Journaling is my meaning-making tool. I work at the intersection of color, words, design and illustration. It’s not perfect. It’s deeply personal. I call this soulful exploration Raw Art Journaling. For the past few nights, I’ve had dreams about a different journal design. One that allows me to write as I think–in a non-linear manner. But as I woke up, the dream, along with the idea, dissolved.
I woke up after the dream again this morning, and grabbed some index cards and tape to create a prototype. This explains how it works, it’s a really rough prototype, but I was working against the fading dream’s impact.
Since it’s a non-linear journal, let’s take a look at the complete piece first. It’s a journal with no spine, but lots of guts and heart.
The completed journal: No spine, but lots of guts and heart.
Summary: The journal is made up of small, individual pieces. Squares work best, but any shape will work if you are patient. You write one sentence on a square. Circle the words that are important to you. Draw an arrow from one of the circled words to another square and journal about the meaning of that word. Repeat as often as necessary, moving in as many different directions as your ideas take you. Connect the pieces with tape (more artfully than my prototype) and fold in any manner that delights you. Add illustrations or repeat on the back. The arrows will help you establish a linear flow.
The cover is one square big.
The words just help with navigation. You can use images, too.
It unfolds like a brochure. I added writing to show the progression of unfolding. You could easily create a mosaic or individual images, or just use color.
It opens like a brochure, and the words become a game from this fold. . .
This page depends on repeating letters from the previous page. Just my whim. Not a necessity.
. . .to the next.
The possibilities are endless. You can create a map, a visual mosaic, pair words with images. I discovered that this method also works for creating linear pieces, like articles or book outlines. You can shuffle the pieces until you have it the way you like, then connect them.
You can continue this for as many pages as you need.
Keep creating until it all unfolds for you.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer, creativity coach, and raw-art journaler.
Oh, I loved this idea in words, now I love it even more seeing it in action. Lots of guts. Lots of heart. So many ideas pour out with this example as the inspiration. Thank you.
Very interesting idea. Seems like origami and journal making need to be combined here.
I love this, thanks so much for thinking out loud with it. No spine… but guts and heart… is brilliant
Very cool! I wonder if my CardNets would work with this approach…
You knew I was going to get in touch with you about that, didn’t you? Much of the sequencing ideas came from the original ones you made. The folding and narrative portion is what I’m working out now.
Oh, cool! Good luck with the testing and trials. That’s the fun part. Maybe I can design a template once you get the (figurative) kinks worked out. You know I’m an inveterate “template tinkerer.”
And I love you for it!
I love your discussion of how you did this and your photographs of the work in progress. Very cool idea, and one that’s surely very applicable for people who don’t think/create in linear ways.
It’s very rough, but if I don’t make the prototype, I’ll forget the dream. I can always refine later.
Hmmm, This is very interesting. I’d love to pass this on to my writing inspiration group.
I’m going to work out a few options and folding choices, but I think it works for art journalers and journalers alike.