David Murdock Column: On keeping a journal (the how and the why)
One of the most important things I’ve done personally for the last 12 years now is keeping a journal. I never thought I’d say it — but it’s true. Of all the things that teachers urged me to do when I was younger, keeping a journal is one that has proved its worth over and over.
Lately, as I’ve been advising students to start keeping their own journals, I’ve been thinking about not only how to keep one, but why. It can be more difficult than one might think. So, here’s the story of my journal-keeping — what worked and what didn’t.
Like I said, journal-keeping is one of those activities that my teachers urged us to do — not overtly, most of the time, but by example. My teachers in literature and history kept mentioning that we know this fact or that fact because they’re recorded in someone’s journal. Even the science teachers got in on the act! We know how this scientist or the other discovered this new information because said scientists recorded it in their journals.
So, no one was actually saying, “Keep a journal.” It was implied.
My earliest attempts happened when I was 12 or so. I still have them, and they’re … interesting. Back then, I hadn’t quite made it a habit yet, something that came easy to me, but I tried. I was interested in astronomy at that age, and some simply record things like what stars or constellations I spotted — that sort of thing.
But, I could never maintain the habit.
Off and on over the years, I tried to get started again … and failed every time.
Finally, in late 2010, the habit stuck. In that first entry, I actually wrote, “Well, here I go again, trying to keep a journal.” With some breaks, I’ve faithfully kept one since. Those breaks happened when I was working on long, personal writing projects. So, I was writing daily; I just wasn’t journaling.
As I said, lately I’ve been urging my own writing students to keep journals, so I’ve been reading about writing journals. With notable exceptions, much of the advice doesn’t help — at least it didn’t in my experience.
So, here’s what did work for me, if y’all want to give journaling a spin.
First, don’t buy special journaling supplies. Believe it or not, there’s a whole industry out there consisting of stationery companies that sell fancy journals. Mine consists of plain, loose-leaf notebook paper in a plain binder — available at just about any store. Those companies that sell fancy journals also sell fancy pens. I use easily available pens, too.
Second, what does one write about? That’s a simple one. It’s your journal. Write about what you want to. One of my longest entries lately started with “I really don’t have anything to write about today” and goes on for six single-spaced, handwritten pages. If I’m casting around for somewhere to start, I’ll record what I did the day before. That’ll often get me going. There’s no fancy subject matter.
Third — and possibly the most important — write at about the same time every day, if possible. I journal in the mornings, for example, but some journal at night. There’s no specific time for me, but I’ll sit down to write sometime after coffee and before getting ready for work. Sometimes, I add something in the evening, but not consistently.
There are my “hows,” so here’s the “why.”
Like many activities that end up having value for us, there really is no strict “why.” Different people find different values in it. For many, a journal is simply a record of their lives — which seems to be the origin of both the terms “journal” and “diary.” That’s it. Some use journals to work out their ideas. Some use them as a sort of therapy, writing out their difficulties. Some do all three.
To me, however, journaling is a good thing in and of itself. Something like a hobby. Certainly, my journal is a record of my life, and where I work out ideas, and where I talk about my difficulties … but it’s so much more to me nowadays. The 15 minutes or so that I spend journaling is a high point of my day, and I love the weekends when I’ll sometimes spend up to 30 minutes journaling.
If nothing else, a personal journal does provide a record of our days. I’ve often been surprised at the fact that I often don’t remember exactly when something happened … until I check my journal. Working out our ideas? I’m often surprised at the origin of some thought or the other. The difficulties of our lives? Some do use their journals for bigger problems, but I tend not to. Journaling has taught me that the bigger problems of my life often don’t prompt the same amount of writing as the small, irritating things do.
Looking at my entries from last year, for example, one might think that the most wrenching thing that happened was when I changed my brand of coffee — that’s not true, but I certainly wrote about it enough.
Those hints are the best practical advice I’ve learned over the years, if y’all want to give journaling a go. It’s not as difficult as might be thought, and the value of a journal grows over time.
David Murdock is an English instructor at Gadsden State Community College. He can be contacted at murdockcolumn@yahoo.com. The opinions reflected are his own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: David Murdock discusses the how and why of keeping a journal
