"Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn." Lewis Grizzard
So, over the last few years, I've been preparing a journalling #RPG that I have recently become obsessed with all over again.
It's called The Game for Scribes and it is a tarot-driven RPG for one (with optional multiplayer rules) that puts you in the shoes of the ruler of a small medieval-fantasy domain and the chronicaller who keeps the history. The game guides you through turns comprising years, each turn adding a brick to the wall of narrative that helps drive your journalling efforts (or even the background activity of your TTRPG campaign).
I've been periodically streaming gameplay and #journalling from the game on my twitch channel here, including the journaling process in a book I bound' with my own hands.
(Posting this #selfpromo post from Patch this week because my main writerly instance doesn't support markdown or this post length)
This is going to be cozy!
My normal writing stream is being set aside (slightly), and instead I'm going to be playing _The Game for Scribes_, my new Journalling RPG which puts you in the seat of both the chronicler and leader of a medieval territory of your own design.
Personally I think it's a good game. I really do. I'm even pondering releasing a couple expansion rules when I can figure them out.
#smallstreamer #journallingrpg #journalling #selfpromo #indyauthor
So much to write, I forgot how much it hurts my wrist. 😅🙂↔️ Perhaps a break is in order.
So much happened this week. I wish it was good stuff but it was not.
I read somewhere that back in ye olden days, people didn't write their journals and diaries in prose like we're "supposed" to do nowadays. They'd just have bullet points, like:
- Got married today
- Had a baby
- Moved across the country
This is the strategy that finally got me to journal consistently. I'll expand into feelings and speculation and philosophical whatever when I feel like it, but removing that pressure made it so much easier...
I finished my five year journal! (Sort of. I finished it based on the dates it has, but I'm still writing in it. 
)
[Images: Photos of a Hobonichi five year journal, foil stamped with the years 2021-2025. 1) Cover of the journal, with some wear on it, resting on a board next to a capped pocket fountain pen. 2) Journal open to the first page, with the words "What made you smile today?" written with a brush pen. The page is decorated with stickers and image transfers of flowers, bonsai, and text that says "Live life / Living My Life / to the fullest". Under the printed words "Hobonichi Techo - 2021-2025" small handwritten text reads "bonus: some 2026!"]61 months ago (according to the top right text on the Pillowfort post) I started keeping a 5 year journal. At the end of every day I sat down and answered the question "What made you smile today?" On the evening of new year's day, January 1, 2026, I opened it to fill it out and realized - I finished it the night before!!But I still had space on the page for Dec 31, so I wrote down what happened as my Jan 1, 2026 entry, haha. I've been continuing to squeeze answers in for 2026. I figure I'll keep it up till I actually do run out of space. At the end of my original 61-months-old post, I wrote, "See you in five years, when we’ll find out if I actually stuck with it or not, haha!" So here I am five years later, confirming I did stick with it! A few findings or thoughts from the experience. Unsurprisingly, the January 1 entries are always so packed and (relatively) neatly written. As the year progresses, things get sloppier and (often, but not always!) shorter. Sometimes I stretched the theme a bit. Not necessarily documenting what made me smile, but something I was grateful for, or something that really stood out in my mind for that day. (And then I'd often attempt to make it work in the smile theme, like I was doing a homework assignment.) It's neat to compare what I wrote on each day. There were certainly a few where there were amusing alignments/coincidences/similar themes, or interesting contrasts across the years. Often I'd look up and be reminded of something nice that I had completely forgotten about. I tried to make each year always a consistent fountain pen ink, choosing something that I thought I could live with for 365 days. Sometimes I found my own ink choices questionable or hard to read, and would switch partway through the year. I did forget to fill it out a few times. But I always realized the day after (or maybe 2 days after at the most?) and would backfill pretty close to the actual day, so I never had to stretch too much to come up with something. A few times I also accidentally wrote on the wrong page and had to draw little wayfinding arrows and write clarifications. It's fascinating to observe my feelings when evening rolls around now. I feel strangely a little lighter and looser knowing that I don't have to fill the journal out... even though I didn't really "have to" before either. I suppose that's just what happens when you suddenly remove a long-established routine. Your (well, my) brain is like "oooh... floaty space". And for fun, some excerpts from my Jan 1 entries. A lot still resonates.2021[...]I don't plan on writing longform entries throughout but seeing as this is the first day of using this journal on a (hopefully) 5-year adventure, and I have time for a bit of reflection today, it felt right. The thing I would like to try to remember to practice this year is: May I do all things with a mind of compassion and sincerity. And specific to this journalling exercise, may I not get too stressed out about mistakes dotting all my entries... and just try to keep things flexible.2022A wonderful beginning to the year - got my booster shot, worked on my Diamond Sutra non-dharma talk, ate a delicious crumbling pineapple ice cream bar (Achino). At this time, lately a quote/image in my mind is the Buddha's analogy of a handful of salt in a river with the ability of a great heart to take suffering. May my heart be a great river absorbing small salt. [Note from present-day me: The salt in the river analogy is technically more of a paraphrased reference to Thich Nhat Hanh's redistillation of the teaching, which I personally find much more accessible for practicing with in everyday life. For reference: The Marginalian's writeup on How to Love | Fake Buddha Quote's overview of another modern expression of this analogy, that includes an overview of the original source discourse | SuttaCentral English translation of the source discourse.]2023Stayed home all day working on comics! The joy of imagining and creating is truly a gift I'm always grateful for. I've already been reflecting a lot over the past few days and weeks on a general guiding theme or "mantra", and right now I think it is: I'm not perfect, I don't know everything. And that is freedom! (or at least a kind of freedom)2024It's 2024! Went out on a limb with Pilot Iroshizuku Benzaiten - I really wanted a BRIGHT colour in here. Stayed home all day again this New Year's Day and worked on a mini bamboo fence - it was meditative and enjoyable. Felt gratitude to be able to do this, spend time with friends and family, have an abundance of good food... we are so blessed. This year I am focusing on flowing as a river... carry what I can in each moment and let it go when it's no longer needed or helpful.[Note from present-day me: I actually did keep Benzaiten, a vivid pink ink, throughout the entire year. And here's that mini bamboo fence.]2025All of us going to see Grandma and Grandpa at the cemetery. Blasting through lots of books and Japanese language materials on Renta, including Star Ocean 20th Anniversary Memorial Collection and being so amused by the new (old) things I learned. Forgetting my intent to make matcha. Watching a massive cloud blanket slowly drift across a darkening sky. It's 2025![...] This year I want to be playful and curious and open to possibility and supporting a positive spirit to contribute to the kind of world I want to see.Happy new year!
Ach, only a few days late
Might as well start as I'll probably continue
"Just as winter gives way to spring, JANUARY is the first step toward the year’s endless possibilities."
Tone 🚴♀️
Simone
Patch Arcana
Ayamasa
Zachary J. Adam
Radioactive Ken 
mx. adventure
maiji
Anke