“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.”
~ Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
The first week of doing my journal is over, and it went well. I really appreciate all the help and advice that’s poured in, too.
I did a lot of learning about writing a journal. The best and most consistently repeated rule I came across — whether on the blog, by email or in books people told me about — was to “set aside the same time every day to write, and then write every day.”
That seem so true.
Right now, I probably can’t follow the “set aside the same time every day” part, due to a schedule that’s just too hectic and at the whim of everyone else. But that’s okay. Someday I’ll be able to do that. For now, I’ll grab time when I can. But I will try to write every day. And this week, I did write every day.
The other consistently repeated advice I came across was “write in the morning when you are fresh.” I think that’s probably true. But I will definitely not be able to follow that.
I’m just not a morning person. I wake up at the last possible minute. Actually, ten minutes after that. Then I need about 24 ounces of coffee before I’m capable of voice or thought. Conversations in our house in the morning are usually only “ugh,” or “uhh” or “mmm.”
Writing first thing in the morning? You might as well ask me to take the MCATs. Being fresh first thing in the morning? Mmm, ugh, uhh, not me.
But you know what? One nice thing about getting older is you realize that some things about yourself cannot be changed. I may someday learn to knit. I will never be the kind of person who rises at 5 a.m. to get a jump on the journal.
But that’s okay. I’ve been writing at every time of day except first thing in the morning, and that’s worked out fine.
The best advice I got was from a friend. I’m paraphrasing, but it was that “the journal exists to serve you; you are not there to serve the journal.”
I love that. Not just because that’s the opposite of practically every other relationship in my life. But mostly because what he’s saying is, the journal is just a tool. Like a pen or ink.
To write in my journals doesn’t have to be a task I have to do. It doesn’t have to provide some transcendent experience. The journal isn’t there to reread if I don’t want to. It isn’t there to amaze or enlighten. It isn’t talismanic. It isn’t to make me a better writer, or a more conscious and evolved human being, or to help process my thoughts. It’s just a notebook to write things down in.
It’s a room for words. My room, for my words.
Fountain Pen Follies 
Great to hear that the journaling is going well. If you come to enjoy it and look forward to it, then it is not a chore.
I have kept a diary in one form or another almost all my adult life and could not imagine abandoning it.
I am a morning person and it happens to suit me to write mine in the mornings but it clearly does not matter. No one cares whether Shakespeare wrote in the mornings, afternoons or evenings.
Your entertaining posts also serve as a partial journal as to what was on your mind on a particular day. Whatever time of day you wrote them, clearly this suited you and you do not need to be a better writer:)
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I’ll comment on this after I wake up and get out of bed and have two ginormous mugs of Irish Breakfast tea and bang my forehead on the desk a few times to jumpstart the neurons.
Yeah: “morning”. What a concept. Have fun in your room. I *like* that image.
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Laura, I am certainly not a morning person either. I agree with every point you made. I tend to write in my journals after lunch, or in the evening. (if I feel like it) I am more creative when I am rested, and have things that have to be done out of the way. Some days I may write a lot, other days I may not journal at all. I do write everyday with my pens that are inked though. It may be just a few lines. I find they give me less trouble if I write just a little bit once a day. (I have several inked up at one time)
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I journal everyday too and not to a schedule. It’s a great way to clear my mind and focus on what’s truly important. Enjoy your journaling adventure!
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Congratulations on your journal adventure! I have been writing in mine since about 1960! I told my first wife — God rest her soul —- and my second wife the following: “There is nothing in my journals that I wound not want you to read, but I would rather you not read them!”
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