Hunting for motivation, inspiration, and achievement in a digital world
Diaries, journals, and calendars have always been a part of my life in some shape or form. During my youth, everything was done on paper, but then the 21st century hit, bringing the technology we know and love. Many of us traded our pens for keyboards to be more productive — or so we tell ourselves.
Technology is now a tool for creative projects; photography, drawing, scrapbooking, videos — your electronic journal and blogs can be home to all this. We don’t need paper anymore.
I embraced my inner tech-nerd before it became the “in” thing to do. My handwriting is terrible, and typing allowed me to not only replicate my words with ease but also scratch a creative itch.
Suffice to say, I’ve saved a lot of trees and space in my house by keeping my archives digital over the decades. Not to mention saving on the outrageous cost of printer ink.
Primarily, I’m a writer. Backed up, I have journals, novel manuscripts, screenplays, embarrassing poems, short stories, and an ocean of world-building notes.
Besides these projects and electronic scribblings, my blogs are home to flash fiction, articles on writing, advice from The Muse, and personal essays. Everything I do is digital!
So, why do I feel so unaccomplished?
Events in 2024 derailed me from blogging and working on fiction. My routine went splat as life gave me the finger. It happens to the best of us. Of course, I wrote some, but nothing with consistency. The stopping and starting pushed The Muse away.
I reached the days before New Year’s Eve feeling like I wasted yet another year. My brain did a “Bridget Jones’s Diary” on me. At least I wasn’t fat-shame or belting out “All By Myself” with a bottle of wine as a microphone. But the sentiment was the same: what did I have to show for the year?
What did I have to show for the year? The question lingered like a foul smell.
Another year is over, and you didn’t complete anything. There’s always an excuse. Other people write a number of novels in a year and post online daily. Some have babies and still manage. What’s wrong with you? Maybe you should give up writing and stop being miserable.
Of course, my inner demon was being unreasonable. Shoulder pain kept me away from the keyboard. There were health issues within my family and some other unpleasantries I had to deal with. When I could, I posted some stories online and worked a little on fiction projects, but it felt like nothing.
Why do these little achievements feel like nothing? Why do I feel like I keep spinning my wheels year in and year out?
I paced the house like a grumpy cat meme, pondering and pouting. The answer hit me:
Because you can’t see the growth. You write and hit save. You write and hit post. IT’S ALL ON THE SCREEN! Even your calendar and planners are electronic.
And, yes, I talk to myself in the third person.
My writing wasn’t always digital. During my preteens and teenage years, a time before laptops and dinosaurs, I religiously kept a diary. These bitchfests were handwritten in notebooks.
As soon as one notebook was completed, a new notebook was christened. The cycle of completion and starting anew gave me immense satisfaction.
These notebooks were my words in physical form, and I watched my collection of diaries grow with pride. The pages were there to flip through on a whim. Each volume had its own unique cover and its own personality.
I want to recapture this feeling. Turn my progress into something physical and tangible. But how?
Printing everything I write isn’t an option. The sheer volume would need storing and risks ending up as wasted paper because I wouldn’t revisit the mountain of paper. That’s counterproductive.
Side note: I know writers who swear by printing every chapter hot off the press so they can physically see their manuscript grow day by day. Printing motivates them.
I need something to help push me forward and inspire creativity when I don’t feel like doing anything. Hence, I need to see progress. Starting a habit from ground zero is always challenging. Motivation reaches a critical low after a month or so.
In the past, I’ve kept progress journals. I never have the urge to revisit them. Who knows where the odd paper ones are? And my electronic DayOne app version doesn’t inspire me. In all fairness, I transformed my progress journal into The Writing Asylum, a blog about the ins and outs of writing (like this wonderful post).
What physical project have you created that gives you joy to revisit?
Many blue moons ago, for my master’s degree (scriptwriting), I created a TV drama inspired by Twin Peaks. One of my assignments was to produce an industry-standard series bible.
A series bible is the blueprint of a TV show and contains elements such as a synopsis, character profiles, a location list, how the story world works, and whatnot. This fancy document with images is used to sell the show to investors and helps the writing team stay true to the series.
To this day, I still reference my “Twin Peaks” series bible, even though the information is outdated. The project has morphed over the years into a novel series I’m still working on.
The project is still my baby, and the series bible acts as a go-to when I need an inspiration hit because it looks like a magazine. In other words, I love the series bible because the document is polished.
For my new journal project, I want something visual and something I’m compelled to flip through. Something that encourages me to be productive.
My head swam in circles, hitting the glass bowl. Doh, doh. I won’t bore you with the details. Eventually, The Muse gave me an idea.
Why don’t you challenge yourself to writing snips (micro fiction) set in your series world and print them out weekly? Great way to jump back into fiction, and by the end of the year you’ll have a completed book for 2025.
Awesome, fantastic idea! Let’s do it! My stash is like a mini-overflowing shop. Any crafter or stationery junky will understand this analogy.
Hmm, now what sort of notebook or binding system to use? What size? Every option comes with pros and cons.
Ugh! Why do I overthink things?
A4 binders are massive and A5 too small. Double-sided printing often ends up being a battle with the machine. Machine wins.
Disc-bound books are huge, although they can flip back onto themselves and pages are removable, major plus. However, I always punch the holes like a drunk woman.
Display books with plastic page protectors don’t require double-sided printing, but they feel office-like and need a lot of desk space to open.
The idea of blank pages of a notebook staring at me gives me a performance anxiety. The pressure to find time during the week to make pages pretty and gluing printouts isn’t a commitment I’m willing to make.
Life has busy periods, and it’s way too easy to fall behind and scream “Screw it, I’m done” or I’ll prioritise and drop the ball elsewhere. Know thyself.
My, my, aren’t I the impossible princess? I’m sure Goldilocks wasn’t this picky. You’ll be happy to know I found my holy grail.
May I present the 2025 Lunar Seasonal Diary! La Tannille style.
Now, I had to make a compromise; this gem didn’t come out of my stash. I lost my self-imposed stash challenge. But the Lunar Seasonal Diary is perfect for my purpose. I write in the fantasy-witchy-mythology genre.
The Lunar Seasonal Diary features a god a month and has pretty pictures inbuilt. NO BLANK PAGE SYNDROME! I decided to turn this baby into a smash book, or glue book, for my micro stories.
I trim my printouts to an A5 size and adhere them to the weekly spread layout (see above). Covering up the dates on the two-page per week spread offers flexibility.
If one week is busy, I can write an extra flash fiction story the next week. As long as all the pages for the month have a pasting by the end of the month, I’m happy. Knowing I have to fill these pages keeps me active and focused.
The monthly overview pages, like the one above, I’m repurposing as monthly summaries—a record of the writing highlights for the month and any challenges that slowed me down.
So far, as I type this, I’ve completed two months, and I’m flipping through the pages like a fiend. I love watching the growth. The diary has a home on my desk and acts as a reminder to play with fiction, no matter how small.
As a bonus, I design my pages with the GoodNotes App, which means there is a PDF backup copy of my journal. Using the computer to design my pages gives me access to tools that I couldn’t imagine as a kid when I first started keeping a diary.
AI images take creativity to a whole new level. Some stories I create images for. Other stories have electronic stickers to add bling to the page.
My mojo has returned. I’m increasing my writing bit by bit. This post marks my return to the online arena.
My fiction writing and content writing are interconnected. Working on fiction gives me blogging ideas. Sharing writing tips and my writing challenges inspires me to create more fiction — circular inspiration.
In the end, I’ve found a way to marry old-school paper with modern tech. The best of both worlds.
THE WRITING ASYLUM 
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