Do you keep a journal/diary?

[SFG75]

Do any of you keep a journal/diary? I was really into this when I was younger, but haven't done so for quite awhile now. I'm not certain why I stopped, as it was nice to look back and remember certain things that I would forget as time progressed. I recently purchased a beautifully handmade book that had a hard-scratchy paper in it with a design of the Buddha on the cover. I'm thinking of using it as a journal or perhaps to write a few poems down.

 

[sirmyk]

Do manuscript pages count? I keep a stack of notebooks near my bed to help me sleep at night. If I don't write down what the little blue meanies in my head tell me to write, they keep me up all night.

 

[Irene Wilde]

I've kept journals most of my life. They are my therapeutic outlet, they help me to process my emotions, to make decisions, to set goals and move toward them, to toy with some poetry or a story idea, and they give me an excuse to have a few minutes peace and quiet in the course of a hectic day. I find that writing in a journal at a specified time every day helps, or in my case during my lunch hour on Mondays through Friday when I was working. Now that I've been home for awhile and disrupted that routine (and have a child to keep up with during her summer vacation) it's been more difficult, but I find I get cranky without it.

 

[Mari]

I bought a beautiful book like that a while back, but then felt I couldn't spoil it with random thoughts, etc. So it has become my commonplace book.

I do keep a journal, though. It's a growing file on this computer. *pats* It's not a diary in the sense of recording each day's activities. It's more like a place to work out thoughts and memories. I still have anger about my childhood, and I have found it therapeutic to write about it (rather dramatically) so that I can set it aside. It helps me let go of those thoughts because I know they are there if I need to see them again.

 

[mehastings]

On and off I do. I was much better in high school and college when my love life was tumultuous. Now that I'm old and boring my journal was too. I've recently started blogging for entertainment, but it isn't the same.

 

[Ronny]

I do keep, what I guess could be called journals, I have little books filled with notes to my self, lists, quotes, poems, sketches, phone numbers, important dates, all kinds of odds & ins really. I don't keep them very organized by date or anything they are scattered all about and I write in which ever is closest.

 

[Kookamoor]

I have on and off during the years. Right now I'm so busy that I just don't seem to have time - a shame

I do blog for my closest friends, and I have a notebook I write various things in at times. I'm also a chronic list maker, which goes in the same place. Always fun to see what I was listing at one time or another. I also keep a scrapbook of letters, postcards, emails, souvenirs, etc. which is fun. I'd like to incorporate the lot into one folder but I haven't worked out how to do that yet!!

 

[clueless]

I used to keep one as a teenager, but one of my sisters found it, read it and started laughing at what I said.

 

[wilderness]

clueless...thats really horrible!
I have a gay friend and he kept a diary and once wrote about a guy that he gave head to. He was 14 at the time, and his 15 year old brother found the diary, read it and read it to his PARENTS!! nasty

But yeah. I usually keep a diary. At the moment, I'm not really writing in my diary because I'm working on a novella and I find it hard to write fiction and keep a journal.
Its weird. Last year, I wrote a short story and a poem a week, and just couldnt bring my self to write in my journal.
At the start of this year, I was frantic about writing in my journal, and as soon as I started my novella in June, I just couldnt write! weird thing of mine...so at the moment, no...unless I'm having a really bad day, i write to get it out.

Lani

 

[francesca]

I have some lovely chinese notebooks that I scribble all sorts of things in, booklists, websites, reminders to myself , plus the occasional water colour or pen drawing. I have had countless blogs but currently have just the two, one of which I'm very frustrated with because I can't get to grips ( no patience, want everything done yesterday etc) with wretched html, very frustrating. Years and years ago I kept diaries, they made me cringe when I read them in later years.

 

[lies]

with wretched html

It's very logical though.

I keep an online journal myself. It's pretty factual and thus boring.

 

[SFG75]

I bought a beautiful book like that a while back, but then felt I couldn't spoil it with random thoughts, etc. So it has become my commonplace book.

That's what I'm presently discovering. When I get comfortable and prepare to jot a few things down-I just can't bring myself to do it.

 

[jenn]

i have kept journals for years but lately they have been set aside. i also keep a quote book that i collect phrases and lyrics in. now i am blogging, which is odd as it is personal yet people can read it. i like it though, it's interesting reading people's comments and i love reading other people's blogs.

 

[Irene Wilde]

I could never post my diary to a blog! The men in the white coats would finally get me for sure!

 

[jenn]

haha. well it is less personal than what i would write just for myself, wait no that's not true. it's just a very seperate part of my personality that doesn't have an outlet in my day to day life of mother/wife/pta princess. the only person who knows me offline who reads it is my sister, no one else in my offline life even knows about it, so in a way it is still personal, if that makes sense.

 

[Peder]

I started keeping a Journal many years ago at a rough spot in my life. Facing a page a day in a diary would have left too many pages blank, but the free form of blank undated pages and making entries whenever I felt like it were ideal for the purpose. Mainly I wanted to get down on the page my side of the story, so to speak, for the problems then bedeviling my life. Over time I came to realize that it takes two to have a dispute, and much more recently I have moved. When it came to the Journal, all dozen volumes, I felt there was no reason for anyone to relive those miseries. So, out they went with so much other trash. Haven't missed them since and the children will be better off without them.
Peder

 

[leckert]

I still have anger about my childhood, and I have found it therapeutic to write about it (rather dramatically) so that I can set it aside. It helps me let go of those thoughts because I know they are there if I need to see them again.

I use my fiction to address my childhood anger. I have a bunch, too, and I hope it stays around for a while, 'cause it makes for some great fodder! I haven't exactly set it aside, but have incorporated it into a productive part of my life.

Anger, heartache, and disappoinment are awesome inspirations!

So, I guess, my writing has sort of been my vicarious journal.

 

[SFG75]

Some members have mentioned online journals and blogging. While I do have a blog, I just put stuff in that which I would share freely anyways. The "public mind" of me is stuff that I don't mind being out there for the world to see. To me, personal thoughts and other musings are meant to be kept under wraps. I don't include personal thoughts or things like that in my blog-I'd prefer to jot it down and keep that stuff private.

 

[ruby]

I have keeped a diary for years since i was a teenager,my deepest thoughts are in here,as well as important dates such as birthdays,dentist appointments etc!

 

[clueless]

I've never had a blog. Maybe I should have one to stop posting so much nonsense here and annoying everyone in the forum.