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I’ve been noticing this return of pen to paper in my life.
That girl in the photo in this post from a couple weeks ago (me at 16). She was a journaller often even an art journaller. She had big black art books filled with notes, collages, painted pages. I still have many of those in a box in the closet that I haven’t opened in years (another place I could go find some new true stories when I’m in a place where I only remember the insecurity or rough patches of my teenage years and early 20’s).
She spilled it all in there.
Then blogging happened and the journals stopped being filled. My words shifted from paper to computer screen and I started to write stories there. They were different of course, less diary like and more in a way that allowed me to learn to tell a story to an audience (even though at that time it was probably 1 or 2 people max). I’ve been blogging for 8 years now and for the most part love the way in invites me to write on a regular basis. Yet in this 8 years I pretty much stopped journalling.
Since I started running a creative small business, something shifted. It started with a blank Sabrina Ward Harrison Journal (which are unfortunately not available anymore, but she does have her gorgeous new book And the Story Is Happening
I’d fill those blank pages with goals, course outlines, ideas, brainstorming mind maps. Then in between all of those it started flowing out again, a way to just check in with myself. Now it has become a regular thing, spilling onto the pages whenever I need it.
I didn’t realize how much I missed this private space to write whatever I needed to get out. Sometimes it leads to something I want to write a blog post about, other times it is all for me. It feels so good to be back at that place where I crave to put pen to paper.
How about you? Do you create a space to write outside of blogging? Or do you start your blog posts by hand? I’d love to hear about your relationship to putting pen to paper, just for you…