Blank Journals
For me, blank journals have always been extremely exciting. I know a lot of people think I am a geek for this, but I love to have a nice blank notebook with the possibility of writing anything I want. Sometimes I will get a leather bound journal from a store and just stare at it for half an hour. I'll flip through the pages and think about all the different things I could write in it. Should I just start willy-nilly, jotting down the first thing on my mind, or should I plan out every individual word with exquisite detail? Should I use this particular blank journal as a sort of diary, a sketch pad, or even a scrapbook? Sometimes I get dizzy just thinking about all of the different possibilities.
As a matter of fact, all of my friends know about my passion. I'm pretty easy to shop for because people can always just buy me blank journals. The funny thing is that I don't use all of them. Don't get me wrong I do love to keep several journals. I have a dream journal, a daily diary, a sketchbook that I take with me, and a small notebook for random thoughts and tidbits all going at once. Nonetheless, that is four journals out of more than 40. My bookshelves are with blank journals that I may or may not ever use.
Still, I don't think of it as a waste. After all, sometimes just having a blank journal will inspire a particular project. For example, one of my friends made me a hand bound notebook with little scraps from different photographs. It made me think about all the different people I pass on the street every day and all the small fragments of conversation that I hear. I decided to use this for a project I had never done before: recording scraps of people's conversations. Sometimes, I would sit in a coffee shop and just write down what I heard. Other times, I would hear a piece of dialog and use it as an inspiration for a whole poem or story. If it weren't for this blank journals design, I never would have thought of that project. It just goes to show you how the medium sometimes really does define the message. It goes beyond that too. Sometimes just the formality of the journal will influence your writing. For example, a very somber looking leather bound journal will inspire weighty prose, whereas a flighty looking, shiny one will inspire random thoughts and flighty poetry.
