“We cannot choose where to start and stop. Our stories are the tellers of us.” — Chris Cleave, Little Bee
Inspired by Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy , I began keeping a journal when I was around 10. I won't do the math for you, but that's a lot of notebooks over the years. I still have them. I could say they are all full of pretentious crap, (and that would be an accurate statement), but their quality is beside the point. I look at daily writing the way a marathon runner looks at stretching exercises: it's a chance to warm up your muscles so you won't seize during the big race.
To encourage my daily practice, I've designed journals that will help me to celebrate the art of writing. I generally use origami or hand-made paper and a whole lot of high-gloss gel medium to make these collages. But I've also used old t-shirts, fortune cookie predictions that I hope will come true, the covers of boddice-ripper novels that make me laugh, and even the shredded pages of a book (La Societe Techne) that intimidated me in college.