Dear Geist,

Is the bullet journal an assist for writers, or just another labyrinth in the writing life? A writer buddy of mine says the bullet journal is something people do to avoid writing, which every writer I know can relate to and none of us want.

—Mariana R., Tucson

Dear Mariana,

We know bullet-journal people, non-bullet-journal people, lapsed bullet-journal people and plan-to-do-it-soon bullet journal people. As you’ve probably discovered, there is lots of advice; and as you also may have found, the bullet journal is not the subject of heated controversy. It’s a flexible tool that can be made to function as the writer wishes, and to morph as needed. You can write in a table of contents, specify goals and deadlines, turn grid-printed pages into a standard calendar to remind yourself of other matters, keep a journal, tuck in notes you made on the fly, decorate the whole works with stickers and groovy felt pens, tear out pages that bug you, and so on. One of the most interesting effects writers report is the insight they get to their own process—of writing and life in general—which is bound to inform the writing life.

—The Editors