Everyone has their weak spots. It may be shoes, eating chocolate or watching third rate horror movies.
With me it’s luggage – you know always on the search for the perfect suitcase, camera bag, handbag and carry-on luggage bag. And notebooks. Ever since we were issued with a jotter at school I’ve been scribbling away.
It’s a little cliché these days to for creative types to be clutching their moleskin notebooks all colour coded and fully indexed as testament to their valuable thoughts. I always wonder whether such people have a private notebook where they record the really important things like their shopping lists and guilty secrets.
My notebooks have a limited shelf life. Most end up in the recycling bin when I am done with them or jammed in the bottom of my office cupboard until they finally get ejected. I can’t get sentimental about used up journals, it’s new notebooks I love the most. They offer so much promise, such opportunity. Starting a new notebook is like having the world at your feet.
I must have at least 6 notebooks on the go right now of different shapes and sizes. A fair reflection of my attention span as I jump from one idea and project to another. It is getting to the point I might need a notebook to list my notebooks. I know, it’s insane. But we all have our weak spots.
Deep in one of those notebooks I was jotting down what it was blocking my blogging. Amongst the litany of personal insecurities, best left in my notebook, was a realisation that somewhere deep in my blogging history writing on my blog had become synonymous with photography. No photo, no blog.
Although I take more photographs than I ever did now I have an iPhone my level of writing has plummeted over time. Instead it tends to be a quick note into Instagram and Twitter and there I have published with barely a few words said. Studying over the last year has made me realise how much I love to write. That first sentence may be the hardest to grapple with but when it’s written that’s when the fun really begins.
So in June, I’m going to write everyday and see if I can build up my blogging habit again. There’s no theme, no plan just a whole month when I know I shall be doing some fun stuff and the perfect time to just write. No pictures allowed, just words.
I hope that it will be a little less rambling that my early blogging efforts in 2006 but who knows. Â Let the new wordsmithing adventure begin.
Great project, Julie. You are a wonderful writer, so I will enjoy reading your posts as they unfold. I totally get the promise that a new virgin notebook holds – trouble is I totally despair as soon as I make any mistakes in my new notebook and have to cross something out. The notebook is completely ruined for me then. I’m like that with shopping lists too – if I have to cross anything off or change my mind about something before I go to the supermarket, I have to rewrite the list!! And, just in case, you’re now thinking I’m a complete nut-case, I won’t even get started on my folding obsession! Looking forward to your new wordsmithing adventure xo
This made me laugh to wonder about your folding obsession Sue. Thanks for the compliment. I really enjoy reading your blog posts and am in awe of how prolific you are in maintaining your community around your blog. I so understand the new notebook problem but have to admit that even I don’t get too hung up about my shopping list 😮
As much as I love your photographs, I do also enjoy your writing. I look forward to your posts sans photographs! (As an aside, in our IDEA group we have started writing about photographs. It seems to have re-ignited the love of writing for the folks in that group too.)
Thanks for your vote of confidence Sabrina. Good to know that writing is prompting a new level of consideration of photography in your IDEA group.I am always intrigued by what you get up to.