Sunday, 29 August 2010
Why do you (want to) Journal?
Today it's a question for you to ponder over - and of course write about in your journal. Why do you journal? If you have been doing it for years, what keeps you going? And if you are wishing you were regular journaler, why do you want to be one? What do you think you will get out of it?
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Good question- and i'm looking forward to the answers people give. Personally I only keep a journal as a way of recording all of my creative ideas (e.g. plot elements that dont fit into anything i'm writing at the moment, or miscellaneous lines of poetry), though some personal stuff leaks into there as well.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a diarist in the classical way. As teenager and young adult I gave journaling a couple of times a try, but it never worked for me. I've always felt, that my thoughts, the parts of my inner self weren't secure within the pages. This made me burn the written pages.
ReplyDeleteI changed my mind, when I started with journaling during my time abroad. It was a mixture of travel diary, new experiences and daily irrelevances. These books are still very precious for me and I'm more than happy to have them.
These days, in my daily life, I keep a dream diary, which is also my journal for creativity and art. These pages are still very personal and I won't show them to anyone ... but I'm glad to show others the little stories and art projects developed from those lines. Besides, after discovering my inner artist, I'm thinking of an art journal ... Well, we'll see! :-)
For myself I can say, once caught fire, it's hard to stop, even if I don't keep a regular journal. It's more that I see myself developing over the years, in writing, drawing, catching the mood ... everything!
It is the joy of writing itself.
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteSo you essentially keep a writer's journal. I keep one too. But it's an ever going question for me whether to keep my writing journal separate from my personal journal. Right now, I have a separate one, so I don't have to browse through all the personal stuff, to look at those notes, but writing related stuff leaks into personal one too. Still deciding what's the best way.
Nofretiri,
I think assurance of a privacy is a key issue. When I used to keep journal at home, I made sure it was well-hidden. Just didn't want to tempt the parents, you know :P Same thing later on, at college etc. I wouldn't share my journals with anyone, but I feel safe enough about them, knowing that no one read them until maybe after I am dead, and then I will be dead, so I am sure I wouldn't care :P
But personal journals are very important to me, because so many of life's little events slip by, and I think my journals capture them. Not efficiently always, but that's the on-going process of keeping better and better journals.
Anonymous,
Definitely!
- To vent
ReplyDelete- To see the present in a more objective way
- To capture the moment, freezing time so I can remember how life is today.. in the future.
- To document the mundane, the fun, the sad.
- To relax
Sometimes I let people read parts of them. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're sad- but they help people understand me.
ReplyDelete