Do you ever have those moments in life where before it even ends you know it’s going to be a moment you’ll miss? Or that it’ll be a moment you’ll want to go back to as soon as it’s over for years to come after that? The moments where you struggle to capture every single aspect and anxiously await their ending because you feel you haven’t captured enough to remember all the specific things that made it so special? The moments like your first date with that one boy you’ve had the biggest crush on for three years or the huge family/friend cruise everyone has been planning for months? There are simply never enough selfies, video diaries or postcards that will be able to fully capture the magic you felt in those moments. For me, some of those moments aren’t even mine. These moments are written by an entirely different individual, yet feel so personal. These are the moments in books. The stories that touch your heart so deeply that you worry someday you’ll forget all about them. I’m here to relieve you of that worry and tell you that you won’t.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how I book journal to hold onto all those magical moments and feelings.
1. Get yourself a cutesy journal
To make the experience even more special, I recommend getting a journal that speaks to you! I personally got my journal at Five Below and absolutely love the pastel forest green and gold combo. It’s the perfect size for all my book entries and the stickers just add to the magic! Just like you would for your laptop case, get some cute stickers to bedazzle your new best friend!
2. Keeping Notes
This step is one that will be personal and different for every reader. Some may decide to make a bulleted list of favorite book moments or use post-it tabs to save special pages. One may scribble excessively for every little moment in the book while some may create a list on their iPad/iPhone/computer. The whole point is that you quickly get in the habit of jotting down your favorite book moments and characters to remember when you move on to the next step of writing your synopsis.
3. the synopsis and set up
Now, here we get to welcome the critical side of ourselves! What did we think of the book? We take our notes from the span of the story and write our absolute favorite moments. The moment the couple had their first kiss, told one another they loved each other or when the mystery was finally solved and the town lived happily ever after. What made you cry or laugh? What life lessons did you get out of it all? This is your tell-all section where you get to capture every special moment, character and feeling. These are the parts you’ll reread in the future and be transported right back to the moment you first picked up your pencil and wrote them. Of course, we then write the title of the book and the author as well as give it our rating out of five stars. As you can see from the picture, this book made my elite five-star collection. And that’s it for the synopsis and the right side of the page!
4. Favorite Quotes
Now, for the very best part: the favorite quotes! These quotes made us feel a million emotions and a thousand swarming butterflies in our stomachs. These are the quotes that changed our outlook on life and made us appreciate the things we may not have appreciated before. Quotes that we read over and over again, attempting to feel that same impact we felt the first time. Write down all those quotes that you underlined, highlighted and post-it noted because this page is for them. Whenever I get down or feel my life has gone in an unfavored direction, I simply pull out my book journal and transport myself to moments of inspiration, moments where I felt safe and okay.
So there you have it! Your personalized step-by-step directions to starting your book journaling career! I hope all of your book memories are captured and you have this journal to look back on in the years to come. Here’s to making new memories while always remembering and saving the old ones for later! I’ll now leave you with this very powerful quote that spoke to me from One Tree Hill: “Just because the song ends doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop and enjoy the music.” Instead of constantly worrying about how you will capture that perfect moment, let’s all try and just live it.
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