Comments

did you ever think of *buying* a journal out there? i'm sure NYC has some very nice stores...

Posted by: jill @ July 8, 2003 10:49 AM

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I'm way too intellectually rich and complex to think of solutions like that. :-) But really, it's more like I'd have to stop the moment I'm in -- go find a bookstore -- ponder forever the styles of journals available (like great cover but lined paper, or unlined paper but terrible cover) -- purchase one -- then get back to the moment I was in and write what I was thinking. By that time I'd have collected way too many dashes and parentheses in my thought process to ever write anything intelligible (that and thoroughly confuse all the verb senses). Besides, I can't get the words out fast enough when I hand write. Pens are for deliberation; keyboards are for freaks.

Posted by: TQ @ July 8, 2003 11:34 AM

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Use a notebook, a simple composition book, or a steno pad, what have you. Because you're right, there are too many journal choices. And then you look at your fancy new journal with its leather cover and creme-colored thick pages and think, "My words -- dashes, ellipses, and all -- aren't worthy of this fine journal." Notebooks are for jotting down enough so that you can remember it all thoughtfully and beautifully when you compose on your keyboard later.

Posted by: Jen @ July 8, 2003 01:49 PM

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It's much more important to write down your thoughts as you are receiving them, than to worry about what you're writing them on.

Bar napkins are my memo pad of choice. However, I've been using a very small idea book for several years now. It can fit easily into pocket or purse, and it takes down the thoughts that I can turn to later when I'm at "The Journal" or "The Keyboard" at a later time.

Posted by: Jen Leo @ July 9, 2003 12:03 PM

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Full Circle. I actually have an idea book. I'm a paper-scrap hound too. My friends (the ones who are lucky enough to have received a hand-written letter from me) can attest to this as I rarely write a letter on 8 1/2 by 11. Six-pack cartons are my favorite. Really, I was just too lazy to write my thoughts down as they appeared. I kept thinking, "these are good thoughts, I should write them down," and never did. It's discipline; it's carrying that idea book; it's recognition that idea-seeds are much harder than the realization-plants; it's doing it now rather than regretting it later.

Posted by: TQ @ July 9, 2003 12:32 PM

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