Nadia Larissa Trousdale

An Everyday Guide to Compulsive Journal-Keeping

‘Keeping a journal’ goes beyond the writing of it: it starts as a confidante you carry around and grows into a time capsule that you literally keep. Whether it’s full of writing and memories worth saving, or the writer is just a sucker for nostalgia, those who create them tend to hold onto journals long after they’re done. But for as many reasons as one has to write a daily or weekly journal, there are countless distractions from doing so; finding the time is only a small part of it. Some find it hard to work writing into their routine, get bored easily or feel they have nothing to write about. While we all run into blocks, here are a few day-to-day things I’ve learned from a decade of journaling.

Personalize & Keep It Purse-Sized

Remember covering your binder in stickers, Sharpie graffiti and band logos? Personalizing your journal, inside and/or out, is a great way to make the book your own before there’s a word on the first page. The more you like looking at it, the more often you’ll feel compelled to work with it.

Aside from the visual aspect, a huge part of near-daily journaling is to simply keep it with you wherever you go. You never know when inspiration will hit, or when you’ll have some time to kill for introspection. One tip to ensure this, is to make sure your journal fits your shoulder bag or purse. That way, you’ll always have it with you without having to think about it, and be able to catch the moment and muses before they flee.

The Journal: Anti-Social Media

The most incredible thing just happened, and chances are, your first instinct is to sum it up in a Facebook status. I advise against it, though I’m often guilty of it, and remind myself: back away from the computer, and grab your journal. While you can just as easily keep an online journal or do your writing in Word, the temptation may be high to post it to your favorite social media outlet, instead of taking the time to write in your journal.

If the urge to post is irresistible, you could always print out the initial post, glue it into your book and expand from there. When it comes down to it, you know you can do better than just 140 characters.

What if I Have Nothing To Write?

This happens.

If you’re in the mood to contribute to your journal but have nothing interesting to say, do something else with it. Glue in a piece of art that inspires you; find a survey online to answer; copy down a favorite quote, poem or song lyrics; make a collage. Don’t limit yourself simply to words! It’s your book in which to keep whatever the hell you want. What if all you can think to express are worshipful things about Brian Molko?

So be it. Embrace creativity in whatever form it comes.

Don’t Judge A Journal By Its Cover. But…That IS A Pretty Cover…

Even if you like to keep your journals simple (composition notebooks, or bulky CVS ones that fall apart in three weeks), there’s much to be said for spoiling yourself once in awhile. If you’re inspired by the elegance or richness of a certain cover, you might try to live up to it with your words, and this can have results that surprise yourself or future readers. Either way, don’t fear making an investment in a journal, if you know it will drive you to write what you truly want. I will note, though, that I reserved the larger one here to be my Book of Shadows, because – well, just look at the thing!

“You win Quote of the Day!”

Whether coming from a book, song or drunk best friend, those one or two lines we designate as Quote of the Day could easily be forgotten tomorrow. Keeping them in your journal as they happen preserves the hilarity or inspirational strength of the moment, and implies that you’re writing a little something every day. Soon keeping a QotD will feel like second nature, and provide you with many laughs when re-reading them years down the line.

 

If The Page Fits…

My friend Matt Fay painted this for me in 2005 – it’s beautiful, and about postcard-size, so if I hadn’t taped it into my journal I may have misplaced or damaged it over time. 2D memories of all sorts – travel tickets, pictures, comics, art, menus, newspaper articles– can find a safe home in between the covers of your journal, and can always be removed later for more permanent placement. Don’t feel like you’re wasting space or skimping on the writing; you’re making a more lively, detailed time capsule, and protecting those precious little things which might otherwise be lost.

Another fun way to enliven even your word-heaviest pages, is to throw in colorful bits when possible.

I could’ve written the date here, but cutting this out was just more fun. Should you want to collect and keep small collage elements as you encounter them, tape an envelope to the back inside cover of your journal so you always have a handful of colorful additions to the page. (But good luck on carrying Scotch tape without it getting fuzzy.)

Keep Calm and Start a New One

Don’t feel bad or un-writerly if you don’t finish an entire journal. Sometimes it’s that life is too busy, but one of the main reasons this happens is out of eagerness to start the next one. If journals can be viewed as chapters of your life, some chapters are maybe a little too heavy to have with you every day. Do what inspires you, even if that means leaving a few (or half) of the pages blank in order to make a new start elsewhere. Beginning a new journal on a holiday, birthday or even just a good day, is one of the best ways to refocus yourself on the positive aspects of life. Also, leaving empty pages gives you great space to someday, years down the line, leave an ‘afterword’ pertaining to what was written there, and how things have changed or progressed.

And thus concludes my practical advice on jou- wait, why are you still reading this? Get a pen in your hand and your heart on the page. You’ve got a journal to keep, don’t you?

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While my pen is quiet, the paintbrush speaks. Just a few recent ones.

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The Pencil and The Paintbrush

When laid peacefully, side by side, at rest,
the pencil and the paintbrush look like friends.
But when one is picked from the cluttered desk,
one finds that where the friend begins, it ends.

The Pencil: “I can write a thousand words!”
The Paintbrush: “I need not a single one.”
The Pencil: “I am precise. I am heard.”
The Brush: “Who better shows the setting sun?”

Maybe they argue, once they’re set back down;
one will go silent for days, and then weeks –
when this watercolor of a lost town
is finished, will the pencil rise to speak?

Muses come and go, always on the hunt
for brush-stroke verbs, gilded stanzas, and Once.

-Nadia Larissa Trousdale

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The Rapture

They say the Rapture
will come on a day
in May

while bikers pedal
to save the world
and the water
drips chemical;

while hatred sings
from car windows
and the politicians
aren’t people;

while movie monsters
make too much
and entire towns
go without;

while carbon footprints
fill with blood
and the scientists
are mute;

while oil’s taken
from other places
and lost again
at sea;

while people stroll
under falling petals
and toddlers laugh
at nothing.

They say the Rapture
will come on a day
in May –

nobody believes them.

Why would that
Thoughtform In The Sky
want anything to do
with us?

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1. The Who – Guitar and Pen

This is not only my favorite writing song, but definitely in the top handful of my favorite Who songs.

2. Cake - Shadow Stabbing

This gives the day a good kick-start, whether in a literary sense or while stumbling out in search of morning coffee.

3. Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

I was initially wary of these guys simply because they were everywhere, but ‘Oxford Comma’ won me over for its cheery randomness.

4. Thursday – The Lovesong Writer

This one’s written like poetry.

5. Bright Eyes – Perfect Sonnet

Because Conor Oberst happens sometimes, and he happens to happen particularly well in this song.

Share your favorites in the Comments!

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