jounral general

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>>7691296
I write notes or thoughts to myself. If an idea or experience is important enough I will write it down. It's a form of reflection for me. I find it useful to write down thoughts so if I ever need to remind myself of an experience or idea I just revisit it through my journal.

>>7691296

I do it before I go to sleep. I lie down in my bed, take off my glasses, use my phone's light, and just write whatever I feel at the time or that I told myself to write during the day. Usually it's philosophical stuff or questions to myself, what I'm doing with my life, or what I want to do with it. It's actually probably more questions to myself about what in the hell I'm doing with my life. Like how I'm wasting it. Shoot me.

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>>7692019
Don't worry, you're not alone anon. Let the tears flow.

>>7691296
i used to write in notepad on my computer significant shit that happened during the day while going through a rough time in my life. it because tedious and i stopped years ago. sometimes i read it and laugh at shit i did or stuff that happened.

>>7692048

I just have a hard time figuring out what I want to do with my life. I'm 25, I've already dropped out of college, and each day my mom is telling me I'm wasting my intelligence and that I need to do something. Not in a mean way, surprisingly, but in the "you'll regret it" sense. She is right, but here I sit still thinking. My interests change, so that just retards whatever I want to do.

I have no real focus because of the above, so it's hard for me to do one thing at a time. Because of that, I gain a little knowledge on something and then move on, eventually coming back to it and then increasing the knowledge. Rinse, repeat, kill myself.

I'm a 25 year old man, this should not be happening. I had my life together before I dropped out of college, funny enough. Now it's like it's not even on the rails. Fuck me, man.

OP here. Forgot to answer my own questions.

Bought a 3 pack of cheap Moleskines today and trying to figure out how exactly I'll use them. I'm thinking it'll be for random stuff I don't want to forget, new poems, and poems I want to have with me.

My problem with writing new stuff in them is that they're kinda small. I can't really see them being a decent workspace.

Pen and pencil for me.

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I just have a crappy spiral notebook. nearly full after 3/4 a year. might buy something a little fancier tomorrow. that stays at home. a tiny, even crappier notebook for my backpocket for out and about.

put the same things in it as everyone else itt so far but also: poems; dreams and my interpretations of them; passages copied from books and commentary on them; doodles.

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>>7692084

>25 years old
>No real focus/drive
>This should not be happening

You need to meet more people. This is such a classic condition of adult life it's cliche as fuck, nearly everyone's got regrets with wasted time and aimlessness - they just suppress it.

If nothing else, just do some small thing every day that moves you toward a better you - doesn't have to be "find dream goal" or "sign up for grad school," better to be "walk outside for 10 minutes then immediately stop" or "examine one thing I'd like to explore in X subject for exactly 15 minutes on Google, then immediately stop." If you like X subject, create another small goal to learn more about it. If you don't, repeat the next day. These self-imposed limits around easy tasks create small validations that move you toward something meaningful.

Leather notebook, black ink.
My hope is to transcribe the way I think. I want it to be as earnest as possible. I want to create a literal demonstration of how I think as opposed to a mere representation or showcase. It's an incredible challenge which on occasion gives way to an ephemeral lucidity where I feel the mediation between thought and ink slim.

>>7692203

I could try that, I think. I go for walks a lot, sometimes with my dog. I don't know if I'll put that as a goal since it's something I already do constantly because of boredom.

Is it really a big thing for people? I really don't talk to many, you're right.

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who here has a complete record of their life and times

>>7692274
Volume upon volume of masturbation

>>7692274
how long have you been writing? do you find it worthwhile?

>>7692285
yep
>>7692286
i'm 22 and started keeping a regular journal when i was 14. never stopped

I carry a notebook around with me all day, but I never write in it.
I just feel like nothing is good enough.
Help?

>>7692293

Leave the headphones at home?

>>7692314
You mean, instead of listening to smooth jazz on the bus, I should write instead?

>>7692363
Vaguely yes. I would elaborate more by saying be more in touch with your surroundings and you'll find things worth writing. Don't stop listening to those smooth tunes though, they especially help when you want a nice atmosphere to write in.

>>7691296
OP was a meme author, and had no discernible talent. he was shitposting, and is literally genre tier fiction. clearly a juvenile author.

>>7692363

Yes, I realized recently I let my headphones be a spook. Listen to your Monk and Tatum while you're doing homework or chores.

I take a book + the notebook with me as well. I'll switch between them when inspiration strikes.

>>7692084
Honestly this was me up until recently. I didn't so much feel like I was wasting my intelligence, but felt more like I wasn't living my life to it's potential. I would spend entire days just reading books and playing video games making no progress in my life. For some reason I was okay with this until the end of 2015 where it hit me that all my friends were starting their careers and I had gone nowhere in the past 5 years. Seeing my friends getting ready to graduate college ended up making my already chronic depression even worse. So I decided to start going to local bars to meet new people and keep my days fresh. I also picked up old activities I gave up during high school, like playing sports and drawing. In no way did doing these things improve my quality of life at all, but the act of going out and putting myself out there encouraged me to find more potential life experiences. In return, it helped me get closer to choosing what I wanted for my life. I'm not saying doing all these things will help you, but I find that doing something drastically different in your life changes the game pretty quick. I only did these things out of curiosity.

