tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post8352989034589558956..comments2024-03-28T09:42:20.558-04:00Comments on Writers Who Kill: Keeping a JournalJim Jacksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15090252530437277145noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-13138345314038422592012-06-07T19:59:33.004-04:002012-06-07T19:59:33.004-04:00My dearest daughter, Susan. As I wrote above, I di...My dearest daughter, Susan. As I wrote above, I didn't keep any journals when you were all teenagers. Need I say more??? Actually, you were always a good kid so you wouldn't have to worry even if I did.Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-89270896005906280322012-06-07T19:58:15.535-04:002012-06-07T19:58:15.535-04:00It is fun to read them again, isn't it, Alyx. ...It is fun to read them again, isn't it, Alyx. People and events you'd forgotten, but it all comes back when you read them. Some things you're sure at the time you'll never forget have a way of slipping out of our memories as we clog our brains up with so many new life experiences.Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-40690258556871565302012-06-07T19:55:42.663-04:002012-06-07T19:55:42.663-04:00Warren, we have some letters that people sent our ...Warren, we have some letters that people sent our grandmother that we've enjoyed reading. However, we don't have anything she wrote since whoever they were sent to either didn't save them or didn't return them to her survivors. I do have letters my father wrote and other relatives, but nothing as old as what you're talking about.Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-77396650612129675682012-06-07T19:53:38.672-04:002012-06-07T19:53:38.672-04:00E.B. you're right. Anything is better than not...E.B. you're right. Anything is better than nothing. I still wish I'd kept a journal when my kids were growing up. I'm not sure I could have written anything when my son died, though. It was too hard to write about it although I did write an essay in my first English class at Kent a year later and my professor talked me into submitting it to the ICON, the literary magazine for the branch campus I went to. They published it and I got a lot of comments about it. Still I thought about writing a memoir about those first few years, but there's too much I've forgotten.Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-69197752182318921132012-06-07T18:40:22.289-04:002012-06-07T18:40:22.289-04:00Yes, I will read them!! So you better not say anyt...Yes, I will read them!! So you better not say anything mean about me!! LOLSue, your loving daughternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-31493781329346513022012-06-07T18:15:41.097-04:002012-06-07T18:15:41.097-04:00I have journaled from time to time throughout my l...I have journaled from time to time throughout my life. I've just recently taken to transposing them into e-form, so that they don't take up too much room in my home. It's kind of neat to read them again & see what thoughts I had back when certain items happened.<br /><br />Doing this has also served to remind me of "little" things that happened over the years that I've forgotten about.Alyx Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815592165482269572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-71496621225825675452012-06-07T17:25:57.470-04:002012-06-07T17:25:57.470-04:00I had lunch with a friend who is reading his great...I had lunch with a friend who is reading his great grandmother's diary. He is fascinated. So keep writing. Someone sometime will appreciate it.Warren Bullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789270258599769915noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-34927579065522488592012-06-07T16:21:47.058-04:002012-06-07T16:21:47.058-04:00I kept journals when I was young. I'm too busy...I kept journals when I was young. I'm too busy now, but since I never wipe my e-calendars clean, I do have a chronology of events--and that triggers memories of the days. It's better than nothing.E. B. Davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16746747050278597888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-66973908515408520772012-06-07T16:04:44.580-04:002012-06-07T16:04:44.580-04:00I'm glad, Sue, but will you actually read them...I'm glad, Sue, but will you actually read them???? I love you, too. :-)Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-20813497252090873142012-06-07T14:06:52.554-04:002012-06-07T14:06:52.554-04:00I will NEVER throw your journals away!! I will che...I will NEVER throw your journals away!! I will cherish them forever!!! I LOVE YOU MOM!! SueAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-41998325449214200072012-06-07T14:05:43.980-04:002012-06-07T14:05:43.980-04:00I like your definition, Linda. Actually, when I do...I like your definition, Linda. Actually, when I do go back into them, I often get writing ideas I hadn't thought of in that way at the time. Those little nuggets come in handy sometimes.Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-85863962490084892862012-06-07T13:04:59.985-04:002012-06-07T13:04:59.985-04:00Patg, a diary is usually a listing of daily events...Patg, a diary is usually a listing of daily events and accomplishments. Much like Gloria's brother's that she mentioned in her post. A journal, however, holds reflections on those events and other reflections on the world around, plus for a writer it can hold practice writing, exercises, ideas for future projects, even some first drafts.Linda Rodriguezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11913741596693442469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-78009213189895320472012-06-07T12:59:31.126-04:002012-06-07T12:59:31.126-04:00Probably nothing, Pat. At least not in my mind. I ...Probably nothing, Pat. At least not in my mind. I guess I think of diaries as those little books with a lock and key we had as kids. Are you being picky??? :-) Roget's Super Thesaurus says: Diary n. journal, chroncle, account,log, record, daybook. According to Elbert Hubbard - whoever he was it's "The lavatory of literature." Okay? Does that answer your question?Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-28900145215754388282012-06-07T12:29:12.951-04:002012-06-07T12:29:12.951-04:00What's the technical difference between a jour...What's the technical difference between a journal and a diary?<br />PatgPatghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01046665022709722606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-41945974384974028832012-06-07T11:29:52.301-04:002012-06-07T11:29:52.301-04:00Linda, I am so impressed. Very few people actually...Linda, I am so impressed. Very few people actually keep a journal, but you have gone above and beyond.<br /><br />My journals sound like yours; the hard cover kind I can pick up at the Dollar Store or Big Lots for two or three dollars. Sometimes I find them even cheaper than that and stock up on them. I've had some bigger and more expensive ones given to me as gifts, too.<br /><br />I keep poems I write or start on notebook paper in a plastic binder labeled "Works in Progress." If I wrote them in my journals I'd have a hard time finding them.Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-48254865140609650902012-06-07T11:25:10.186-04:002012-06-07T11:25:10.186-04:00Warren, I had my third grade students write in the...Warren, I had my third grade students write in their journals - a lined notebook - every day after lunch, and every night I'd lug all 20 plus journals home and respond to them. Actually, it was all in the form of a letter: Dear Mrs. Alden and my response, Dear Joe, etc. Often I'd give them a prompt like something dealing with one of the chapter books I was reading to them, or something silly like "You woke up this morning with deer antlers. Tell me about it." And often I'd let them write about anything they wanted to write about. I think few teachers do this because it is quite time consuming.Gloria Aldenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13581719606924364447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-41965650404481644772012-06-07T10:22:44.658-04:002012-06-07T10:22:44.658-04:00Gloria, I've kept journals since I had my firs...Gloria, I've kept journals since I had my first child at a too-young age. I have rows of them in all kinds of notebooks, fancy gold-edged hardbacks, spirals, paperbacks with pretty illustrations or quotes for each day, thick ring binders. Lots of them have pages and pages for each and every day--no misses. Some have a page or more written just about every day for most of a year, then an interruption for a while where the pages are spotty, once a week or twice a week.<br /><br />Now, I keep several journals at the same time. In my physical one, which tends to be a hardback exercise book like kids take to school, I write about things going on in my life periodically. Big gaps here at times. On the computer, I keep a journal for each novel I write. That gets written in every day as a warm-up to writing and a plan for the day's work. (Stole this idea from Sue Grafton.) I write less in my physical notebook because I'm almost always writing one book or another these days, and most of my journaling goes in here.<br /><br />I often go back to older journals. I used them to practice my writing with descriptions, snatches of dialogue, writing exercises. I also wrote lots of ideas for stories and for books in them. I've also found forgotten poems in them that I copied out and reworked into publishable poems.<br /><br />I think journals of one kind or another are the writer's best friend. Who was it who said, "No day without a line?"Linda Rodriguezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11913741596693442469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-993649290245605005.post-43291376740328327092012-06-07T07:40:20.543-04:002012-06-07T07:40:20.543-04:00I had an English teacher in elementary school who ...I had an English teacher in elementary school who gave us the assignment of writing one page of a spiral-bound notebook daily. It was a great introduction into writing. Wish I knew where they are now.Warren Bullhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789270258599769915noreply@blogger.com