Renaissance Journaling Technique to Overcome Writer's Block

Writer's block is a problem as old as writing itself. Today, I share the Zibaldone journaling method great writers of The Renaissance used to overcome the blank page.

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CHAPTERS:

0:00 Intro
0:23 The reason we get Writer's block.
1:40 Brief history of the Zibaldone.
2:03 What is a Zibaldone?
3:13 Benefits of intentional reflection.
4:05 Become a curator of ideas.
4:33 How I overcome Writer's block.
4:59 My daily note-keeping habit.
5:28 Analog vs Digital notes.
6:22 Digital distractions.
7:04 Final verdict on analog vs digital.
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[sarasilkwood]

As a visual artist, this is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about. I will start a project with research and collect endless photo references but ultimately stall on the actual drawing. Lately I’ve been trying to slow down and draw the reference that interests me. I’m drawing more at the very least and my “notes” have a kind of visual direction that makes more sense. Maybe I thought I wanted to go a certain direction with a piece, but all of the sketches I’ve done are indicating that my interest is going somewhere else. I haven’t made a real breakthrough yet, but I’m enjoying the process. That you for this video! It’s making me rethink some things.

[cynthiasadlermusic]

This is the best explanation of what a zibaldone is, thank you!

[HighCountryStudio]

Thanks so much for the referral to The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. I love the book! I make hand crafted journals and knowing the history of journals has given me SO many new ideas. It’s a fun read, too! 👍

[nameetharish]

So true! Keeping a notebook (actually many.... too many.) reminds me I'm thinking on paper. Meaningful notes are extensions of my thinking. I often forget how important the practice of writing is until I open my notebook and write. This video was a wonderful reminder to stay in the habit of writing. Thanks for posting!

[cuttyvirtus]

I've been trying various note taking methods over the past couple months to figure out which ones work best for me. What I have discovered is using the outline method for processing ideas and a Zibaldone for archiving the ideas of others has helped me a lot. I also do basic journalling to sift through some of my confusion, to explore ideas and how they might work, or to make connections between ideas.

I think the Zibaldone method works exceptionally well for deep literature, like Dostoevsky or Tolstoy. Sometimes you really need to sit with and reread paragraphs, quotes, pages... It's good to archive them, to make the words more personal to you. It really does change how you engage with ideas and stories.

[ximono]

1:00 Don't you see? It's exactly because any answer is a quick internet search away. Creativity comes from constraints and boredom, freedom and distractions are the antithesis to that!

[BrianBowes]

Nice to know that there’s a name for the type of journaling I did when I was younger. And a fantastic reminder to get back to it. Thank you🎉

[ryadaj]

You're a rising start, thanks for this medicine

[angelagrimes]

I am an artist and not a writer, yet. But, everything you said resonates with me as an artist. Keeping a journal of sketches, and ideas and experimentation collected in these journals becomes key to my success as an artist. So thank you!

[davidbreier]

One thing I found is that it's detrimental to use a process that's too elaborate. 10 different notebooks, a multi-step process or whatever doesn't help but it hampers your process. Find out what works for you. Personally I have two handwritten notebooks: A big one I keep at home and a small one I always have on hand either in a coat pocket, my bag or whatever. That's where all quotes, definitions, new words or ideas go I have over the course of a day. When one of those books is full or when I get the feeling I should do it, I curate those books and take what holds up during a re-read and then I digitize it and get it into a note-taking software (I use Joplin, but there is a bazillion different softwares that do the same). I do that because those curated notes then can be searched and preserved for future endeavours. And because I consider the note taking app my long-term second brain the information stored there should be useful and condensed as to not overcrowd it with useless stuff. That's one of the reasons I still use handwritten notes, so I reconsider what I write down and so that I use multiple filters for information: handwritten notes -> reread those notes -> maybe preserve as digital information. But I still keep my handwritten notes and journals just on the off-chance me or somebody else ever wants to retrace my thought process. For me, this process works, for other people this might already be too elaborate or too simplistic.

[elizabethdelafield]

I finished reading Allen's The Notebook a week ago. So many good ideas in there! I've been using a notebook again since December (I haven't used one since I was a kid) and it's making a difference. I appreciate your insight and recommendations here.

[tylerbailey]

Please do a flip-through video of your notebooks!

[janmckenzie]

Thank you. Cogent thoughts and useful suggestions. From my experience, you're right on the mark.

I've noticed you're getting a good view count on this video. To let you know, it was suggested to me after refreshing YouTube, after watching a bullet journal video.

[ibenjaminclarke]

Awesome video! Quick, to the point but packed with wisdom. Liked, subbed and appreciated

[BlackMasterJoe]

I like your cursive! It's very neat and compressed which is what I like. You can fit more writing on each page haha

[mbsimpson]

For folks looking for other resources, it's worth confirming and pulling @altashiro 's comment out of a nested conversation below: in the English speaking world these have been called commonplace books. Loved the suggestions on how to keep one herein though!

[Eudoxus-jv]

Good presentation ! Thank you. guess you are familiar with the Zettelkasten method used by Niklas Luhmann a german sociology professor who was extremely productive due to his method of notetaking and archiving with extensive crossreferences. The value created is in formulating the ideas, observations and questions in your own words and then work with the 'interconnectedness' there is also value in manually writing itself instead of typing . (lots of material on the web just check Luhmann, Remarkable, handwriting and neurophysiology etc)

[RachelleinTheory]

"Writer's block is a habit of forgetting." BRB, writing this excellent quote down in my pocket notebook 😄

[carolcrone]

I enjoy thinking that you’re talking to a small fluffy animal in your hand.

[kenneth]

It's strange to see someone's handwriting that looks almost exactly like mine.
Great video. From an veteran scribe.