Once Bloganuary ended, the posts went from daily to maybe once or twice a month. Now, it’s not that I’m sick of writing on my blog here — never the intention at all with the sudden drop of postings. I’m still writing daily — it’s just not regarding my blog here. Mostly, it’s in one of my many journals, not shared with the public eye. But I’m also working on some longer forms of fiction as well.

Finished Journal

I follow the journal subreddit where people post their entries, journal designs, or, in my case, finished journals. I have finished up the stack of pages this journal has given me and will swap the paper out with a fresh set that I got on Amazon.

For a quick review of this journal — it’s a great journal to write in. The quality of the paper is good (my fountain pen does not bleed into the other pages); I like that I can keep this journal and only replace the paper once I finish it. And the front design is very nice looking too.

Amazon Link to the Journal

My gripes with it is mostly the paper. The quality is good, but it’s pretty rough, making the journal always try to close on you as you write. I like the idea of journals where no matter what page you’re on, it stays open and doesn’t try closing on you.

The other issue I have, and this probably goes for both left-handed writers (me) and right-handed writers. It’s a thick stack of paper, making it hard to write on one side of the journal once you get to a certain amount of pages. My handwriting is already sloppy, and adding interference with the lump of the pages makes it even worse. There have been numerous times when I just wanted to finish this damn journal entry so that I’d be done with writing in it for the day.

It’s a great journal, don’t get me wrong. After my new set of papers for the journal is complete, I’m thinking of other options to replace this journal. Specifically, journals that have the quality in paper that won’t bleed into the other pages when I write in it.

For anyone that currently uses or has used any of The Heroes Journals. What have been your thoughts on it? Is it worth recommending to others who journal in their day-to-day life? Even though I missed out on the Black Friday sales, I’m thinking of trying them once I finish the new pages for this journal. That’s if I don’t go with another journal.

Link to The Heroes Journal, in case anyone’s curious:
The Heroes Journal Site

Attempting Writing a Novel or Novels…

This reason here is why I’m not writing here much. Most of my time spent writing is to give writing a novel a try. I’m currently in the very early stages of writing a story. Some of that time spent is me thinking about what to write about as I’m going off the seat of my pants here. But, the ideas for the two novels are just concepts I thought of and decided to make a story out of them.

One story is a take on the fantasy genre. A swords and sorcery type of story inside the world I have — or whatever attempt at a world I’m building. I was thinking of finishing the first draft of this story and taking that extra time with plotting, in-depth world-building, and more drafting afterward. Just getting a first draft complete is the goal I have in mind to build the foundation of the story. I know that this story will change down the road of this story process.

My other story is going for the thriller genre. I won’t spoil the idea or plot of it, but this was a random thought I asked Yessica about, and end up liking it as the plot of a story. I’m saying it’s a thriller, but it may change over time. Mainly because I have never written a thriller before on anything. I could read one to figure out the elements needed in one, but I already have a hard time wanting to open a book to read.

Both stories are in the early stages; the fantasy story is the closest to being done, but it’s still a long way to go. Once I finish the stories, I’ll be interested to see how future Brad will handle the edit and next draft for that story. Would I be excited to work on it more now that I have finished it? I’ll have to find out when I finish it, won’t I!

Other Forms of Fiction and Poetry

To take a break from writing any long-form fiction, writing short fiction is still my routine throughout the week. If I were only focusing on short fiction, I’d be able to provide more stories for both here and on websites that take stories to publish. But I’m still trying to figure myself out as a writer, and that requires me to try to write just about anything. It could be any genre or any form of fiction.

My poetry writing has been slipping lately, and I feel bad that I haven’t been writing any poems or even reading poetry. I’m not sick of it — I just have been pretty bad at managing what I would like to write during my free time. All of my time writing is working on the two stories above.

Final Thoughts

I’d like to get back to a schedule on writing in here. It was a nice break after participating in Bloganuary, but I do miss writing on here for everyone to read. Hope to get back into it more and have you all read more of my stuff!

Brad