diaries

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Mon, 2002-05-13 20:28

diaries

I don't know if anyone has asked about diaries before (probably), but I want to ask...

Do you keep a diary? And if you do, are there any special routines you have to follow? Do you fantasise that it will make you famous when you're dead, or are you terrified of anybody seeing what you write?

I think diaries are amazing. It fascinates me to think that some people record what they've done and felt each day from quite an early age until they die. But it also comes with a lot of responsibilities, like keeping them secret *all* the time. And not being able to forget what an idiot you used to be because you're too attached to them to throw them away, even if they make you feel so embarrassed you could spontaneously combust...

Do you think that writing a diary is good or bad for writing in general? For example, I write mine religiously. I have a big purple book, narrow-ruled, with a page for every day. I have to write in fountain pen or I can't write at all. When I have too much to say, I type it up and stick it in. I am bothered by the fact that through the months, the fonts I've used have changed...

If I don't have time to write my diary, I can't feel peaceful until I've caught up. For me, everything in the day is unresolved unless it's written down. I can spend an hour or two, often more, just doing this. I have probably spent more time writing in the damn thing that doing the things I write about. The thought of not having everything on paper forever really freaks me out.

When I say then that I haven't written for six months, a year, however long it's been, I'm technically lying. I have been practising and developing every day just writing in my diary. Is that a good idea, to persevere when you feel really uncreative, just to keep it going? Or do you think that being so obsessive about it exhausts any potential for doing any other kind of writing?

(I've also got addicted to posting on these forums now, hehe, sorry :) mind you... you're all just as bad!)

Sun, 2002-06-02 19:55

HoxtonEye

I've started a diary set in an effort to write on a more regular basis. It's not a true diary in the sense of recording events every day, but I do try to write something a couple of times a week, when something happens that is worth the effort of producing a few paragraphs. It has encouraged me to write more, as there is not the same pressure to finish a poem or short story. Whether it has improved my writing..........who knows. But I enjoy it, some of the readers have enjoyed it, and that's enough for me.

Sat, 2002-06-22 10:17

iceman

I have written a daily journal every day since 1977, apart from a gap in 1980-81 where I underwent the change experienced by everybody between 17 and 19 when you undergo a sort of metmorphosis and cease to be a child and become an adult. I have also started a diary set. I now log on first thing in the morning and write the entry online then upload. I find that by being online it makes my writing feel more immediate. I use a Parker T Ball ballpoint that my wife gave me as a present in July 1984 which has had many refills since then...when we moved house in 1993, I divided the diaries into 1977 - 1992 and 1993 onwards. Sometimes the entries are just a series of "I did this, and I did that," which is my way of remembering what happened. Without a diary I would just have my thoughts, and some of my experiences are so painful or so wonderful I want to keep them. My online set allows me to talk more about what happened, little events in my day which I wish to record for the future. By writing an online set you let yourself record what happens to you. I remember re reading some early diaries and I found that sometimes (I used to write them last thing at night) problems that seem insurmountable during that time, on my mind, resolve themselves neatly the next day. Or a little later on.... :) iceman

Fri, 2002-08-09 20:57

iceman

Just came across this thread and realised i havent written my handwritten diary entry for today.

Tue, 2002-05-14 19:02

Babewithbrains

I keep a diary, and I always use HB pencils to write in it. (I decorated the front cover with pictures cut from magazines). I also kept one for a year which I wrote with the intention of publishing, but it turned out to be so daft that I decided against it. I still have all the diaries that I kept when I was younger, and it fascinates me to look back on all the things I've written about over the years. I find it helps to be writing something, even when I'm not feeling particularly creative.

Wed, 2002-05-15 20:20

Emily Hamblin

Wow, HB pencils... interesting. I'm not sure I could do that, although I do get very worried about my diary somehow getting wet and all the ink blurring. Or what if, when I'm about 80 and I have a whole bookcase full of diaries, my house burns down...? ARGH! doesn't even bear thinking about!

Tue, 2002-05-21 16:08

Henstoat

One of my sets, 'Manley & I' is a kind of a scrapbook diary. It includes notes of things that have happened in every day life that I consider amusing, and worth rereading, or are reminders of absurdities - there are also character sketches, and short fictions....but it basically all follows the plotline of my Uni life thus far. I'm not particularly concerned with the idea of people reading it - they can if they like, and were I to get the chance, I wouldn't mind publishing the completed piece - but I write it in order that it may exist, if that makes sense.

Thu, 2002-05-23 12:54

Pete

I kept diaries for six years in the early nineties, but the I stopped. Why did I stop? Because It was getting just a little to difficult to keep my growing bulk of memories a secret. I didn't write EVERYTHING down, but enough to make me paranoid about burglars. I had a reoccuring nightmare: my books had been stolen, their pages subsequently pasted on every available surface in town. What's amusing is this: my diaries mostly contain nothing of any value: thoughts, minor events, holidays etc. When I began uni as a mature student, I stopped writing them. I just became too busy. Now, I wish that I'd have noted down what were three of the best years of my life. Ho hum.

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