Want To See What You're Playing For?—The 2012 Contest Prize

Left: A handmade journal from Roz, see description below, is this year's prize. Click on the image to view an enlargement.



I've been trying to streamline the administration end of IFJM. The easiest way to do that was to cut back on the need for participants to email me with jpgs and updates and contact information.

In 2012 participants must do the following to enter the drawing:

1. Post on a public blog, Flickr, or other type website 5 (five) page spreads (or pages if they are working on one side of a page only) from their 2012 fake journal.  Ideally each page spread or page represents one journal entry. Journal entries must be from different days, i.e., all 5 pages spreads cannot be created on one day. Journal keepers who are writing short paragraph entries or doing multiple small entries must post entries from 10 days.

2. Send an email with the subject line, IFJM 2012 Participant, to rozjournalrat@gmail.com. The email must include a direct link to your fake journal blog, or if you are posting on your regular blog you must include a direct link to the first post (or first Flickr post and album). (If I can't find your images I can't list you so please make it easy on me.)

Throughout the month, as entries come in, I will create a list of 2012 participants. This list will sit in the right-hand column of this blog. Readers can use this list to check up on the progress of the various participants.

It is unnecessary to send any jpgs or other links to me. There is no need to contact me whenever you post another entry. All you have to concentrate on is making the best fake journal your days allow.

You are welcome at any time to send me a note about how your project is going, or a note asking questions  about the process. I look forward to hearing from you! With reduced paper work I hope to be able to respond more quickly!

At the end of the month I will use the participants link list as the pool from which to draw the winner.

The winner will be notified and asked to send a postal address where I can send the prize. If the winner doesn't respond within 72 hours of the drawing I will draw an alternate and repeat the process. The drawing will take place on May 4 and because of the notification and response time the drawing results may not be posted until sometime early in May.

ENTRY DEADLINE: You may enter the contest any time in April, even if you only discover this project at the end of the month. My goal is to encourage as many people as possible to try this experience. You must notify me by NOON on April 30 that you have posted your 5 entries. So in calendar time you will have to start your fake journal no later than April 25 to make the five page spread (pages) entry requirement. (See item 1 above.)

The prize is a 76-page, 6.5 x 8.25 inch journal, handmade by me with Gutenberg paper. This is a 180 gs cream paper with flecks and a slight pebbly texture. The paper takes wet or dry media well. In this scan of a gouache painting in a Gutenberg journal you can see the lovely laid texture of the paper. You can see another page from one of my Gutenberg journals here. (The actual page size of the book is slightly smaller than the cover dimensions.) Retail price on the book is $80.00. (In the event of unforeseen destruction I will provide a substitute of equal value.)

This is one of my favorite papers for journaling and I know the winner of this book will have a wonderful time filling it with "real" journal entries. The size is also wonderful for carrying with you every day.

What You Are Really Playing For

Prizes are always great, but in this event what you are really playing for is some self-knowledge and a bit of understanding about your real journaling process. Time spent in your fake journal might seem unrelated to your real journaling process, but freed from your regular constraints, considerations, paper, media, etc., you will find insights into what is or isn't working in your regular journal practice.

Use this time to discover how you like (or don't like) working in a new medium; how a certain commercially available journal works (or doesn't) for you; how a new size of journal changes your perspective; or how stepping aside from yourself for a few minutes a day shuts up your internal critic.

Private Fake Journals

Every year a number of people write to tell me they have kept a private fake journal. For a variety of reasons, all of which I respect and understand (not all of my fake journals are public), they don't participate in the public aspects of IFJM. I value their contribution to the effort and am always interested to hear about such adventures.

Often the most intense and meaningful discoveries are those we make privately while we work unconcerned whether or not our work will be seen by others. If that approach suits your needs I still hope you will participate.

And if your life doesn't allow the fit of one more endeavor at the present time I hope that you'll check back here every so often and click on the list of participants to view what they are up to. Take a moment to give them some encouragement and ponder where they are headed.