The Journal: A Place for Writers' Musings
Diana M. Raab -- December 6, 2005
The journal can be a very powerful tool for the writer. It's a place where we can intimately express our feelings and emotions, a place to collaborate with ourselves on possible writing projects or to discover the stories lurking inside of us. Sometimes a thought or a line can lie dormant in the journal, waiting for the novel or piece of nonfiction germinating in it.
The journal is a place to explore secrets and transcribe musings. It makes no judgments on what we write and is free of editors, critics and teachers. Our journal is the music and voice of our true emotion.
I have been journaling since the age of ten when my mother gave me my first Khalil Gibran journal. On the top of each page was one of Gibran's quotes to stir up some thought for the day. As a young person, journaling served many purposes for me. Being an only child of working parents in the 1960s, my journal was a sibling and a best friend. When lonely, I'd cuddle up beneath the hanging clothes in my walk-in closet, pull the string attached to the single bulb above, and write into the wee hours of the morning.
Many great thinkers, artists, intellectuals and writers keep journals and surely I wasn't the only developing writer to begin her passion this way. Patricia Hampl, author of I Could Tell You Stores: Sojourns in the Land of Memory, says, "It started for me, as it does with most girls, with one of those red leatherette five-year diaries, bolted shut by a diminutive brass lock whose ineffectual key I hid elaborately in my bedroom. A journal not only required secrecy--it was secrecy. My soul poured forth..."
In addition to pouring out my soul, my journals are used as a storehouse of information. I write down phrases, images and associations which come to my mind during the course of the day. Some writers, particularly fiction writers, sit in public places to record conversations, to detect natural conversational patterns.
Journaling is a healthy habit that nurtures writing. Sometimes journaling also provides a kick-start for my day's writing. I pull my journal out to get the writer's juices flowing. During the course of the day I never know when inspiration will strike, and that's why I carry a journal with me at all times. I keep a larger format one in my car or briefcase and a smaller format in my purse, but there always has to be something for me to immediately write on. It gets pretty messy having stacks of tissues and odd pieces of paper cluttering my work space, patiently waiting to be transcribed onto something more durable.
I find this time of year the perfect time to journal not only because we are pulled in all directions, but we tend to get more sentimental during the holidays, and it's cathartic to get our thoughts on the page.
In the beginning, my journaling habit seemed daunting, but it's a discipline like any other discipline. I started out by trying a few minutes each day for a month, or every other day, depending on my schedule. In a very short period of time, I was hooked.
In her book, Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers, Susan Shaughnessay says, "A writer without a journal is like a high--wire artist working without a net. Giving yourself a journal means giving yourself permission to practice and experiment. It means that you take your talents and its development seriously."