I'm 23 and dropped out of college twice btw, I'm pretty sure I want to go back, but this time more motivated.

>>7692403
wat

I bought a notebook but nothing significant ever happens to me and I can never think of anything to write

>>7692518
write about the significant things you wish were happening to you

I use a Day-Timer calendar pad for the month of February. It was the best thing I had at the time. It's got a weird charm I guess. Mechanical pencil.

>>7692587

Not that guy but wow, that's a pretty good idea.

>>7692084
Don't worry, I'm 23, finishing my degree that I plan to do jack with, and I'm half-heartedly attempting pre-law. I dropped out of college once already and moved in with my grandma to save money. I know what it feels like to not be somebody. I think the thing we both have to do though is really do something. I'm gonna try going to poetry readings and network, and be more social and outgoing. My therapist said I should seek situations in which I can be rejected. It's better than my chronic self-isolation. What can you do? I'm asking you personally.

>>7692587
I feel like that's gonna make me depressed as fuck

>>7692617
>>7692443

Realy didn't know I would find people like you two and the other anon around here, at least this often.

>>7692272
check out /r/getdisciplined. As a lost soul myself, I got my shit together by just doing repetetive tasks which will do me good in the end. try it, maby it will help.

>>7692814
fuck you

>>7691296
Anything the fucking paper has no fucking importance mongoloid

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Pic related, I have a notebook on me all the time.

In the morning I write down my dreams and ideas that come to my mind, every entry starts with a haiku (cliché, shit, I know) which makes revisiting entries more interesting. I can judge the quality of sleep I got from those haiku's, what was my mood like that morning.

In the evening I write down what comes to my mind, what ever. I do this every day plus entries midday.

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>>7692818
>Anything the fucking paper has no fucking importance mongoloid
you okay there buddy?

>>7692816
sorry, reddit got the best of me.

>>7692818
what?

>>7692821
hurr durr i cant read without commas cause my native englage is shit hurr durr

KEKKEK KEKKEK KEKKEK

I use old notebooks that still have blank pages in the back.
I like to practice writing short stories and poetry.
Every time I take a crap I try to write something about it.

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>>7692084
Used to be in the same situation, anon. I finally got on track around 27. Dropped out of school, was married and divorced, a couple grand in debt, no girlfriend. Life sucked. But writing in my journal was therapy for me. I let it all out on those pages (simple spiral notebooks).

I finally realized I needed to make some changes. Got a decent job, got back in school, met a girl who understood me and encouraged me. Biggest change was dropping my so-called friends and met new people through work and school.

But I still write in my journal every day and still try to improve myself. It ain't easy, but it's worth the effort.

>>7692801
There's more of us out there than you think. You probably know someone who's going through the same thing. Maybe a past classmate or a relative. I for one know a few friends and actually helped one out recently by getting him a job. I also know someone who's 40 and known for not doing anything with his life, but everyone loves him and we don't mind him not giving a shit about doing anything with his life. I don't think being a slacker is necessarily bad, it's really what you perceive as fulfilling or in philosophical terms "The Good Life".

i usually try, then stop after a week or so, with a fresh reminder of just how much of a useless faggot i am

>>7692274
In a way. I got a journal as a birthday gift when I was 16, and wrote in it every single day.

Then, when I was 21, I got involved with a girl I met at college and I stopped doing my daily writing. She broke up with me a few months ago. I've written some entries here and there, but I've largely stopped.

>>7691296
I write it on my laptop, once I fix my handwriting I have a nice little leather book waiting that I'll fill with some chosen entries.

Write everything from stories, thoughts, poems in it, it's random really.

>>7693081
bitches man

>>7691296
>jounral

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>>7692272

As I said, it's a cliche, it's just better suppressed because they're either a) numb to it, or b) are now preoccupied with something, and thus mind it less. Luckily, you're not here to be a cliche, if you can avoid it.

I would also create a log - possibly a journal per the thread - about the progress that you've made. A calendar could work, too. I write mine in a nice leather-bound drawing book that's tucked inside my bookshelf right next to the book I'm reading - or my tablet. I also write margin notes. The association between the two remind me that the goal ("read more of author X") is entwined with the record of it.


>>7692814

>lost soul
>/r/getdisciplined

Jesus Christ. Well, whatever motivates you, I guess.

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>>7691296
A journal would be too close to real life for me, I like the detachment of using a computer because I want it to be like a parallel to my own mind instead of something that can be found in the real world i.e. something I could express to others.
A txt file called New Text Document filled with quotes, passages, poetry, general ideas written by others, and then my own comments to those, (rhetorical/)questions to them, own poetry, or my own ideas. Rants and ramblings too.

Joyce looks so good here.

I basically have two notebooks. One of them is a journal, I simply write a date and what happened on that day. The other one is for personal notes, reminders, quote-saving, and philosophical musings.

>>7691296
>What do you use, if anything? Why (not)?
Mine is bound with a fake leather and some kind of wood texture, looks okay.

