The Action is the Juice

There was a time when I was a practicing journalist. In a time almost so far from the world today I have a hard time even considering myself a former journalist. I worked in a time of giant machines, and ink, and typesetting as a union job, and all the rest. I carried these.

And we kept them, in case we got sued. Notes and note taking saved us. When I was first starting out as a journalist I used to write my stories out by hand, before typing them. i was not fully a keyboard person, I was not able to COMPOSE on a keyboard. I was lucky enough to have a boss who rode me hard to break that habit. Not because its a bad habit, but because in daily journalism back then 1000 years ago, there were DEADLINES. Like DEADLINE DEADLINES. Like if you did not have it by whatever hour, you DID NOT HAVE IT. And having it first used to matter.

I do not know what journalism is now. But I love journalists.

I love writing more than just about anything. I have kept a journal since the last day of 6th grade. And I have posted and written about that a lot. You can go find the back ground stuff if you like. Or, I should write it again (my man

Seth Werkheiser

says people are always rediscovering Metallica), but for now we are moving on.

I write in a paper journal daily. And I have this ongoing internal monologue about what to write with. Roller ball, ball point….in college I wrote for a day with a fountain pen, but I have the hook hand.

So, the fountain pen was out.

But, I find myself in love with paper. Paper with hand writing on it. Journals, histories, all of it. When I was an english major we spent a lot of time reading the supporting documents for the work of the writers we love and study. The letters, the journals, the collections. Libraries are often gifted the ephemera that writers accumulate, and that becomes an entire thing to consider when looking into the work of the writer.

I think those things are valuable. I find it regrettable that some author and journalist do not value these things that same way I do.

But, sometimes it is all about how paper feels in the hand. When I was a young person, I wrote in a spiral bound notebook, with a expresso brand pen. I regret it now for a very absurdly specific reason.

No ridges. So, I wrote for at least ten years with that pen, and the nature of that pen was it did not leave ridges in the paper. Now, at age 53, I am obsessed with ridges. It is why I have roller ball gell whatever reservations.

I want Amanda to get book after book of ridge filled paper notebooks when I am dead.

That is not my notebook. But, look at the right side, you can see that there is space created between pages, and that is what ridges do.

That just takes my breath away.

The written word, or the scribble, reveals us. Beyond even the words and sentences, there is something revealed in our written word. That does not exist in my OpenOffice documents I do not think. And that is a shame.

We are losing something by being typists, by being word processors. I wonder if we are moving away from the process of developing an idea. You have a podcast, and you are under no obligation to think any thought in advance, to do any work in advance, to share your learning process with anyone. You can just have a conversation. Even Johnny Carson, when he had an author on his show, that guy read something. Probably not the whole book, but someone in the chain of staff read the book, pulled stuff out of it, and gave Johnny a 3x5 card, so he could at least sound like he read it.

I mean, the cool stuff shares the process. How much do I love The Marginalian by Maria Popova? TO THE MOON. I feel like she is sharing her process. And I want her process.

You should write in a notebook. You do not have to sell anything. Maybe writing is how you learn about yourself.