The Stripkin blog
Journaling, drawn.
Why journaling habits collapse, what it takes to keep a character recognisably the same, and how an ordinary Tuesday turns into four panels.
Keepsakes
A comic of your trip, instead of 400 photos
A trip is the one part of life with a beginning, an end and a fixed length, which makes it the easiest thing to record properly and the thing people record worst.
Journaling
Journaling and memory: why writing it down changes what you keep
Recalling a memory rewrites it. A dated entry is the only version that stays put, and the act of writing quietly decides which parts of your life survive.
Keepsakes
Making a keepsake for a grandparent who isn't online
No app, no account, no QR code. The constraint removes most of the usual answers and leaves a much better brief: a physical object that explains itself to a stranger.
Comic Craft
Why comics remember better than paragraphs
A picture gets filed twice, a panel is always somewhere, and the reader has to fill the gaps themselves. Three reasons a drawn day outlasts a written one.
Keepsakes
Gifts for the person who says they want nothing
Nothing means three different things and only one of them means nothing. What works for the other two, and why every gift guide fails this exact person.
Journaling
How long it actually takes for a journaling habit to stick
The 21-day rule came from a plastic surgeon in 1960 and was never about habits. The number with evidence behind it is longer, varies enormously, and depends on the task.
Character Consistency
Why most AI comic tools forget who you are
Blaming the model is the reflex, and it is usually wrong. Most tools have no place to store a character, no reason to build one, and a demo that hides the problem.
Journaling
Voice journaling: talking your day instead of writing it
Most people can talk about their day for twenty minutes and can't write three sentences about it. Voice journaling exploits that gap, and has one real weakness.
Comic Craft
Reading your year as a comic: what a personal archive looks like
A year of daily strips is about 360 pictures and an hour of your evening. It reads nothing like remembering, and the difference is the entire point of keeping one.
Journaling
Journaling apps vs paper, honestly
We make an app, which is worth declaring first. Paper wins five arguments outright, and the choice comes down to which failure you are prone to.
Keepsakes
A pet's first year as a comic
Your phone has nine hundred photographs of the puppy and none of the things she did. The first year is mostly behaviour, and behaviour is what a photograph can't hold.
Journaling
What to write when nothing happened today
Nothing happened is a judgement about significance, made by the worst-placed person to make it. The ordinary days are the ones that disappear, and they are most of your life.
Comic Craft
Speech bubbles, captions, and when to use which
A bubble is heard and a caption is told. Getting that split right is most of what separates a diary strip that reads cleanly from one you have to work at.
Journaling
Journaling without being precious about it
The good notebook, the good pen, the complete sentences, the unbroken run. Preciousness is perfectionism in a nicer jumper, and it is why the notebook is empty.
Character Consistency
What "character consistency" actually means in AI image generation
Generate the same person twice and you get two relatives. What consistency means precisely, why a prompt can never pin down a face, and how to test a tool for it.
Journaling
Journaling for people who overthink every sentence
Rewriting one line four times is an accuracy problem, not a style one. Why 'write how you feel' is the worst instruction for this, and what to write instead.
Comic Craft
One panel a day: the smallest possible visual journal
A four-panel strip still asks you to decide what the day was about. One panel removes the decision, and a year of them reads better than a year of prose.
Journaling
Streaks, guilt, and the difference between a habit and an obligation
A streak counter rewards turning up, which is useful for a fortnight and corrosive after that. What it does to a journal, and four things worth counting instead.
Journaling
Alternatives to written journaling that actually stick
Six formats that preserve a day without a paragraph, what each one is good at, and the honest failure mode of every single one.
Comic Craft
Autobiographical comics for people who can't draw
The diary comics people love are mostly drawn badly, on purpose. Here's why crude drawing works, and the three marks you need to pull it off.
Journaling
What to do with a journal you never reread
You kept it for months and you've never opened it since. That's a clue about what you wanted from it, and it's not a verdict on your discipline.
Comic Craft
How to make a comic about your own life
You don't need to draw and you don't need an interesting life. You need one moment, four panels, and a willingness to leave most of the day out.
Journaling
Journaling when you hate writing
Most journaling advice comes from people who find writing easy. If you're not one of them, here's what works instead, and what to stop trying.
Journaling
Why journaling habits collapse in the first week
Most people who start a journal quit within days. Discipline has very little to do with it. The problem is where the effort sits, and where the payoff sits.