Journal Entry #20—Using a Sketchbook as a Journal

Last month, I started using a sketchbook as a journal. It was a small one about 5.5 x 8.5 inches. I journaled, wrote a few notes, and did a few sketches in it. But the paper was too heavy to write with a pen for very long and it just didn’t feel quite like I had thought it would. 

After I filled it up, I decided I needed a BIG sketchbook (8.25 x 11.375 inches), with a little bit thinner paper. I found one and fell in love with it. Immediately on the first page, I felt so much more freedom. 

Freedom in my journaling because I had so much more room on the page to pour out my thoughts. I didn’t realize how confining that smaller sketchbook was that I was using. Looking back, I can now see how I was “thinking” smaller, cramming things onto a little page, and then not feeling satisfied with my journaling session. 

Since I’ve started the larger sketchbook, I feel like my writing is opening up again, the journaling is going deeper, and I’m coming up with more solutions from my intuition as I write. It feels like I’m spreading my wings. 

This sketchbook is going to hold everything. Instead of one book for nature journaling, one for journaling, one for a writer’s notebook, etc., I’m leaving this big one open throughout the day to put everything in.

So, what am I putting in a sketchbook journal?

• thoughts
• ideas
• quick sketches of the sparrow landing on the water bath outside
• birding list
• grocery list
• notes
• descriptions 
• bits of poetry
• observations of the neighbors
• nature reflections
• memoir vignettes
• calendar
• travel journal
• press leaves, flowers
• paste photos, ephemera, mementos
• art journal
• bullet journal
• a timeline of your skills—if you are sketching, you will see the improvements (and mistakes!) as you progress through the sketchbook
• and of course, sketching and drawing, painting, etc. 
• These are your stories –the good, the heartaches, and the joy
• This site has a list of 31 ways to use your sketchbook

If you struggle with journaling or writing in general, try a bigger notebook. Or get a sketchbook and be more playful, daring, putting other things in the book besides just writing. You can cut out words and pictures from magazines and glue on the page and write your thoughts around them. 

Or take it with you and journal in the car. I love sitting in a parking lot and writing in my journal while I observe all the goings on. People watching is fascinating as well as just observing and looking for nature wherever you are. 

Even in a big parking lot, you can find nature. Reflecting on a lonely weed pushing through a crack in the cement can be just the inspiration you need that day to help you push through a cement of a problem weighing you down. Draw it, and write your thoughts. 

Need more ideas to put in your notebook, journal, or sketchbook? Check out these books. They are a wealth of ideas!

The big sketchbook I’m using: Sketch – Large Black (Volume 17) (Creative Keepsakes, 17)

Chance Particulars: A Writer’s Field Notebook for Travelers, Bloggers, Essayists, Memoirists, Novelists, Journalists, Adventurers, Naturalists, Sketchers, and Other Note-Takers and Recorders of Life by Sara Mansfield Taber

Keeping a Nature Journal, 3rd Edition: Deepen Your Connection with the Natural World All Around You by Clare Walker Leslie

The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws

The Artist’s Way: 25th Anniversary Edition by Julia Cameron