Promoted from the Forums (Background on Forum Promotion here)
By: CharleeVale
Do you keep a journal?
I don’t mean the normal writer’s journal, full of notes and ideas and bits of dialogue. I mean a ‘dead diary’, I did this, I did that journal. I’ve never been able to. Maybe because spending time writing that doesn’t benefit one of my WIPs seems like a waste of time….
But I’m wondering if there are any of you that do, and how you find the time/motivation?
Allan Douglas says
No, I don't. I agree that spending time doing this is non-productive… but looking back on it would probably be too scary.
James Scott Bell says
dead diary?
Stacking the deck, eh?
I use a novel journal, an idea I got from Sue Grafton. A daily "letter" to myself about the book. Sort of a diary in that it talks first to myself, then the story.
But not a straight diary. That does take away from the fiction.
Marilyn Barnicke Belleghem M.ED. says
I have kept journals for many years and they have formed the backbone of my self help travel memoirs. I don't do it daily but keep notes on the highlights especially when travelling.
Zoe Faulder says
I try – though I fail most of the time…
It's not really for writing purposes as the contents generally make me cringe but it's a great way of clearing all the muck out of your head.
abc says
I was a serious journal girl in all my growing up years (and unfortunately my dad burned them all when getting rid of stuff–he thought he had my permission. as if), but since I've been a "grown up" I've never felt the need. Of course I blog. That's kind of like journaling. That's enough for me. And it is more fun. I don't want to talk to myself too much, really. I see the benefit, but I'd rather talk to others.
Rob says
I used to obsessively keep a journal in high school and college – the only way I could organize my thoughts honestly – but fell out of it once I started feeling happier and wanting to experience and enjoy life instead of writing about it. I try to push myself to write every few months but I have so many other hobbies, interests, and responsibilities that get in the way. Then there's the indecisiveness. I currently have a 6"x9" unlined spiral notebook and a 3"x4" travel notebook that I'm concurrently updating. It confuses the hell out of me as to which one to use.
Anonymous says
I blog daily, which I consider my online journal. This is what blogging was intended to be when it first started…an online journal…and I try not to deviate and turn it into social networking.
SM Blooding says
I used to. It was really neat the other day to pull it out and read it. I was like, "Hey! I totally FORGOT that! Wow!"
*shrug*
Now, I have Twitter, and a blog…*shrug*…and I type faster. But it was so much fun to go back and read what I had written.
I think I might pick it up again. Mostly, it was me chatting and arguing with myself about what I should be concentrating on…though, no always.
And arguments with yourself should not be posted on your blog. Well, unless they're wickedly entertaining. *snort*
Frankie
Anonymous says
what is a dead diary?
Jenny Torres Sanchez says
I did…when I was sixteen, so you can only imagine. I just came across that journal and wow…melodramatic, sickening, angsty, in short–terrible!
I don't now for the same reasons you don't. Plus, I don't wanna be that seventy year old who finds it someday and thinks, what a putz I was!
Kathleen@so much to say says
Blog=journal. I used to do both, but not anymore. What's missing is the not-for-public-consumption stuff…but, like abc, it's enough for me.
If you blog about writing, this doesn't work, but my (admittedly limited) readership doesn't care to read about writing; they just want to see the "journal" stuff. I figure I'm writing essay material. And building a readerhsip.
But I do admit that on top of NF projects, it does take up time that cannot, then, be used to work on fiction.
Melody says
I've kept a journal fairly religiously since January 2009. It being a (oft-made) New Years Resolution, of course, and one I actually kept. Part of my motive was to preserve what was left of my teens, in order to have more fodder for YA writing, but it's grown to become a great way for me to get my thoughts out and clear my head. 🙂
Just Another Day in Paradise says
You bet! It's my blog. I'm not sure it's a "dead diary" but there is a lot of "did this, did that, should have done this, wish I hadn't said that to them" and so on. The great part about it is that it let's me vent. Let's me get on that soap box and go for it. When people comment in the negative, I remind them that this is my Journal and I'm writing for myself, so if they feel offended, please tune out for that day.
