For over twenty years I have kept a daily writing journal, which honestly was not consistent until 2003 (when I discovered my first pocket Moleskine). Prior to this special day my writing was all over the place, but the majority has been kept in a Moleskine.
In 2009, I switched to the largest lined journal they offered at the time, and this has been my journal of choice. These journals contain 192 pages (give or take) of my thoughts, ideas, story outlines, character development, poems, and a lot of note taking.
The four I have completed in this size have taken me somewhere between 1 1/2 to 2 years to complete – but as you can see, this one broke my record!
It started off well, and I began this journal with a new intention: be more visually creative! And then I experienced a pen and journal crisis that I wrote enough about to fill a pocket cahier notebook, but thankfully it was not the end of days like I imagined.
Once the dust settled, I began experimenting with my new Lamy Alstar fountain pen, with an EF nib, and Platinum Carbon fountain pen ink (which dries quickly, and is waterproof).
First, a clever sketch:
Then, in some later pages, I got brave, and threw in some yellow ochre watercolor over some mark-making:
Somehow I made this happen:
I thought it was horrible at first, but I kept going, and during a poem, I created this:
And lastly, this hand drawing that I made with the very scary Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, scary because it takes a lot of patience and breath holding to get finer lines. I am very proud of this drawing:
I learned so much from this journal that I could possibly post an e-book on the matter. Actually, that’s a great idea! Consider this part one, then.
© Kristian J. Duncan 2019