I find belonging in my notebooks. Whatever notebook I happen to be writing in at that time.

I used to write morning pages a la Julia Cameron: 3 pages of longhand writing as close to first thing in the morning as possible.

I loved it for a long time until I didn’t. I did love free writing, always have – and I do like the container of 3 pages AND I needed to have structure with freedom.

After a long dry spell and serious resistance to doing them again, I started doing some modifications to the model that all included a free flow writing element. I created something I call the Roll Over and Write Journal: Where your words are always right.

I write for however long and however much I feel compelled to write close to when I go to sleep and close to when I wake up. Sometimes I write a lot, sometimes I write a little, sometimes I write my dreams so I can do some early- in- the-day analysis. 

At night I may ask my highest self, I call her Julianne, questions. It allows me to dump problematic thoughts on the page and ask for wisdom and experience a bit of letting go as a result.

I give myself space to kvetch and complain as necessary and I do my best to keep things truthful more than toxically positive. 

Maybe that is why I have often said my notebooks are one of my best friends. I don’t fake it in my notebooks. I don’t have to pretend to be a persona or be worried my notebooks will betray me. My notebooks know my shortcomings and don’t ask for favors or try to make weird quid pro quo arrangements with me.

My notebooks always listen, consistently inspire, and enjoy me even when I am annoying.

They offer me exactly what I look for in friends, except since they aren’t human or sentient I can’t take thim to events and expect a fun conversation later.

Notebooks have taught me a lot about myself and have helped me gain clarity when I found myself in dark spaces when I wondered if I would ever arrive safely to the other side.

In case you are wondering: Sometimes people prefer to call the type of writing I do in my notebooks to journaling and the books themselves as journals. I use the word “writing notebooks” more often than any other title. I don’t know why I choose that except ever since I started using notebooks to write my morning pages, that has fit me better than fancy journals – although I do use the fancy journals people gift me much better than I once did!

Do you keep a notebook? I would enjoy hearing about it in the comments.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she has recently finished her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

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