A couple of other benefits are 1. I write something every day and 2. many of my vents turn into great story ideas and finally 3.I started this blog when we moved to the islands and it lets me stay in touch with friends and family. I guess more to the poin, they can stay in touch with me and see what the current rant is all about.
Ted Fox says
I got a really cool notebook this past Christmas that was practically begging for me to journal in it. I was writing something in it every few days in January. And then …
It still looks awesome on my nightstand, though–makes me seem pseudo-intellectual.
Matthew MacNish says
Lord no, my life isn't interesting enough for that sort of thing.
I do, however, keep a web log.
Sarah says
I do, and have regularly since middle school. I figure any writing is good practice. It's a way of organizing my thoughts as well as remembering things that happened once before. Since I take experiences from life (people I've met, silly moments at the store, etc.) and work them into my fiction, it's good for me to practice putting those to paper.
Barbara Kloss says
I used to. Until it all started turning into ideas for WIPs. There went all self-reflection…
Libby says
I did obsessively when I was younger. Now, I'm just not that concerned. I live life now more than reflect on it, I would say it was reversed when I was younger.
Kemberlee says
Isn't that called Twitter?
Mr. D says
I agree with some of the prior comments. Nowadays, it's all about the daily blog. Journals are going the way of the brick and mortar book stores.
Jenny Maloney says
I just recently finished reading Virginia Woolf's A Writer's Diary. Apparently it's 26 volumes long and I got the abridged version (whew!). But the way she kept it was inspiring to me.
Basically, she didn't write in it every day. She kept notes on life, sketches for characters and scenes, and whatever else came into her head. If she was working on a book, there's big ol' blank dates in her diary because, well, she's working somewhere else.
In the past, I've found that I apologized to my 'diary' if I stayed away too long and then felt guilty if I didn't write in it.
But with Woolf's model in mind, I write about whatever–blog ideas, story ideas, brain dumps. I don't date the pages. I don't apologize for not writing in it. (It's a book, it'll get over it.) I come back to it when I come back to it and it's always there when I need it.
Andrea says
I tried many times growing up to keep a journal, but they never seemed to last. Now, I feel with so little time to write in the craziness that is my life as it is that I simply don't have the time.
mshatch says
yes – sort of. my 'blog' file on my computer is often a journal as some of the content never makes it to my actual blog due to being either too personal, inappropriate, or just too blah.
KrisUnderwood says
I've been keeping a journal for years, since I was 16, probably…in the middle of my 61st now. I use it more for when I need to work things out personally. I used to work out some of my poetry in my journal awhile back, not so much now-prefer working that out on the computer. Journaling also keeps my handwriting legible 🙂
magpiewrites says
I've tried to keep a journal/diary since I turned 13 and got a diary for my birthday. It was so awesome, had a picture of a rollerskate on it and a lock with attached dinky silver key. I wrote in it maybe every three months before giving up. In the fifteen or so years since I've bought blank journals, filled up the first few pages, then abandoned them.
I'm a wannabe diarist – in love with the idea of it, but can't do it. Funnily enough, I have no problem blogging nearly every day. I guess that's become my 'diary'.
I don't think I'd have much luck with a novel journal, but would love to hear more about people's experiences with it. How do you use it for your novel later? How is this different from just 'notes', or is it the same thing, but fancy?
Jay says
I bought an old, small notebook off of ebay so I could write down random things. I end up writing in it twice a month whenever I have an interesting bike ride to my bus stop.
Yeah.
Carrie Filetti says
I was very faithful in journal writing when I was a child and while at college. I think it was my first steps in becoming an writer. Sadly, I'm so busy with family and creating stories that journaling has taken the back burner. It's a shame. I wish I would have recorded my first feeling when I got my agent, etc.
I need to do better. Journals are treasures to posterity.
dianehenders says
Nope. I've never been motivated to keep that kind of record. Looking back just isn't my style.
K. C. Blake says
Who has time to write in a diary? lol Seriously, between working on books, doing my blog, keeping up with Facebook, Twitter, etc. I barely have time to work and sleep.
