Being so firmly in the twenty-first century, I have written spores everywhere. A couple of neglected blogs, a decade of being on Facebook, half that time being on Twitter, to say nothing of the endless Google docs I've commented on for my writers' group and student papers. I have notebooks going back into my high school years, as well as some printed out remnants of old stories that I don't think I'll ever see again. There are, in other words, a lot of words that I've put out there.
Nowadays, my main places for writing are this website, Twitter, and a Sunday journal. I started these back in 2016 when Gayle came back from a teacher-related excursion to Washington, D.C. She visited the Folger's Shakespeare library and, since she didn't know what Shakespeare books I already had, she bought a blank journal that had a bunch of Shax quotes sprinkled throughout. Not having anything else to do with it, I started taking it to church on Sundays where I would scribble thoughts that came to mind as the meetings went on. I quickly found it to be a very cathartic thing, and I've been writing steadily in it ever since (though, technically, I finished up that book back in November of last year; since then, I've used a leather-bound journal a student gave to me that says "The readiness is all" (my favorite Hamlet quote) and the name "Lord Steven Dowdle" imprinted on the front). It's my most personal journal in which I explore things that are too private to share in any other format. I don't normally even let my wife look it over. It's just for me. At some point in the last school year, I decided to follow my friend's habit of writing in a reading journal, thereby adding to the growing list of places where I write stuff (which means that, were anyone so inclined to do a Complete Writings of Lord Steven Dowdle, they'd have a pretty hard time putting all the scraps and pieces together). These are pretty much what they sound like: a journal of thoughts inspired by whatever I'm reading. These are a lot more disjointed than anything else I write, in part because I bounce around so many texts. I incorporate quotes that stood out to me, critique what I'm reading, and generally drop whatever makes sense to me into those pages. During December, I also took to writing in a video game journal. This was in preparation for the Winterim I was teaching. I got so much out of the reflective exercise that I ended up buying journals for my students and had them do a similar thing--use the book to write down their homework (of playing video games…and, yes, some students didn't play enough video games to get full credit) and their thoughts from some of the stuff we discussed. As most of the students were ninth graders, it wasn't really that useful for them. The older kids got more out of it, though. Anyway, as I did a recent replay of Metal Gear Solid IV, I ended up writing 15 pages of notes on things about the story and world that stood out to me. I haven't reviewed them or slammed together any sort of cohesive structure, but the notes are there. That journal will likely also be the seedbed for some thoughts on Final Fantasy X, and probably some from FFVII, too. Because the world needs more essays on video games--especially older ones, apparently. I'm most proud, however, of what I wrote about during my reread of It this last month. Part of the reason is because It gave me enough intellectual stimulus and emotional provocation to fill up a dozen pages of excruciatingly honest writing. Indeed, some of my most honest, exploratory writings are to be found there. For me, the surprise is less that I wrote these things (though that was surprising; I didn't know I felt that way) and more that it was a horror novel filled with "objectionable material", a genre, writer, and book that most consider schlock by virtue of its "lowbrow" themes and vulgarities. It is a powerful book that really made a difference in how I view myself and the world around me. Without my reading journal, however, I would never have taken the time to articulate how or why the book is so affecting. Because of highly questionable Amazon corporate practices, I've stopped linking to Amazon products--and there's a hypocrisy there, since my writing journal is an Amazon knock-off a the Moleskine style notebooks. So here's a website for the kinds of writing journals I like to use. You can also buy Moleskine--they're pretty amazing, though not worth the cost, in my mind--or even a composition notebook for, like, two quarters. I personally prefer something a little more expensive because I feel like there's an investment in it--I've spent the money, now I should use it. I don't have preference on pens, though I find I like using gel pens for novel writing/world building but ballpoint for Sunday- and reading journals. I don't know why: I'm just quirky, I guess. Anyway, I add this final little plug as an encouragement to slow down your life and write a couple of thoughts. The brilliance of a reading journal is that you don't have to feel like you have to do it every day…not even on the days that you read. It's when something is worthwhile that you write it down. It's more than marginalia, since you're not writing in the book, but it can go along well with it, if you're into that sort of thing. On the whole, I think it will make you a better reader, a better thinker, and a better person. No, seriously. If books aren't transformative to you, why else would you read? Comments are closed.
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