Empty page syndrome: letting imagery speak when words won't come
Recently I succumbed to the urge to buy a blank journal to supplement my planner's daily pages. I wanted an unconfined space to do as little or as much journaling as creativity would allow. I was curious to see what would happen when removing the guard rails, so to speak.
An uncomfortable realization edged its way into my awareness, whispering: “Kim, you don't like seeing your own writing on the page.” Wrestling with this insight, I had to admit that my inner creative self, for now, craves a separation between idea-motivated journaling (mapping my plans, dreams, thoughts in writing) and expressive visual journaling. An internal partition is forming. Have you encountered this kind of rift in your journaling practice?
I often seek out art tapes, stickers, and ephemera with language fragments or handwriting elements that satisfy the mind's impulses to rejoice in beauty of the written word. I find a playful mix of language and imagery is often key to the pleasures of collage journaling.
Lately, I'm leaning into these options more — found writing fragments in stationery art — as I give my own writing habits a rest.
Questions for journaling:
- In your own journaling spreads, if a large area of the page remains blank (for example, image 2 below), does it make you feel incomplete? Does it feel more open-ended and spacious?
- Do you enjoy combining tapes/stickers with writing fragments into your collage spreads? Why or why not? Are you more likely to choose abstract (aesthetic and mysterious) writing, encouraging messages that reinforce positive thinking, quotations and poems, or something else?
- Do you identify with a particular creative style? What are some words you associate with your journaling practice — such as harmonious, moody, inspiring, introspective, cathartic, cheerful, vibrant, elegant, romantic, whimsical, or minimalist?
Images: Koji notebook size A5 by Sterling Ink. Collage spreads March 6, 2026, by Kim, using tapes by Asteroid B610, Elephant, Plusminus, and Somesortoffern, and stickers by MU, Do Not Like Sunday, Nekocha Studio, and Voyage de Cosmos.