Loree Huebner says
I did at one time in my life but not anymore. I can't even look at it now.
Sessha Batto says
I USED to . . . it's how I learned the valuable lesson 'never write ANYTHING down that you don't want the world to know' . . . now I channel it all into my books 😉
Stephanie McGee says
I journal. Not as much as I used to, but I do. Generally if there's something I want to remember for whatever reason, an event, an emotion, whatever, I journal. I date the entries. And generally I write in my journal before I go to bed. I don't write in it every day. My journals have evolved and matured as I've grown older. But without journals, our photos and the miscellania that survive us mean nothing to our posterity. OUr journals show our grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and beyond, the sort of person we were. Our journals can give our descendants a role model to emulate (or avoid) when they're navigating the pitfalls of their own lives.
Sierra McConnell says
I keep a LiveJournal because it's just something I've had for years. It's a place to keep the OMGs and Holy Craps when I'm not at a place I can write them down (ie. work). It's also a place to keep in touch with the few friends I have left there, and a place to just let loose with that one side of myself I don't let anyone else see.
It's not detrimental to be human, as well as a writer. Because at the end of the day, when you close that book, there's someone on the other side of the cover. You.
Nick Lewandowski says
I did this once, for about a week, and only because I was living in extraordinary circumstances – the recent revolution in Egypt.
I actually recorded entries on a mini-recorder as I went from place to place, so I have about an hour and forty-five minutes or so of incredible entries (at protests, F-16s soaring overhead, et cetera).
Some day I mean to sit down and transcribe them.
I imagine I might keep some kind of journal in the future if travelling like Marilyn said – provided I can ever afford it ;).
The idea of chronicling my daily life just doesn't appeal to me however.
Teralyn Rose Pilgrim says
I do it for family history – I want to leave a part of me behind – and so I don't lose my memories. I love reading over my old journals.
Debbie says
I do write my morning pages every day. At least I try to. And they tend to be more journally than my writing notebooks.
I've found that I don't write anything else on the days I don't write morning pages. That doesn't mean that I do write other things when morning pages are produced.
But why chance it?
Mieke Zamora-Mackay says
I do. I don't write in it everyday, but it serves as a receptacle of experiences that I may, or may not, want to remember.
An experience, whether good or bad, mundane or special, is a resource to me as a writer. I can't think of simply trashing it because it's not "productive" writing.
I'll never know years from now, what seed I might find in it for a story.
Anonymous says
I did all through high school (fairly strictly) and through college (much less strictly), because I have an awful memory and I wanted my future-self to remember what it was like going through those formative years.
Now that I'm getting ready to go to grad school/working, though, I write in it less. I use it as a more of a way to organize my thoughts rather than as a "this is what I did today" type thing, and I try to write in it three times a week- just so I have a half hour to myself away from the TV and computer. If I go traveling I definitely keep a strict journal, sometimes with little sketches of things or fragments of tickets or brochures, etc.
Christa says
It's interesting that people started to point out the benefit to our children and grandchildren. I believe that wholeheartedly, and even before the idea came up I was going to mention:
I keep a journal specifically for my son. When I found out I was pregnant, I wrote about how my husband and I met, our wedding, and finding out we were having our son. Then I kept it up. Pregnancy, labor and delivery, learning the ropes. Nowadays I write in it every few weeks, to let him know what our life is like now that he's in it. I wish I had something like that from my infancy. And it's a win-win because hey, I'm writing, right?
I also keep an 'introspection' journal where I keep track of prayers and think through life's dilemmas.
As for a dead diary: Not since I was a hopelessly self-absorbed, boy-crazy and downright boring teenager. 😀
Ishta Mercurio says
I tried that once when I was nine, and then after a few days I looked at it and thought, "This is boring."
I do keep a dream journal, though. My dreams are almost never boring.
Belinda Kroll, Quirky Historical Fiction says
I have had a LiveJournal for ten years. I don't blog there as often as I did when I was a teenager, and EVERYTHING WAS AGAINST ME HOMG, but whenever I'm troubled I turn to that journal and bleed my thoughts and emotions and confusion onto the keyboard. It's very therapeutic, and if it's a long enough post, I count it toward my weekly writing word count. Making sense of one's emotions in a prose format is a good exercise for making the emotions of one's characters tangible and logical.
