Paper journals

[hearthstone]

I mentioned these a few entries ago. I've kept one since fall of 1984 (I was 22, do the math :)), and I wish I'd started keeping one sooner. Actually, "one" isn't the operative word, because I'm on volume

::goes to check::

67. Yes, I said 67.

I don't do visual journaling and I'm not artistic about it, I just write. Books must be reasonably thick, lined vs. unlined doesn't matter much, absolutely may not be spiral-bound, and should be hardcover (although book 67 is softcover, and it sucks so bad to write in!!!)

I write a lot more in my paper journal than I do in my LJ. (Well, I spend less time on the computer than I do elsewhere, so that'd make sense.) I write more personal stuff, I think it's a matter of posture. I can only write the really angsty whiny stuff when I'm in a comfy chair, which the computer chair really isn't. Sometimes I write the same things, but not often. The purpose is different, the audience is different.

Some things I don't write anywhere at all.

I'm not really secretive, but some people work through things by talking to others, and some people do so alone, and I'm generally one of the latter.

Reasons to keep a journal:
1. To remember.
2. To vent.
3. To define or refine one's thoughts.
4. To win arguments about what happened when, years after the fact. (Of course you win, you have documentation!)
5. To leave something of your self.

Comments

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

To me, LJ is more like an APA, or Amateur Press Association. If you don't know what an APA is:

"APA:
Amateur Press (or Publishing) Association. A group of people who share a common interest in writing, and in reading what the other members have produced. Each member produces a certain number of pages of text (serious comment, comments on other people’s writing, or general natter as the mood takes them) and sends it into the Official Editor before the deadline. The editor collates the copies into the same number of bundles as there are APA members and sends them out again every few months. Terms and conditions of membership vary from APA to APA, but they have certain things in common, mainly a set activity requirement."

The bit difference is that our Official Editor (also know as the CM, or Central Mailer) is Live Journal, and it is sent out right away. I've been doing APAs since the early 1980's, and in Science Fiction Fandom, where APAs (and Fanzines) came from, they have been doing it since the 1930s!

ttyl

[qorinda.livejournal.com]

I've kept a paper journal since I was in Junior High. I think I started my very first diary on Jan 1st 1967. I wish I had kept them more organized than I did. I usually used spiral notebooks, but they were all soft covered, and I didn't number them, although I named and dated them. I have all but one, stored in bank boxes. I think I have 8 or 9 bank boxes now. I lost the one that had poems by a late friend of mine - one of my few regrets in life. I think it inadvertently got thrown out, when I took it out to show someone else, and didn't put it back.

Lately I have been updating more online than in my paper journal. I think it is a reflection of feeling more at peace with life in general. Of course, it might just be because I spend a LOT of time online!