Pen or Pencil?
"Grab any writing device, it doesn't matter."
Not! Don't believe them! Pens matter. If your pen skips, stops working, is too light/heavy or unbalanced in your hand, you'll soon stop journaling. Spend some time finding the right pen.
Some folks go overboard on this. Some journal writers suggest finding that pen that "you can connect with" or that "speaks to you." I hope it doesn't speak to me or I'll need more than private journaling to resolve those voices.
No, I'm talking about a practical pen that is a joy to write with. A good pen is one that responds quickly to your style of writing (left handed?), never hesitates, in short, is reliable.
I prefer waterproof pens.
Why? For one reason, they wont smear while holding the book's page. As I write down the page I use my left thumb to hold the book open (especially is this true on a new journal). The moisture from my thumb can smear the non-waterproof inks and create thumb prints down the page as I progress.
Another reasone I prefer waterproof is that I like to draw or doodle in my journal. Some days later I may return to a drawing and fill it in with some watercolor. Non waterproof inks smear and mix with the clean watercolor and crate a muddy mess.
Uniball Vision Micro (0.5) or Fine (0.7) are my favorites. I can leave them uncapped while I ponder a point without fear of them drying out. They last an entire 4-6 weeks of constant drawing. (I experimented using a single Uniball pen for work journaling, private journaling, and note taking at meetings. Results? A single pen lasted five weeks.) The felt tipped pens will dry out if I leave them uncapped. I often leave my Uniball uncapped on my desk through the day without a problem. Would it last longer if I capped it? Perhaps.
Hardbound, spiralbound, looseleaf Journal?
I've read lots of conflicting advice on this:
"Write in/on whatever material you feel comfortable with."
"Write only in long hand in a book journal."
"It doesn't matter what you write in, could be a private blog, computer file, hard bound journal."
"Use three ring binder and cheap copy paper. Then you can remove and add pages as you like."There is something special about writing long hand in a book while pondering the day's events. They love to quote The Artist's Way and the recommendation of Julia Cameron of writing three pages (I think that is what it is) of long hand every morning. I actually enjoyed doing that for many days. It was a practice that John Stienbeck used while writing The Grapes Of Wrath. He wrote several pages longhand to his editor each morning before he wrote his draft's contents that day. (Read about this in A Book Of One's Own by Thomas Mallon. My all time favorite book on keeping a journal.)
My advice?
Use a journal book, not a computer file.
While I like to write stories on computer on in a blog, private journals should be in a hard cover book. Here's why: The pages should not be removable (such as a three-ring binder or spiral notebook) because you want to go back weeks, months, even years later to review what you wrote. Seeing the entries in context will help you see yourself grow. It puts the whole writing history in perspective. You'll return to your current writing journal with a better perspective. You'll whine less. You'll focus on what matters more. Believe me when I say: The single thing you could do to improve your writing and journaling is to see it in perspective. You can't do that if you tear out pages.
The IBM PC personal computer was invented in 1981. Since then we have seen word processors change dramatically. I personally have learned seven or more text editors on personal computers. Not all of them provided interchangeable file formats. What I wrote in WordStar was not readable by WordPerfect except through some intermediate format that lost paragraph marks, bold, and underlines. Additionally, I've owned at least 20 or more machines since my first personal computer. Some of them gave out on me when I least expected, losing some of my data files in the process.
A book never crashes. It's true you could loose a book through carelessness, theft, or a fire. If the pain of losing your journals is too great for you to contemplate, consider scanning your pages and keep them on the internet in a private place somewhere. However, I have moved across country three times and all my journals come right along with me. Although, if I had scanned them I would not have needed to pack them all each time. But I recommend keeping a book journal and never throwing them out.
But there is a greater reason for keeping your journal in a book than the worry about file formats. You'll want to flip through it's contents and randomly scan it's contents. This is more difficult to do using computer files. Additionally, I like doing some sketching. Pictures often bring back the memory faster than words. An illustrated journal will help you recall events in a richer way. More on that later.
A book never crashes. You can drop it and it still works. You can quickly flip through it and see the beauty the written page fan past in all it's hand written glory. If you change pen colors occationally, you'll see rainbows as you do this. Better, if you add some doodles or illustrations copied from the events of your life, you'll relive the happy events in a flash. Nothing is better, more personal, than a hand crafted account of your life.
Hard cover journal
Hard cover book? Why? Most of my writing is done in my lap. Hard cover books simply give you the portable "desk" to support the floppy pages of your journal. You want to be able to write anywhere, desk or none. Having a hard cover book give support to your writing surface, even if it is in your lap.
Keep a hand written and illustrated hard bound book as your journal. You'll never regret it.
Size?
Not too big, you will not pack it in your suitcase when you go on vacation. And what value is your life's journal without your vacation events included?
Not too small, you want to write meaningful things in it, enough to capture the sights, sounds, and feelings of the occasion, not to mention a sketch or two.
So what size? The best all around size I've found to be most convenient is 5x7 or 6x8 inches. It ought to have a full year's worth of pages, that is about 400 pages or 200 leafs. This gives 365 days (if a page a day) plus a few extra pages for those especially eventful days. You can use an indexing method to extend your day past a single page.
Types of Journals
You may also wish to keep a few different type of journals.
1. Work Journal: projects, dates, times, sketches of UI
2. Priviate Journal: Reflections of the day
3. Visual Journal: Sketches of everyday things with some writing