>What do you put in it? Poetry, short stories, metaphors/similes?
I mostly write either my thoughts, often pseudo-philosophical in meaning or whatever pops up in my mind. Also, I try to track in basics what is happening in my life at the time I write it. Some times I write my own poems, but the time I take to write one is too long and so I rarely do it. Sometimes I write poems in foreign languages which I really like or just practise my handwriting. I have a sepearte drawing notebook for drawing so I don't doodle.

>Happy with it? Why (not)?
I'm not happy with how little I manage to write. I have had my current one for a year and I have barely used 1/4 of it.

>Pen or pencil?
Pen.

>>7692084
Most of us on 4chan know this feeling. I was a NEET for some 6 months or so but at least I had worked for a bit and have a good degree to fall back on. Go to back to college or at least get a job and crucially get some hobbies like team sports or something involving outdoors. Keep reading and developing yourself and you will find your purpose somehow.

>think of story idea
>it's sad and I cry

this has happened like five times in the last week

who /vivid imagination/ here?

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>>7693368
>who /vivid imagination/ here?
who /vagina/ here?*
LONDON
lemme smash
and so on

>Pardon the trip, I'm taking notes on this thread: I'm doing a study for Georgia Tech on online interactions. I'm not recording anything, relax.
I've filled a few notebooks over the years, mostly just with introspection and a running log of what's been going on lately. I just use whatever blanks block of paper I happen to have when it's time to start a new one; right now I'm writing in one of those old black and white composition books.
Whenever I fill one up, I go back over it, drink my way through the cringe, give it a title and file it away forever.

I write fantasy and fiction so I write in this leatherbound engraved little journal that has a metal locking clasp. fedora tier or whatever but i like it

I'm just too scared to write on a journal instead of that I talk aloud of what actions could have done during the day and what I should have not. If I want to think about my feelings mostly I just think on it and start crying. Pretty pathetic. I try to keep busy and I'm very busy so that's why I do avoid to write. I think if I do it I would be depressed once again.

I use one to note down various topics that I feel will be more clear to me once I've actually written about them. I also write some things I might want to remember the experience of.

>>7692293
sounds like you're stuck in the fantasy that anyone will ever happen upon your personal journal and find it worth opening and reading through and critiquing in depth. There's no use for good or bad in a fucking journal, it's supposed to be the space in which you make thoughts and foundations that COULD develop further into good/bad material IF you decide to expound upon them. Worrying about objective quality in that early a stage of creativity leads to no creativity at all.

>>7692892
>writing about each and every bowel movement
that is kind of fascinating prompt

I used to write these lengthy journal entries every other day. Then I became obsessed with a stranger but couldn't figure out how to write about it. Haven't written anything in a long while now.

>>7692293
maybe you're not looking hard enough? or perhaps looking in the wrong places?

The other day I was rereading Barthes and wrote this line: "Succeeding the Author, the writer no longer contains within himself passions, humors, sentiments, impressions..." It struck me as charming. Another time I described a very massive cloud. Like other anons said, a journal shouldn't be written for anyone but yourself. Just record your thoughts or things that impress upon you, so you can come back to them later.

>>7693677
Apparently, ex US Senator Bob Graham writes about his daily bowel movements.

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I want to get into writing a journal. What are some good ways to start. What things should i write? just to START?

>>7694805
first entry: why do you want to start a journal? Why didn't you start earlier? What are you hoping to get from it?

>>7694805
write about what you're reading or something.

i'm writing a fictional journal of a depressed neet person. Techinally it's not fictional at all because im a depressed neet person.

>>7691296
I gave up on mine.
I always sound stupid in it, and I can't write everyday.

>>7696257
pls share an excerpt.

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>>7691296
>What do you use, if anything? Why (not)?
Google Docs. Convenient, accessible.

>What do you put in it? Poetry, short stories, metaphors/similes?
I write a few hundred words a day about my day in pretty simple prose.

>Happy with it? Why (not)?
Yes, it functions as both a journal and a writing exercise. It also makes me more concious of how I spend my days, so it makes me live a better life.

Pen or pencil?
Keyboard (Filco Majestouch 2 tenkeyless with Cherry MX Brown switches)

>Are you prepared to have your controversial opinions on all of the above shit on?
Sure.

>>7696288
i'd love to but i'm not writing it in English and a translation would be probably - no, definitely - shit.

I have 2 journals. One I keep as a daily log where I write my mundane life down, the other is where I write down essays on ideas

My problem is that I'm constantly appraising the things I consider writing in my pocket sized journal. Feels like nothing is worthy of being written down. Fuck, what does that say about me?

>>7696257
lol

>>7694805
Definitely get a cheap spiral. Nothing expensive or fancy. Maybe write a few poems you've written that you like or someone else's poem(s) that you like. From what I can tell, doing that gets you accustomed to writing in it.

I started writing a journal when I was 16 and haven't had a gap of blank entries larger than a few weeks since then, with most being daily records of whatever I'm doing at the time. Reading this thread makes me feel as if I should start another, though.