May 10 2009
Do You Keep a Writers Diary?
I’ve been reading ‘Description and Setting’ by Ron Rozelle, in order to keep me with my novel. This line of books I find really useful because they give specific detail to the point you need help with. It’s the Write Great Fiction from Writers Digest books.
It got me thinking about keeping a writers journal. Sure I always write things down, well most of the time but many things I lose or forget. Plus I seem to keep a note of everything. Now that I think about it, it’s all rather obsessive compulsive and will probably result in me losing my mind in old age.
1. I keep a food and exercise diary, on paper and on the computer. This helps me keep track and meet my goals as I want to run a marathon next year and improve my time in the short distance races.
2. The daily journal. Recording thoughts, opinions and the days events including my achievements, success, and failures. This helps me be grateful for every moment and helps me see that I’m not wasting time and actually moving forward.
3. Then there’s this writing blog which I’m trying to develop so that it will be useful for beginners, provide motivation and keep me on track. I also want to provide good tips from my experiences and meet other writers who are doing the same. Writing is a lonely job but it doesn’t have to be, the Internet is changing all that.
What I find interesting and found lacking a the start of my writing career is how other writers who were just getting out there managing. What were they doing right but also what they were doing wrong and how they survived.
4. I’ve started an-Aussie-in-Poland blog about life in Poland for someone who’s grown up in Australia. I suppose this is like a travel diary and more for fun than anything else. To keep my family and friends updated on what’s happening in this part of the world, keep me sane and provide some interesting facts about Poland, blended in with my opinion and perception of the country.
I think I could combine 1,2 & 3 into a single diary on the computer, that would save me time, paper and money I spend on notebooks. Plus the fourth which will be like what Ron Rozelle describes in his book for keeping story ideas, outlines, borrowed dialogue, interesting words or phrases, characteristics of people and everything else related to writing articles, stories, poetry and novels. Better keep it in one large notebook or box then scattered all over the place where I can’t find it or risk throwing it out.
Diaries are not only fantastic ways to keep a record of our lives, to help track our goals and achievements, but they are also fantastic for helping us vent, analysing our life and current situation, and sharing our experiences with others, if we choose to.
For writers a diary is an important component of their success. It is a place they can jot down their ideas, their emotions and opinions. Titbits of information that could one day end up in their articles, stories or novels.
Do you keep a writers diary? Any type of diary? What do you include in it?
I like the idea of the desk book you suggest. It would be nice to have the information all in one place. Still trying to figure out how to do that.
Do you think that we can have too many diary’s / blogs?