Start A Journal
Have you ever thought about keeping a journal? If you haven't then, well, maybe you will now that someone's brought up the idea.
If you have though, various thoughts may have plagued your mind. Questions and objections sure plagued my cranium when the idea occurred to me.
Maybe some of these occurred to you.
"A journal? That takes to much time."
"My fingers will crumple! Seriously! That much handwriting really hurts."
"What do you even write about?"
"My life is so boring there isn't anything to write about anyway."
"This means I'm going to have to find something to write in and something to write with. That's hard. Like, I might even have to buy something!"
"Other people will read my journal. I don't want that!"
"Who keeps a journal anyway?"
"My dog will eat it though. And he might get sick!"
I suppose now I must answer these as best I can. Except maybe the last one. :)
So, it takes to much time? That's really a decision/excuse you have to get around yourself, because yes, it will take time. Figuring out how much you want to put into the journal will directly correspond to how much time it does end up taking.
Really, with action can come passion. Since beginning a journal, I've noticed it's mainly several pieces, with huge breaks in between. (up to a year!) When I actually write in my journal though, I'm excited. Truly.
A friend of mine quirked enough interest to get me seriously writing more in a journal, and I still have big breaks, but it is lots of fun to go back and read what I've done and more so what I've thought.
Starting out, all I could manage was print writing. Ouch. Posts generally followed a very direct course of reporting. Example below.
Today I did schoolwork, and lunch was soup. It was nice outside, and I got the mowing done, too.
After-wards I read my Edge Chronicles book some more, I'm to chapter 7 now. I hope it snows soon, I won't have to mow anymore if it snows!
That's quite brief, but you get the idea. Consequently, most of my early posts are.... well, rather uninformative shall we say.
As time went by though, I discovered a phenomenon! Writing wasn't so painful.....and my cursive was getting a lot better looking and I was writing faster....
So to my complaint of, "It hurts to much!" I simply respond, "stick with it and the practice will strengthen your finger muscles and make you more proficient at writing." It's true. Practice makes perfect. (or close too)
I guess the next hardest thing about writing a journal seems to be what to write about.
Here's a suggestion. The single biggest thing that helps me write more.
Write what you feel, not necessarily about what you do.
Yeah, I can write about what I do, and get some good paragraphs in, but trying to describe my thoughts on different things/people/situations/feelings always digs into my brain and drags out astonishing pieces. So much so that once I'm done, I can go back and read what I've written and think, "whoa, wait, what? I wrote that?"
Another helpful thing is to simply forget about trying to keep it organized. Yeah. Hardest thing for me to do sometimes, is simply deciding what I'm going to write down out of the vast majority of stuff I want to write. So just start, and write whatever comes to mind. Try forgetting about making cohesive sentences, and just write. Just. Start. With. Anything! You just might be amazed with how much you end up with written.
And don't even consider the fact that your life is to boring to have anything to write about. Everyone has feelings. And thoughts, and actions, and problems. Even retarded people; or someone with disabilities has something to say.
One of the most gratifying reasons to have a journal, is that when you look back at what you've done, and what you're doing now, you can see real progress. (I hope:) Sometimes it's small, maybe you're even in pretty much the same place, but it's cool to see how you've matured; and grown wiser. (again, I hope:) Most of the time I can't help but notice my complete incompetence recurring throughout. Still though, I see how I've changed and improved, and this can be a great encouragement.
Okay, so what should you write in? And with? It doesn't really matter. You can buy a gold plated two-thousand page, leather bound tome, complete with ten different gem-studded pens that can write in space, if you really want too. But it's not needed. A spiral notebook and ordinary pen, or even pencil works fine too.
"I don't want to write something personal and have someone else read it without my permission!"
The best I can say to this is, well, say that you don't want anyone to read it on the cover.
Saying something like, "PRIVATE KEEP OUT OR DIE!" is actually kind of tempting, to be realistic. So if I might make a suggestion, saying something like, "Journal of -your name-, Please don't read without permission."
Adding the please, shows humility, and a lot of people like humble people. Adding permission takes away the "this is forbidden" feeling, and gives at least an impression that they might get to read some of it, if they simply asked.
This is contradictory to what I said at first, but writing nothing at all on the front can work too, as when you open something without knowing what it is, only to discover that it means a lot to someone, most individuals will withdraw hastily, sorry that they intruded.
Keeping it somewhere safe, like near your bed and/or in a drawer can help too.
Who keeps a journal anyway? Um... I don't know. I do! Does this matter anyway? The point is that you want keep a journal, not keep a journal because someone else does it. Comparing myself to others is another flaw that must be fixed, and the fact that someone else does, or does not keep a journal shouldn't change that.
And I'll just skip the last question/objection. Unless you enjoy writing outside and trying to play fetch at the same time, you shouldn't have a problem with the family dog chowing down your journal because you weren't thinking when you threw him another object to fetch.
Hopefully this post was helpful and you're willing to try keeping a journal; if you're not already.
I highly recommend it. My opinion means nothing, but I think you'll find keeping a journal can be really fun and encouraging.
