Recently I began keeping two journals - one for my personal thoughts and one for those gems of wisdom, great ideas etc. that you come across in your daily wanderings. One I keep in a wonderful little leather-bound book that I carry with me, and one is on-line - and I don't know which I like better.
Paper Journal: I love the freedom of being able to pull out my journal and a pen (must be colored - I'll talk about that more in a minute) and start to write. It is immediate and fulfilling. I love the physical sensation of writing. I love seeing the words fill up a page and then flow onto the next page, and when I have finished and I look back over my words I have a sense of accomplishment. Since I always write in color my paper journal also satisfies my artistic side. Not only are the words colorful (and often match the mood that I am writing in - funny though, even when I am very down, I NEVER write in my journal in black!) Writing in color also allows me to make my entry more artistic and descriptive with doodles and pictures of my own invention.
However, writing long hand can take time and if I don't have the time to sit and write I often let the thought, feelings, memory or the inspiration pass me by. It also, limits the amount of creative doodling and writing I am able to do. If I find a picture or something that speaks to me I have to take it with me cut it out and tape it in my journal - time consuming, forces me to wait (which isn't a bad thing), and there is always the chance that I will lose or damage the item before I can get it into my journal. And then there is the whole issue of privacy - with a paper journal you always run the risk of losing it or leaving it laying out and someone reading it.
On-line Journal: Because of the amount of time I spend each day on the computer it is immediate satisfaction. As soon as I see something I can write about it write then and there. I can add a link to my journal so I can easily return to the web-site, picture, blog...whatever it was that spoke to me...and relive it in it's entirety. I can add music, graphics, videos, cartoons - whatever - to my on-line journal and make it as artistic and representative me and the moment as I want. If I see something I can bookmark it and save it for later. I have increased privacy with passwords protecting my files. I can also choose, IF I WANT, to share my journal with whoever I want to with just the click of the mouse.
However, I can't always pull my lap-top out to make a journal entry. The entries, while they have things that I want to put in there, don't feel as personal as when I hand write/draw them. Just like my paper journal, I will bookmark things intending to come back and write about them later, and most of the time I just don't get back to it.
So all of this is to say I still don't know which one I prefer so I guess for now I will continue to keep both. Which do you prefer and why?
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