On Journaling

[elizawrites]

I’ve never been a very good journal keeper, as much as I want to be. I’ve had trouble since kindergarten, when my gifted and talented teacher wanted me to write a full notebook page for a journal entry and I wrote “I lost a tooth,” followed by, like, forty lines of exclamation points. With a pencil, even, so the page got all greasy after a while.

Comments

[chriskalen]

i don't write every day, but i consider myself a faithful journaler since around age 10 or so. it was definitely the main contributor to the development of my writing ability and voice. i've kept at it so long because writing is the way in which i express myself best, and because i am an archivist at heart and feel the need to keep a record of events in my life. that said, i go through phases where i journal constantly, and other periods where i might write once in two weeks.

keeping a journal also helps keep me writing when i otherwise wouldn't be writing anything. seriously, if i didn't keep one, the last thing i would have written is a group paper (!) on databases. i have lost interest in fiction writing in the last several years, but journaling keeps me on form.

[chriskalen]

oh, and i'm not sure i can be very helpful as far as tips go, since the main thing keeping me going is my obsessive, nagging need to keep life archives. perhaps don't try to keep one daily? i have never felt the need to keep a daily journal -- i hated those pre-dated ones, with a page for each day, since some days i'd write way more than one page, and many days i didn't write anything at all.

[stargazzy]

Journaling is very important to me and it's how I established my "real" writing routine. I can use it to offload the junk in my brain, per The Artist's Way, or to jot down ideas about my current or future projects. I think it's good to get that stuff on paper because short-term memory only holds so much. Once it's on paper you've got room for more stuff! I was also reading this great YA book this week (Tempo Change, by Barbara Hall) where it talks about the importance of getting your thoughts down on paper because that way they become intentions, and then they can become actions. Otherwise they stay these amorphous thoughts

[anonymous]

I am not as dedicated a journaler as I used to be, however, these 2 things worked well for me to develop the habit:
1. REALLY small writing spaces. My first journal was a 5-year diary that had room for, maybe, 2 sentences per day--if I wrote really small. But, I started it in 7th grade and never missed a day for 5 years. The expectations were just so minimal. When I finally stopped writing in it, I was used to writing something (even just a couple of sentences) daily that I did it for years and years afterward--and some of THOSE entries turned out to be far lengthier.
2. REALLY short lists. Life got a bit nuttier in the past couple of years and, so, I really slacked off on regular journaling. But, I still try to do very short lists--like 5 things I'm thankful for that day. Again, the expectations are pretty easy to meet, plus it's helpful to remember to be grateful for the good stuff :).
Hope that helps!
~Marilyn Brant

[donia]

I've never been good at journaling, either. I do think I would probably be a better writer if I did journal. My LJ is the closest thing I have to something like that and even that has fallen off since I firsted started it. I feel like most of my life is boring and I don't really have anything to say, plus writing usually takes a long time for me since I do the hunt and peck kind of typing. Now that I don't have a computer, it's gotten pretty sad, but I also don't have any grand ambition of being a writer. It's just something I would like to be good at because I enjoy doing it; kinda like cooking.