Beautiful journals at Barnes & Noble, February 2019.
ideas observations writing

Notebooks So Beautiful They Are Stultifying

Beautiful journals at Barnes & Noble, February 2019.
Beautiful journals at Barnes & Noble, February 2019.

Hubby and I were at Barnes & Noble the other day. Hubby hangs out in the coffee shop while I peruse the books.

During our latest trip, I saw this end cap of beautiful journals. Blank (or blank-ish, as the case may be) journals are always compelling to me, just like adult coloring books. I can’t not pause and wonder at writing in them. But, also like adult coloring books, I always realize that journals like these are no more than pretty notebooks, only they are so beautiful that I wouldn’t want to actually write in them. Their beauty makes them stultifying for my writing, which, when the ideas are flowing, is not pretty to look at, much less read. Journals/notebooks such as these with their assigned themes are even more stifling. Could I fill an entire book on being a “Bad Ass?” (Probably not.) Would the seventh writing prompt out of 300 make me want to vomit? (Very likely.)

Are there people out there who actually write in these beautiful journals? Or, are most people like me … you buy one in a fit of inspiration and then let it sit on a shelf because your writing is just not good enough to fill it?