I have been a "journal" keeper since about 1960. I write with real fountain pens in Boorum & Pease record

books, 300 pages. I have filled about 28 of these books. I do not write about extremely personal things. I know that, in the future when people read them, they will be disappointed that I did not. My question is --- What are your journals like? What do you write about? What kind of paper? Pens? I am sure that most modern journal keepers use the computer. It is tempting for me to change over to this form, but, to me, a journal should be in the person's own handwriting. However, I believe that with in three more generations, very few people will know how to read cursive handwriting, and then, who would care anything about what I wrote. Is there a "national" group of journal keepers, that share ideas about the "habit?" And that is exactly what it is, a habit. Even I do not seem to have much interest in reading my journals from many years ago. It seems to be something that I MUST do right now, and it seems to fade away after the thoughts are written. Anyone else feel that way?

Answers:

1I've been keeping a journal since I was 15 yrs old, I am turning 40 this year. I have a card board box under my bed full of them. A couple times a year I will pull the box and randomly start reading through one of them. Its nice to look back and see how I felt about things 10 or 15 years ago.

To answer your questions, I write about personal stuff, but I do not use my journal to vent. I am careful not to say hurtful things, and I do not use names. One of the things I record faithfully in my journal is any interesting dreams that I remember,and what I think they could mean. I also use the journal to chronicle the events of my life and how I am feeling about them as they happen.

When I was younger I was not fussy about what kind of journals I used, nor what kind of pens. Now I use a staedler pigment liner with a 2.25 nib, it is archival and has a fluid ink distribution. As for journals, I shop for journals constantly and buy ones that suit my fancy at the moment and generally say something about me. They are never very ornate, but they do tend to have drawings on them, and the drawings generally represent something about my life. My current journal has sketches of nibs on it....I am a calligrapher....

I hope that answers some of your questions :)

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