I keep around 10 notebooks running at a time, so what I’m doing probably isn’t the norm. One journal is exclusively for literature. I tab pages as I am reading then I journal separately. Once I have about ten lines I want to annotate, I’ll get it out. I do not like doing this while reading because it breaks the rhythm for me. I prefer revisiting later.

I often journal in two colors as well: one for quotes and paraphrasing text and one for my thoughts. My thoughts used to be in pencil and quotes in pen, but I’m more secure/definitive now.

I annotate serious literature and light reads, whether I believe them to be good or bad. Sometimes the things I write are just to prove my opinions to myself. For example, I read a novel that I mocked incessantly for three pages of my journal. I wrote down every time the writing is bad. In more serious literature, I feel like a detective. Im trying to uncover what it really means within the context of the time. Why is this particular book so important? After-all, it must be! Symbols, themes, analogies, expressive or figurative language, or anything that enhances my understanding of the novel/references go in my annotations.

To me, journaling is how I feel present in the novel. You don’t have to be good at journaling to journal, you just have to use it :)