WriterGirl says
I've never heard the phrase "dead diary". I used to keep a journal until I was about 21. Then when I'd grown out of youthful angst I just didn't need it any more. Though reading the journals of Sylvia Plath always give me the urge to write deep and meaningful journal entries, I'm afraid mine were always more of the "I love that boy- does he notice me" variety.
Julia says
I have journal to keep me from thinking that I need to write an autobiography. Whenever something "cool" happens to me, I no longer think "Oh, time to write and publish an autobiography." Now I think "Ugh, now I have to dig out that journal."
It works.
Iliadfan says
I've kept a diary since my early teens (except when I was in college – also the only time in my life I all but stopped reading and writing fiction). It's where I can think through troubling experiences, express fears about political turmoil or as-yet unfulfilled dreams or daily angst or even gush about brilliant books I've read, without involving other people who might be bored or offended by my opinions. 🙂
It has no impact on my other writing – we make time for the things that are important to us.
Taryn Tyler says
I keep my writing notes "dear diary" stuff in the same journal. It is not in any way organized and allows me to scribble down whatever I'm thinking about in any way I like whenever I want. –though the "dear diary" stuff is a bit outnumbered and not frequently updated (see disorganized statement above).
Erik says
Like others, I blog. Keeping a diary is much more personal and although I've never had one, I may regret that decision when I'm famous and I need material for my memoir. Or I could just make it up. That seems to be the cool thing to do.
Brandy Heineman says
I've kept diaries and journals, off and on, for most of my life. I started my first online journal in college as a handy procrastination tool. It tallies up to an embarrassing 243,000 words about me. So yes, I have to say that most of that was probably a waste of time.
D.G. Hudson says
Some of the great writers kept journals which were so detailed that they were published after their death.
Journals do take time, but it pays to determine what you want it for in the first place. Is it to document an important time in your life — such as a turning point? Or is it a sounding board to get things off your chest? Only highlight what's important and learn to step back & observe.
Nothing written is non-productive if it improves your writing (i.e., your selection of the right word, your expressions of emotion, refining of your thoughts, etc.)
Don't think in Dear Diary terms, think of it as documenting parts of your life.
I posted about that on one of my blogs: https://dghudson.blogspot.com/2011/02/its-your-life-prove-it.html
It's a good way to sort your thoughts, if nothing else.
Motivation is determined by why you're keeping the journal (for sanity, to note details about an important event, to glean from for a memoir).
I've heard that trying something for 20 days can make it into a habit, so why not try keeping one for 20 days to decide if it will work for you?
Jayme Stryker says
I used to keep a journal, but I stopped. I always hated going back and reading a detailed account of menial events and tasks.
On the other side of the coin, I find writer's journals to be very interesting when they're not mine. I've read almost all the volumes of L.M. Montgomery's journals, but she readily admits that she used them because she felt she could talk to no one else. Apparently, it's unfortunate for my life as a diarist that I have people to talk to…
Stephanie says
I keep several diaries/journals and all have a specific purpose.
I have kept a diary since I was about 8 and found, many times, spilling my guts to a blank page when there was no one else to talk to helped…a lot! Especially during those teen years. As I got older, the purpose changed and I didn't keep it updated as often as I did when I was 15. Now it's more of an autobiography of my life with my thoughts and feelings about my life and chronicling the things we do as a family. Maybe someday my kids and grand kids will be interested in reading about my life. I think it would be really cool to read a journal kept by my grandma in the 30's and 40's.
I keep journals about my kids too..recording all the little day to day things…firsts, cute things, things I love about them. Someday I'll give it to them to read.
I think venting to a journal is completely therapeutic. As mature responsible adults, it's not okay to just blow up at someone when we're angry, even if they deserve it. I find it far more productive to vent those frustrations out to a blank page…no judgment, no filter…word vomit that makes me feel better.