Benjen
If you have though, various thoughts may have plagued your mind. Questions and objections sure plagued my cranium when the idea occurred to me.
Maybe some of these occurred to you.
"A journal? That takes to much time."
"My fingers will crumple! Seriously! That much handwriting really hurts."
"What do you even write about?"
"My life is so boring there isn't anything to write about anyway."
"This means I'm going to have to find something to write in and something to write with. That's hard. Like, I might even have to buy something!"
"Other people will read my journal. I don't want that!"
"Who keeps a journal anyway?"
"My dog will eat it though. And he might get sick!"
I suppose now I must answer these as best I can. Except maybe the last one. :)
So, it takes to much time? That's really a decision/excuse you have to get around yourself, because yes, it will take time. Figuring out how much you want to put into the journal will directly correspond to how much time it does end up taking.
Really, with action can come passion. Since beginning a journal, I've noticed it's mainly several pieces, with huge breaks in between. (up to a year!) When I actually write in my journal though, I'm excited. Truly.
A friend of mine quirked enough interest to get me seriously writing more in a journal, and I still have big breaks, but it is lots of fun to go back and read what I've done and more so what I've thought.
Starting out, all I could manage was print writing. Ouch. Posts generally followed a very direct course of reporting. Example below.
Today I did schoolwork, and lunch was soup. It was nice outside, and I got the mowing done, too.
After-wards I read my Edge Chronicles book some more, I'm to chapter 7 now. I hope it snows soon, I won't have to mow anymore if it snows!
That's quite brief, but you get the idea. Consequently, most of my early posts are.... well, rather uninformative shall we say.
As time went by though, I discovered a phenomenon! Writing wasn't so painful.....and my cursive was getting a lot better looking and I was writing faster....
So to my complaint of, "It hurts to much!" I simply respond, "stick with it and the practice will strengthen your finger muscles and make you more proficient at writing." It's true. Practice makes perfect. (or close too)
I guess the next hardest thing about writing a journal seems to be what to write about.
Here's a suggestion. The single biggest thing that helps me write more.
Write what you feel, not necessarily about what you do.
Yeah, I can write about what I do, and get some good paragraphs in, but trying to describe my thoughts on different things/people/situations/feelings always digs into my brain and drags out astonishing pieces. So much so that once I'm done, I can go back and read what I've written and think, "whoa, wait, what? I wrote that?"
Another helpful thing is to simply forget about trying to keep it organized. Yeah. Hardest thing for me to do sometimes, is simply deciding what I'm going to write down out of the vast majority of stuff I want to write. So just start, and write whatever comes to mind. Try forgetting about making cohesive sentences, and just write. Just. Start. With. Anything! You just might be amazed with how much you end up with written.
And don't even consider the fact that your life is to boring to have anything to write about. Everyone has feelings. And thoughts, and actions, and problems. Even retarded people; or someone with disabilities has something to say.
One of the most gratifying reasons to have a journal, is that when you look back at what you've done, and what you're doing now, you can see real progress. (I hope:) Sometimes it's small, maybe you're even in pretty much the same place, but it's cool to see how you've matured; and grown wiser. (again, I hope:) Most of the time I can't help but notice my complete incompetence recurring throughout. Still though, I see how I've changed and improved, and this can be a great encouragement.
Okay, so what should you write in? And with? It doesn't really matter. You can buy a gold plated two-thousand page, leather bound tome, complete with ten different gem-studded pens that can write in space, if you really want too. But it's not needed. A spiral notebook and ordinary pen, or even pencil works fine too.
"I don't want to write something personal and have someone else read it without my permission!"
The best I can say to this is, well, say that you don't want anyone to read it on the cover.
Saying something like, "PRIVATE KEEP OUT OR DIE!" is actually kind of tempting, to be realistic. So if I might make a suggestion, saying something like, "Journal of -your name-, Please don't read without permission."
Adding the please, shows humility, and a lot of people like humble people. Adding permission takes away the "this is forbidden" feeling, and gives at least an impression that they might get to read some of it, if they simply asked.
This is contradictory to what I said at first, but writing nothing at all on the front can work too, as when you open something without knowing what it is, only to discover that it means a lot to someone, most individuals will withdraw hastily, sorry that they intruded.
Keeping it somewhere safe, like near your bed and/or in a drawer can help too.
Who keeps a journal anyway? Um... I don't know. I do! Does this matter anyway? The point is that you want keep a journal, not keep a journal because someone else does it. Comparing myself to others is another flaw that must be fixed, and the fact that someone else does, or does not keep a journal shouldn't change that.
And I'll just skip the last question/objection. Unless you enjoy writing outside and trying to play fetch at the same time, you shouldn't have a problem with the family dog chowing down your journal because you weren't thinking when you threw him another object to fetch.
Hopefully this post was helpful and you're willing to try keeping a journal; if you're not already.
I highly recommend it. My opinion means nothing, but I think you'll find keeping a journal can be really fun and encouraging.
Benjen
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