As I sorted through stuff that I had accumulated while living in the same house for over thirty years, I pondered what to do with my written journals. I mainly journal on the computer, but at various times, I’ve found value in writing things long-hand. It’s especially good when I want to go deeper, since I can think and write on a piece of paper without immediately editing it. And it’s great for morning pages, where I write without worrying about what I’m writing, just write for three or four pages. I’ve done them off-and-on for years.
It often felt like these were a waste of paper, so for a while, I wrote on the back of printed pages. Other times in fancy notebooks, but to really get into the flow, a larger notebook seemed to suit me better.
This year, I’ve been using long-hand morning pages to ponder what mannerisms and motivations my characters in the novel I’m revising have, something that I found difficult to do directly in the chapter. I’ve also noticed that writing long-hand helps me figure stuff out, in writing, and in life. So, while at times I’m not thrilled with writing long-hand as a goal, it does seem to be a useful thing to do.
But, to get the writing pump going, I have many, many descriptions of the weather, or my mood, or some trivial thing that happened recently. These aren’t precious gems of insight, just the words needed to get to the better stuff. So, as time permits, I’m reading through old written journals and for ones that have more padding than insights, I’m typing up the insights and tossing the journal.
I thought that would make it more difficult to do morning pages, but it’s actually made it easier. That, plus the knowledge that half-used pads of writing paper are worthless to anyone else, so I might as well fill them up with words before recycling the paper.