Fourth Entry in My 2010 Fake Journal

Left: the fourth entry of this year's fake journal. I'm still using only the Stabilo All (black; used dry) and cutting away the page to expose Canson Mi Tientes. I'm working in the APICA soft-covered notebook. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Since I don't use pencil in my visual journals much (I don't like all the smearing and smudging) I'm having a bit of a vacation from myself and my usual prejudices against smudges.

The insertion of a backing sheet of Canson Mi Tientes on each page (you can see the previous page's backing sheet at the left of the image) has caused this slim writing notebook to start to curl (with the grain of course) in an interesting fashion. It causes the pages to rub against the previous page—and since this isn't my journal I'm not in the least concerned.

Yep, quite a vacation.

Who's Celebrating International Fake Journal Month 2010?

Left: The first page of my 2010 International Fake Journal Month Journal. APICA notebook, with Stabilo All pencil; paper cut away to expose dark green Canson Mi Tientes on the right side of the page. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

A week into International Fake Journal Month and my character has been working steadily along with a page a day but I'm still a little foggy on some of the details. This is great for me because it makes me sit with the discomfort of that. More important to me, however, is the struggle I'm having letting my character keep such a text-free zone of a journal.

I will write more on this during the month. Today, however, I want to provide a list of links that will take you to the work of other fake journal keepers. I hope that you take a moment this weekend to check out these links and see the variety of approaches that people are attempting this month. They are stretching themselves both as to content and materials. I have been excited to see what they are producing and I know you will enjoy seeing it as well. I hope you take the time to go to their sites and encourage them in their journey.

Also, remember, it is not too late to join in. You can start today, as if your character simply finished his previous journal and picked up a new clean volume—because after all, how often do we get to start a new journal on the first day of the month? (And if you always do, well, all the more reason to let your character start one on an alternate day.)

Journal Keepers Participating in International Fake Journal Month 2010:
The link to each name gets you to their first post. Check later posts on their blog as well, for additional IFJM posts. (These links are listed in the order in which they were received.)

Melinda Bilecki (The journal of Sam Phaling, Executive Protection Specialist, begins.)

Julie Williamson (A mysterious journal by someone small.)

Liz Steel (A teddy bear takes the lead.)

Holly Herrick (The adventures of Mimi a perfectionist obsessed with watercolor paints—the three primaries only.)

Suzanne Queen (Remains herself, but different.)

Anne Bray (Has a blog for her fake journal: Spy Girl. Also Ann participated last year as well.)

Carol (A sort of historical postal fake Journal—Marco Polo's Fourth wife sends postcards.)

Evi (The diary of Raven R. Van Heavensong—in the environs of Harry Potter)

Kat Haberlack (Fizzgig Nushmut's observations and media experiments.)

Jill Jones (A travel journal begins.)

EVA tdb (Her fake journal author is off on an excursion in the Pacific.)

Timaree Cheney (Is a fish out of water)

Elizabeth Nevshemal (Her fake journal begins with an illuminated letter and entries surrounding the Christian calendar.)

Brandy Harrington (Her character is going to be playing with ink and watercolors.)

Note: if you don't find your posts linked here please review link submission guidelines. Some how filters in my mail program have weeded you out. I'd love to include you in future lists, and the contest drawing, if you would submit following guidelines.

If you aren't interested in posting your fake journal pages in public (either on this blog or on your own, with a link set up here) I would still love to hear from you about how your experience plays out for the month—so keep me posted. Fake journals can be private, and that's totally legitimate. Keep going.

Have a great weekend browsing these fake journals.

A Look into Trudi Sissons' Fake Journal

Above: A page from the 2009 fake journal of Trudi Sissons (©2009 Trudi Sissons). Click on the image for an enlargement. Read below for additional information.

Trudi Sissons wrote a couple days ago to tell me she had just stumbled upon this blog and immediately sat down to participate. I love to hear that!

Here's what Trudi had to say about her process:

I have had an 'alter ego' for a few years now. Her name is 2 and she is the artist in me wanting a simple life with two dresses - thus the name of my blog - Two Dresses Studio. Two summers ago, I completed two workshops (no pun intended) with Nick Bantock on Salt Spring Island. He taught me to let go of my 'inner critic' and I have done a paragraph or so about the death of the IC (as in "iK') But, I realized he'd been born again when I read through some of your posts, so I thought I must have a little talk with IC.

I wasn't prepared to take on a bird, but I loved your 2009 IFJM journal, so I started with watercolor (H20 Twinklers) and mapped out a feather. My IC was alive and well, and initially even bigger than I ever recall. But slowly, Two got the best of him and eventually, the brush moved outside the lines and complementary colors went the way of the dinosaur. Well, even the feather morphed and up popped Mother Earth. You never know when you let yourself go!!!

Trudi has posted another page to her fake journal at the web link I've provided above. You can also see her photography and collage work, plenty of fun things to look at and be inspired by.

But perhaps the best inspiration from Trudi today is the way she just jumped in and didn't let the internal critic hamper her!

All of us get a little cocky sometimes. We think that we have things under control because we have been productive creatively for long periods. Then we see something, a glimpse perhaps, if not a full-blown situation, which shows us the internal critic is alive and kicking. Don't be discouraged by that quick glimpse, just use it as a check point to do diagnostics and get tuned up again. Silence the internal critic at the first whimpering or needling noise. It's faster and easier than waiting. All the time you gain is time you can put back into your art and life.

Oh, Trudi did one other thing that I have been recommending, she kept her time expenditure under an hour. Don't set out to spend hours and hours on a new project such as this. A missed session will put you overwhelmingly behind.

Remember, 15 minutes, even 10 minutes a day. That's all it takes.