JJ is for Journaling Journeys
Let’s Think About Journaling – or Diary-Writing, Memoirs, Writing Practice
The other day, I ripped apart my 2022 Diary, a beautiful book with a (reproduction) William Morris Strawberry Thief cover (like this).
Why would I dispose of such a worthy item? Well, it is near the end of 2023, and my diary of last year was where I added snippets of prose, interesting words, notes about my writing process. A type of journaling that was more about immediate recall than long-term memory-making.
I could have shredded the pages. But actually tearing them to pieces was quite sufficient as there were no identifiable pieces of data, other than the title page which I popped in the jaws of the shredder. And I sliced the two remaining Strawberry Thief covers to make four handy bookmarks.
Is the Writing of Spurious Short-Term Notes Actually Journaling?
Yes, and no. It used to be but nowadays writers practice journaling as a way of practising writing itself. There are many good online sources of inspiration – including your own Later Writer Practice links. Take a look at the latter and have a go!
Next Year’s Diary
Hang on a moment – what about this year’s diary? There isn’t one in the Later Writer office because I’ve been using a digital calendar for many years. No wall calendars, no cute desk tear-off pages. It’s all on my mobile and laptop.
This year I bought a lovely notebook – among many others used for planning, writing, researching, any excuse – where I’ve been recording my writing journey. That notebook will no doubt suffer the same fate as last year’s in the fullness of time. I don’t need to keep every notebook because I know the best way I can ever record, recall, review my thoughts is digitally in the Word document I’ve entitled How I Wrote [insert name of WIP].
Carry on Journaling…
Whether you keep a diary (forever) or enjoy choosing your next notebook or handwrite notes on the back of till receipts or whether you stick rigidly to the keyboard entry, NEVER STOP WRITING for the simple pleasure of it. Everything you note down is worthwhile even if not destined to be publishable.
I once wrote a shopping list that became a poem – see Shopping List Poem.
More writing practice at ABC Alliterative Title Challenge.
