen (or not) and doing general reviews and tests of inks. I don't post those here because I've discovered that the cheap absorbent paper in the sketchpads (the bargain Piccadilly ones from Barnes and Noble) does weird things to ink colors....

And that's not counting a bunch of small notebooks and notepads for things like to do lists, keeping track of expenses, and general notes such as "Now which booth at this antiques mall have pens in the case?" Fortunately, at the place I was at yesterday, only two booths had pens so it was fairly easy to keep track of the booth numbers; and yes, as of 5:30 PM yesterday the pens were all still there; there were an amazing number of Esterbrook J series pens, but no nibs that are still on my short list, although I did buy a bottle of vintage Skrip Washable Blue, a small bottle -- new and full -- of J Herbin Rose Cyclamen, a Parker Quink souvenir pin -- I got the blue, but they also had pins for Quink Black and Quink Red -- and a Sunshine cloth.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TSherbs]

.... Just wondered how everyone feels about theirs?

I don't work out my (bleep) in my journals. My daily writing is meditative. I write to express thoughts of gratitude in the form of prayers, poems, etc. Anyone could read them anytime. I actually throw them out as a process of reminding me that they serve in the present moment of composing, not before or after.

[Karmachanic]

 

 

 

All journal writers please consider the following: What happens to our journals when we kick the bucket? Just a little something I have been pondering lately.

 

 

My journals go to recycling when filled

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

I kept journals when I was in school. One day someone stole it and read it out loud to the class. After that, I invented a kind of coded writing which comes in handy if I need to jot down passwords and stuff I don't want other people to read (like a note of what I'm buying so and so for christmas).

 

For some reason, we kept my old journals. Not a very interesting read - just the kind of thing teenagers find important. I really think I should toss them out but the pattern of the secret writing is kind of pretty if you don't know what it's saying.

[MHBru]

I make a point of writing everyday and have a goal of at least one notecard or letter daily. I also keep a commonplace journal... my first effort of its kind in my 65 years... it started out as a place to record words of wisdom have accumulated over the years and realized that keeping them on my phone or ipad really wasn't keeping them at all so i started transcribing them. Then came a collection of prayers... some goofy jokes and then the occasional review of life. I don't work out moral arguments or issues I may be having at the time... there is nothing in there I don't want someone else to read... in actuality my dream is that in the years after I am gone my wife and children can read my words... maybe while even holding one of the pens i used to write them with... nothing in there that i wouldn't want someone else to read. I use a Rhodia hardcover A5 notebook and I'm just about finished my first one... the second one is ready and waiting for the last page of volume one to be written.

[inkstainedruth]

I kept journals when I was in school. One day someone stole it and read it out loud to the class. After that, I invented a kind of coded writing which comes in handy if I need to jot down passwords and stuff I don't want other people to read (like a note of what I'm buying so and so for christmas).

 

For some reason, we kept my old journals. Not a very interesting read - just the kind of thing teenagers find important. I really think I should toss them out but the pattern of the secret writing is kind of pretty if you don't know what it's saying.

 

I got rid of my old journals from high school -- they had turned into a list of what songs I'd heard on the radio... Not remotely interesting, even to me.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LeftyJim]

A little shocked at how many of us throw them away. Seems an awful waste of human time and effort, experience and erm... ink. They are our stories. Our history. Ironclad (ish) proof of what we thought, felt and communicated. Equal to memories of those who will have known us in terms of our legacies...

 

Or they are the rantings of insignificance and worth nothing but trouble post turned page...

[sansenri]

I don't write journals, nor stories or anything else that involves just writing for the writing.

It gets boring (probably I don't have the talent).

 

But I have a fountain pen always with me for anything else.

The pen is a sort of extension of the mind. I take notes on everything. Ideas, things to do, things to remember, plans, solutions to problems.

At work I write constantly, tasks, notes, reports, strategies. Very often first I think with the pen in hand and write a scheme, a diagram that helps me focus on things, their relations with other things, the timelines, the risks and benefits, etc. Then I sum up things on the PC.

At home I do very much the same thing, with family tasks and responsibilities.

And I love to do lists! I just love crossing out executed tasks and write the list anew with new tasks and without the carried out ones.

(I have used many PC to do systems, and still do use some, but there's nothing like the satisfaction of drawing a line on a completed task!)

 

and as some have said I find it's a great help to memory, especially if you use schemes.

Images have a great power on memory, and your own handwriting has a similar power, your brain recognizes your hand. Anything you write by hand is far more easily remembered than if you type it, and when you read you own handwriting you reactivate the memory of when you wrote it.

 

When I'm at work I can see that I write much more than anybody else around me, most people do everything on the PC (or smartphones etc)

 

In view of this method of always taking notes, reality is I write quite a lot, despite you will never read a novel from me...

[Albrecht17]

I write at least two pages in my journal each day. It helps me to clear my head before bed and remember everything I did that day. Living with a personality and concentration disorder makes that some days feel like three mashed together, so the journal helps organize that. When the moment comes I'm not around any more, I hope it will trigger memories for my SO when and if he reads the journals.

 

Furthermore, I write to do lists, a diary and calendar, make home improvement plans (with costs added on the paper and without calculator!) and when I have the time, write short stories or novels by hand. I love that I have to slow down my thinking to be able to write stories by hand. I make fewer mistakes and better sentences. Typing the stories into the computer also works as a round of editing, saves me time in the long run.

 

The only thing I do write up in my phone is our grocery list. I've spent too many times in a supermarket with my list still on the kitchen counter...

[Studio97]

A little shocked at how many of us throw them away. Seems an awful waste of human time and effort, experience and erm... ink. They are our stories. Our history. Ironclad (ish) proof of what we thought, felt and communicated. Equal to memories of those who will have known us in terms of our legacies...

 

Or they are the rantings of insignificance and worth nothing but trouble post turned page...

I keep them as they include anything I have thoughts about on the planet, our on going middle east issues, local flooding, you name it. I include artwork and photos. Memorial day again....I write a few notes about those days toward Vietnam events and and always about Linebacker II operation. I occassionally talk with a couple of guys from my squadron who came back. All of my 60+ filled journals are too valuable to me to toss away. I would be throwing away a part of myself.

 

I received a new set of hearing aides today from the VA. Good to hear better again. Our VA is awesome and so it goes in the journal. And there is an invisible note on the front cover..."no whining"