Thoughts on notebooks and the correct use for my photo printer

I got a photo printer this year but I don’t often feel the urge to stick photos into my journal as I had been planning on doing. Making compositions and sticking things in, sure, that is great (like my previous Taiwan stamp notebook mentioned here) but it does not go well with journaling because, well, printing a photo from my smartphone is nothing like journaling. And leaving space for photos when writing (or printing in advance) feels wrong somehow.

Because of this I have decided to keep a dedicated collage book for mementos and photos. My favourite tactic is to nab a business card or loyalty card from a shop I enjoyed visiting; I used to keep these in a card album but from now they will be stuck in together with photo prints, ticket stubs and stamps.

what notebooks are for

Thinking about what I wanted from this collage book, I realised that there are two purposes of my notebooks, recording and journaling.

Recording is for, as Christoph Mueller said in An Illustrated Life, giving the time I spend on this planet a texture. One’s life can slip away with nothing to show, not even memories. Thinking back on good times is a great source of pleasure for me and recording is how I can enjoy memories and ensure they are not lost for good.

The main method I have for recording life is smartphone photos. I can snap pictures of tasty food, signs, pretty places, people, with no effort. But I do like to put in effort sometimes, as you can see from many of the posts on this blog.

Journaling is for thinking and processing. Writing things down enforces a level of coherence and thoroughness that thoughts in my brain lack. It also helps with brainstorming: a single thought can sit on the page and slowly sprout connections, rather than being replaced with another one as soon as I lose focus.

Now, that’s not to say that my journaling cannot be about things that have happened to me recently, it’s just that I have accepted that it does not need to cover everything and I’m not going to consult it again later. What I retain from a journal are the thoughts and decisions I came to while creating it.

Written methods

Writing digitally on my phone or the computer is king, great for both journaling and recording. It’s so fast and easy. It’s also fast to pull it out again and read it back. I keep all my digital notes, brainstorming and writing in a single folder and I can search inside it by subfolder, keyword, or date. The only downside is that it requires staring at a screen.

Writing by hand is slow to do and worse to read back. Never mind finding a page within a single book, it’s a hassle to open a cupboard or drawer and go through heavy boxes of books from longer ago. I also find it frustrating to stay on topic and record things efficiently when handwriting is inefficient in the first place.

It’s that same inefficiency along with perhaps the engagement of muscles in my hands and body that makes it a wonderful aid for thinking. This is why it is a classic for journaling.

Visual methods

Photos are awesome for recording. They are completely tied to reality and the world around me, but they still show my viewpoint. Other people will understand at a glance what I am trying to show them without being forced to invest time in reading my amateur writing (of course, they still have the option… hello). As I mentioned, they are not for journaling because they are instant to take and to stick in to the notebook.

Drawing (mostly as in urban sketching) is in theory good for recording because it forces you to stay in one place for a long time and observe all its details. Like many artists, I have noticed that I have a lot of clear memories of the times I spent urban sketching. But they are usually not happy ones. I would get anxious about spending too long in a place, forcing travelling companions to wait for me, being uncomfortably exposed to the weather, or being watched by people as I drew. So, it’s a no for recording.

I want to experiment more with drawing as part of journaling though. Drawing on location need not be a stressful thing where I hunt for a good seat with a view, huddle down and try to create a full piece of art before time runs out. It can just be a way to relax and process the world around me when I am already idle somewhere, like waiting for a train. I remember the last time I sketched like that; I was at the Baker Street station of the London Underground and I was enjoying the jazz being played by a busker somewhere nearby. Not so bad. There are other options too like drawing from the imagination and comic strips, which I do a little of already (mostly drawing characters from things I have watched).

I think the next journal I bind will be small enough to take out and about and I will choose paper that can handle art materials. I hope it goes well.