Paper Journal Projects: An Entry a Day the Entire Year

January of 2006 for me, of course, brought on many new resolutions and the start of a new journal. This has always been common practice for me and I've always started out with a bang. However, by the end of February, I'd lose steam for some reason and things would be left undone or forgotten. My shiny new journal included.

This particular January, though, brought on a different opportunity. I'm an active user at livejournal.com and I saw a new community advertised geared specifically to keeping a paper journal daily during the course of 2006.

PERFECT! A challenge! I tend ot stick to things better when a challenge is in place, though I'm not really sure why.

This community, embodiment, was devised by an artist and writer by the name of Crissy Kight and has a basic premise: (excerpted from site)

"THE GOAL OF EMBODIMENT
To write in a paper diary/journal every day, beginning Jan. 1st. Entries may be as short as a word or a sentence, or as long as several pages. Visual journal entries are also encouraged, including sketches, collages, or photography. Missing a day is not failure... but the GOAL is to keep a journal to document a year of your life, so, if you miss a day, two, or twenty - pick up that diary again and press forward!

WHY?
Because in this digital realm where we can so easily delete and repeat, concretizing and externalizing in the form of a paper journal just feels good. If you still want to delete your thoughts when it's all over, you can have a ritual burning."

Working through this project was such a gratifying experience. In the past, I would frequently skips days and weeks at a time before remembering to write. I would be filled with regret and guilt because I keeping a journal really was important to me, particularly when I needed to look into my past for various reasons.

At the start of this project, I decided to take a different approach in hopes to keep the inspiration rolling. I changed the type of journal from my typical choice, a 9x12 hardback journal with white ruled pages, to a 8x10 spiral bound hardback journal with colored unruled pages. I chose this style because I wanted freedom to create illustrated pages, use different forms of handwriting and add page elements (receipts, pamphlets, etc.) throughout the year.

What a gratifying experience this turned out to be. I filled three of those journals (the style inspired me so much that I decided to keep ordering the same one each time), when I would have ordinarily struggled to fill half of the other style. I glued things down, filled pockets, added envelopes, colored, drew, used stencils, used rubber stamps and experimented with gel pens. Looking through each book reminds me of my art journals, though dominated with text instead of other creations.

I've decided to work through this challenge again this year. My goal this year, though, is to fill my journal collection. I have a growing pile of journals that I've either receieved as a gift or in my travels. This has been a struggle, to be honest, because I fell in love with the unruled pages of last year's books. I'm pressing on, though, and will accomplish this goal. My journal collection consists of books that are quite small (5x7's, mostly), so they're filling up quicker.

I know I'll walk away from 2007 with the same gratifying feeling, which is why I talk and write of this so often in blogs and forums. You'll frequently find me advising people to keep paper journals or to start paper journal projects as a way of therapy, as a way to reconnect with the non-digital world, as a way to heal and so on. I'm a firm believer of keeping paper journals, so I doubt I'll ever keep quiet about this practice.