Capturing Stories: Basic Tools of the Trade

While the basic tools of journaling are obvious (pen and paper), I still thought it could be fun to share a little bit about notebook/journal types and share a few of my favorite pens and pencils with you in hopes of encouraging you all to get pad the first initial hurtle of journaling. 

There are three basic journal types. Each type had variations you can explore for your exact needs, but nearly any journal can be lumped into one (or more) of these three groups.

Guided/Prompt Journals

Yearly/Dated Journals

Blank Journals

Guided/Prompt Journals

I love a good guided journal. They are great if you don't know where to start or don't always have a lot of time. 

I keep one or two of these on hand at all times for when I want to journal but don't have a lot of time. 

My Three Current Favorites are:

99 Things that Bring Me Joy 

Extraordinary Objects 

Year of the Doodle 

Yearly/Date Journals

 

Year of the Doodle cross from prompts to dated. (It could also be considered art journaling, but we will get into that later.)

Five Year journals are a popular style of dated journals. There is a page for every day of the year and each page has space for five entries. Some of these are guided other are not. 

Planners would also fall in this category and can be used similarly to a blank journal of the idea of a completely empty full page is intimidating. 

Blank Journal

Blank journals offer the most variety in both style and function. Because of this it's hard to summurize them in one simple paragraph. The beauty, however, is that any piece of paper will do. In fact I have been known to jot things down on random pieces of paper and tape or glue them into my "proper" journal. I will spend a lot of time talking about types and uses for blank notebooks so for now I will leave you with a couple things to consider when picking out the perfect notes.

How will you be using this journal?

Do you want lined or unlined paper.

How thick do you want the paper to be?

What type of spine do you prefer?

How durable do you need it to be? 

If you don't know how to answer these questions, have no fear, we will be touching on these things and so much more in the coming weeks. 

Make sure you stop by tomorrow for our first "Workshop Wednesday" when I'll share some hands on tips and inspiration.