and his post What’s In the Cards. After watching his notebook slideshow from The Steal Like an Artist Journal tour on YouTube I was inspired to dig out and browse through some of my journals…
Here’s the excerpt from Austin’s Substack post that caught my attention!
As you can see, I’m definitely a journalizer! (Thanks for sharing this fun word Austin!)
The pictures throughout this post will show you a glimpse of a few of my journals and file folders of notes I’ve complied over the years. I have many more in boxes somewhere + sketchbooks + more stacks of manilla folders in my chaotic office. (I’m hoping this will be the year I finally clear out the clutter and make a more organized way to store and sort through all of these writings and ideas!! 🤞)
I feel quite proud to think how I’ve been able to keep up with this habit since I was nine! (I’m 43 now.) The picture above is of a few journals I’ve been storing in my home office in a cardboard box.
I think I have more at my studio - specifically one I recall writing while on a 9 day canoe trip through the Boundary Waters of Canada. I think another journal that I wrote on a 3 week trip to Mexico to visit my husbands family for the first time (alone - with only my two kids as companions/not speaking any Spanish!) is there, too.
What I love about journal keeping in this way is that it makes the likelihood of writing a future memoir (or two) about these events in my life a much easier task. I have snippets of real life conversations noted, thoughts about the places I visited, and other bits and pieces of information that spark memories about what was happening at that time in my life I probably would have forgotten by now!
On some level, journalizing also makes me feel akin to the artists and prominent thinkers throughout history who have found value in recording their thoughts, emotions, and creative ideas in the pages of their journals.
Seeing the examples from several of these artists/thinkers in Austin’s slideshow that he shared was validating in some way.
It’s hard to explain, but it makes me feel like I have been on the path to something worth sharing with the world for longer than I realize. My journals feel like evidence of that. They feel like a way to look back and visually see the effort I have already put into my personal growth, creative development, exploration of ideas, research, etc…
And I’m so incredibly grateful that I have these resources to look back through - to help make sense of my journey, to remember important life stories and moments, and even just to have a place where I know ALL of the creative ideas I’ve ever had found a page to land on. Now I can always go back and revisit them when I’m ready.
Sometime around 2013, I started putting tabs on each entry of my journals.
The tabs help me quickly navigate to topics that I can refer to in blog posts, articles, or for any one of the books I’ve been working on over the years.
I also have notes from other books I’ve read, documentaries I’ve watched, quotes I’ve gathered, and excerpts from articles I find relevant. You name it!
The tabs always make it so much easier to find important things again. And I love the variety of colors, too!
Eventually, I also started experimenting with keeping smaller journals, 3-ring binders, and manilla file folders for specific topics or projects of focus, too. I have file folder bins and binders specific to my website design and research, each course I’ve been developing, and one for each manuscript in development.
This has all been extremely helpful as I work on my book(s). Here’s a quick glimpse of what that looks like in the video below…
Lately, I’ve also come across a lot of Substack comments & posts about journaling, too.
For some reason it seems like this is a top-of-mind topic at the moment. And it’s inspiring me to want to write more about my own practice + ask other artists and writers about their journaling habits and how this influences their creative work. 😊
Here’s a brief conversation about journaling that was recently sparked when I came across Laura Oldfields’ response to
(Here is another link to Abigail Mann’s three-minute writing challenge again - you should try it!)
What about you? Do you have a journaling practice? How has it helped your writing and/or creative work?
Do you ever go back through your journals to review old entries or compare your thoughts and experiences from year to year? I’d love to carry on the conversation about being a journalizer in the comments!
Hi there, I’m Darcey. Writer, holistic designer + experiential placemaker, artisan, and intentional living advocate. I'm also mom to two grown children, married, and currently navigating the liminal space of mid-life transitions in rural Wisconsin, USA.
This is my newsletter - Bloom by Design. It’s where I share bold dreams - new and revived, stories of what happens when you follow intuitive resonance, and adventures in Intentional Lifestyle Design. It's an experiment in creating space for the essential self to bloom and thrive.
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I’ve just started journalling again, and it feels like a return back home. 💕
How wonderful to have so many memories to revisit. 📚