I began writing a novel from a period of loneliness and confusion and went on to create a blog, to having paid jobs writing for book and writing websites, to gaining a literary agent, to starting an Instagram account and becoming an 'influencer', to YouTube…whilst all that time having an on/off relationship with my novel and plotting out another one.
This is my writing journey told through my writing notebooks.
My latest video is a comparison of A5 notebooks . I am a bit of a notebook addict it has to be said but I did need a couple of new ones to replace my now full planning notebook and writing journal. Whether I needed six to replace two is besides the point!
I thought it would be interesting and useful, however, to take a selection of A5 notebooks, both hard and soft cover all available to be delivered and do a short comparison of them.
All notebooks are A5. Five of them are lined and one is dotted. Two brands have 120gsm paper and the rest have either 80gsm or 70gsm. I believe all of them except the Lemome are produced by British companies.
I've come to the end of my first writer's journal of 2020 so I've decided to do a flip through of some of the pages.
I've thoroughly enjoyed writing in this dark blue Lemome lined journal. Inside I write down all my ideas. They might be regular journal thoughts, ideas that (frustratingly!) come to me before I go to sleep, a few sentences, some feelings, brainstorming and from all of this I create my essays, my novel, my non-fiction, my blog posts and videos.
And it all begins with some scribbles in a journal.
This is my video where I flip through and show you what I’ve done on each page and how my ideas have developed.
Journaling is fast becoming one of my favourite ways to spend my time. The gentle art of writing in a lovely notebook helps me not forget my ideas, to make space for more thinking and ideas and helps relieve anxiety.
If you're looking for ideas on how to fill your journals and notebooks I am sharing a journal flip through to show how I fill mine. My journals are often messy but each one has a definite purpose.
I use one journal as a writing bullet journal to track and log my writing and creative projects. I use another to plan my writing and creative tasks. I have others for particular writing projects such as my book proposal, essays and YouTube scripts. Then I have some simply to journal and to free up space in my head.
In this video I share each notebook I’ve used in the last six months. There’s a completed journal, a couple of new notebooks and I also share how my notebooks (and writing) have been affected by the recent pandemic