Since I lug it around so much, people often see it, and they like to ask, "What are you writing in there?"
"My book," I say, "I've been writing it for a while."
"Oh, that's cool. Do you write it all in there?" They point to the journal. I nod. Then they follow with the question, "Why don't you just type it on your computer? Isn't that faster?"
Then I launch into the explanation about why I like writing it by hand. They usually don't understand, especially if they don't write much themselves. After I tell them, they tend to scoot away awkwardly, as if my archaic ways might rub off on them and they'll start "pointlessly" killing trees too. Why do I like using handwritten journals for my writing, anyway?
Different people prefer different things (there is your profound statement of the week, everyone. I worked hard on it). I have friends who type straight onto their computer and do just fine. But I prefer the preliminary draft, the very first time I'm connecting and shaping words, to be on paper for several reasons.
First, it's less distracting. It's tempting to get on the internet when it's only one click away, or to look through old documents in my files, or look up a piece of information about a character or place that I have stored somewhere and then forget that I was looking it up for a purpose. I guess if I really wanted to, I could open my laptop at any time while I'm writing in my journal, but that takes more effort, especially if I'm comfortable on my bed and my computer is on the other side of the room. I would actually have to get up. No thank you.
Second, it controls the pace of my writing. Yes, typing is faster, but do I want to write faster? If I write too many words in a short amount of time, I get impatient with my story and tend to skip over parts that I could write better on the first try. I can always go back in my first round of editing to flesh things out, but why do that when I can do it better the first time? That way, when I edit, I'll have more material to work with. The pace is also more spread out - I tend to stop and stare more at the screen than I do at the current page of my journal. I don't know why. Maybe the bright light of my computer is just so pretty. I might write slower than I type, but I can go for a longer time without stopping, so it balances out.
Third, I love the feel of a good pen on paper. That might sound cliche or super nerdy, but hey, don't judge. I'm extremely picky about what kind of pens I use to write stories with. If it doesn't feel good against the paper, what good is it to me? No good, that's what. No good at all.
Fourth, I like the visual I get of my handwriting filling a page. Before you get all "wow that's rather conceited of you, you just think your handwriting is so awesome, don't you?" on me, hear me out. Since it takes more effort to fill a page with handwriting than to fill a page with type (unless you're writing a paper with a page requirement, then typing an entire page seems to take forever), it's more rewarding to look back at what you've written and see several pages covered with all that imperfect scribble. Another great feeling is flipping through an old, used-up journal and seeing all those full, handwritten pages skim by. Sometimes, when I'm stuck, I do just that, and I get excited about writing again. When was the last time you filled up a journal with your handwriting? It doesn't happen very often, that's for sure. Even for me.
And yeah, I do like my handwriting, so there!
One last thing that comes up my conversations about writing in a journal: I've also been asked why I use a pen instead of a pencil. Since I'm writing from scratch, mistakes spot almost every page, and so there are notes to myself, scratch marks, long lines, x's over entire paragraphs. Does that look ugly? I don't think so. Unless an entire page is almost curly-cued, scribbled, x-ed, and blacked out - then it's just awkward. The trick is to not make a coloring book out of your cross-outs. A line or two will do the trick, and hardly looks messy, keeping the integrity of the pretty-filled-page-ness (shh, I'm a writer, I can make up words, be quiet). More about that in this previous post.
I also read somewhere that typing up your first draft gives the dangerous appearance of it being finished. The first draft is far from finished, and probably should look ugly. That way, you'll want to mess with it more to improve it. Just because it's neat doesn't mean it's good.