Writing a journal and thoughts on writing

With the amazing advancement of technology, and the use of the internet that springs about electronic blogs all over the place where everyone can digitally decorate their ‘journal’ why then does the stationery industry earn a lot of money from journals? Why do people still buy blank notebooks? Why do people still bother with spending money when they can get something similiar for free?

Let me answer all the questions I have asked with my own personal experinces. The draft of this article for example, could have been done on Microsoft Word, instead of writing it out in a journal and then typing it out again. Maybe the actual reason to why I prefer this method cannot be explained. To me, having a journal is like having a safe place where all raw thoughts are contained before they are exposed for everyone to see. In my journal, I can doodle in the free space that I have between words, I can write as fast as I can and not worry about what people would think about my handwriting; I can write whatever I want to, whatever comes to mind at first.

Personally, even though I might have online outlets to place thoughts, stories, quotes and everything else that I might want to write, whatever I put there is usually the final draft of it. Having a journal enables me to look back on all the different drafts I had before i reached that final one. Even though I might not have used the earlier drafts, when I look through older works, I can actually find inspiration from there to create newer things at a totally different time.

Having a journal also helps in showing how much we have grown over time. Things that one put put in a journal three years ago might make him or her laugh during his or her present age. Journalling is also a great way to record a person’s personal history.

In my journal, I love to write down quotes from different people, songs, movies and so on and so forth. Looking back at things that inspire me can create works of my own.

I have to admit that sometimes I have a journal for superficial reasons. I could write on anything, any paper but I choose to writw in a journal because it’s always a good feeling to write in things that are pleasing to the eyes. I buy notebooks and journals even when I don’t have the need for them, yet I just know that someday they would be used because I am not one who would put a good notebook or journal to waste.

I have been writing since I can remember and over the years, I have had a journal to reflect on everyday life, one for the books I read, one to reflect on my writing, one to reflect on movies that I watch, one for story ideas, though lately, I have combined everything in one. I still have a seperate journal to record down the tittles of books that I have read and also reflected on them. I guess that I still keep that seperate because I read nearly as much as I write, so keeping it seperate enables me to have more outlets to reflect and write.

Having a journal, is good for reflection because everything that is messed up in the mind can be organised into sentences, paragraphs and eventually stories. Whenever we set out to write a journal entry, unconciously, we are working on giving the proper start to that entry; teaching the writer that having an introduction, body and conclusion in a piece of writing is important.

I’m sure that many around the world share the same thoughts on having a journal and the importance of having a journal has on writing and that is why moleskins sell like hot cakes among writers and artists all around the world